This is one of the photos I'd been wanting to make for a while. It required specific conditions (fog), so even though I knew I'd eventually get it, I had no idea when this was going to happen.

I got home last May 2nd ready to spend an evening taking some photos up in Mt Hood. The weather was not the nicest and the rain that just had started falling was causing some terrible traffic conditions, so I decided to bail on that trip. I didn't give up on taking photos though, and I headed to St John's... just in case.

My excitement grew as I was approaching the bridge. The rain was creating some very cool atmosphere, and the river was slowly being wrapped in some dense fog. I parked my car, grabbed my camera bag, tripod and umbrella and walked to the spot I had in mind.

It was not an easy shot. Setting everything up under the rain never is. I was holding the umbrella with one hand while trying to put the filter on place. I had to repeat the process many times since a drop would fall in between the lens and the filter, over and over. All this next to dozens and dozens of cars and trucks. Not the best conditions, and also a reminder of why I prefer to shoot in nature.

Eventually everything was in place and ready to shoot. This was a 10-minute long exposure. The shot I had in mind didn't have any light trails from the cars, but it was impossible to avoid shooting with so much traffic. At the end though, I like it even more with them.

After 10 very long minutes (remember, it was raining a lot), I closed the shutter and checked the result. I wasn't really impressed, but I believe now I just wanted to get out of there. Breathing smoke from cars for 10+ minutes is not very pleasant.

It wasn't until I got home and loaded the photo in the computer that I saw the real potential of the shot. I decided to make it my first official print, and as such I worked for hours on it, trying to perfect every single detail. Of course I could be working forever on a shot, but I think the final result is pretty good.

Printed locally in Portland, OR on a heavy weight, textured, fine art paper, 8x8. This photo is for sale starting today, for $39 (US only, free shipping). These are produced on demand, so please allow up to 1 week for the print to be shipped.