Posthole

I have been taking pictures in all kinds of weather. And not only all kinds of weather but all kinds of snow. Wet snow, dry powder, hard pack, Styrofoam, etc. etc. Since I have this experience, I also have more gear to deal with it than anyone else I know. But all of this experience and gear doesn’t preclude the fact that you must use it to gain any advantage. So off we went into the wild without any of the afore mentioned gear collection because in my experience, “…the snow shouldn’t be that bad…”

Post·​hole | \ ˈpōst-ˌhōl : a hole dug for a post according to Merriam-Webster.

WRONG! The correct definition:

Post·hole | \ ˈpōst-ˌhōl : punching each step through the soft shell snow sinking to knee level, waiting a moment to catch ones breath, whilst reciting !@CK, SH$%, and any other foul obscenity you can think of.

But there is a limited number of days that the hoar frost comes with a great low-lying fog and I wasn’t going to miss my shot. Not even if I had to “posthole” a mile to get to it. Which, I ended up having to do.

I finally got into position for my picture and good thing too, because I had run out of expletives. At first I wanted to single out a tree that was covered in frost. But since it took me so long to get into position, the sun had begun to burn off the fog. I had to lower the camera angle to include the fog, and to my surprise it gave me a new perspective on my composition.

Now to get back home. I was out of colorful language, out of dog treats, out of batteries, and out of gas. Luckily, most of the postholes had been dug, the sun was up, and Scout waited for me now and then to catch up…nice doggy. When I made it home I made a pact with myself to always over gear, doubt my own experience, and come up with some new colorful metaphors.