Morning Fog on Perch Lake

morning fog at perch lake
Why you should always bring your camera.

We regularly feature photo submissions from our Lens on St. Croix Valley photo contest in the pages of St. Croix Valley Magazine and online. This month, we asked Maggie Hall to tell us about her 2020 photo contest submission titled Morning Fog at Perch Lake.

What inspired the shot? I was working for the St. Croix County Parks at Homestead Parklands and was able to experience the many faces of Perch Lake. Each morning we made a cleanup tour of the park, and this time I had my camera!

Describe your process for capturing the moment? It was spontaneous. I started to grab [my camera] each morning knowing this was what I might find as I descended the road to the lake.

What’s your favorite thing about this photo? The calm and peaceful view, before the park opened and the beach was busy.

Tips for photographing lakes from rowansims.com

Go Wide. A wide-angle lens allows you to include surrounding scenery into one frame.

Frame The Scene. Add interest to a scene by finding natural frames like overhanging tree branches on the lake edge.

Play With Long Exposures. Long exposures will give your lake photography smooth, silky water and clouds, as well as removing moving objects such as people.