Last week I was incredibly busy with my soft sculpture work. On Thursday my weather app told me it was foggy, really foggy...I packed my bag and left home early. It soon became very obvious that the weather app had no idea what it was talking about as the view was well over 1 km and so I returned home to work some more in the studio. Friday came and no fog was forecasted for this area. I came downstairs for breakfast and looked outside and got feverish....it was very foggy. This was not planned, but I had to go, I just had to. I grabbed my camera bag and set out on the same trip as the day before and rushed through the forest as it looked like the sun would soon chase away my beloved fog. And then it did....the sun pierced through the fog and a wonderful glowing haze changed the forest into a fairytale. I had no idea where I was, I just went where the nicest light was and I was so very happy to be alive at that moment.
This is not the most beautiful forest in the world, it is quite messy, but the right light changes it into a place of magic. This just proves that you don't have to go to famous places, to those places where lots of tripod marks have been made on the paths already. It is all about light and the right circumstances. I must admit to being rather partial to true forests. I like them better than the estate forests that we have so many of in this country. With their straight lanes and everything in line, they tend to make me feel bored quite easily. They are really nice, but I am not one for all that symmetry, those geometric perfect shapes that The Netherlands are so well known for. I mean, have you ever flown over The Netherlands??? We Dutch love the ruler, straight lines everywhere.
I much rather have a true forest, where humans have not forced nature to stand in line. A place where nature can be itself. And then I wait for the right circumstances, I get lost and take pictures and come home exhausted and exhilarated, because I have tried to savour all that magic to the fullest, because you just never know how long you will have to wait to witness it again.