I was out shooting about 300 miles from home on a late afternoon when I noticed this phenomenon. It was January and it was cold, but no active snow, only fog. It was starting to freeze up on bare limbs. I thought, this will really look good in the morning. I can find a place to stay here tonight, or I can barrel on home and get out early someplace closer. I know a place.
What we were experiencing is called a Northwest Inversion. Clouds go upside down and fill up the valleys. But, if you get up a couple of thousand feet, it's absolutely clear. Pictures from up top looking down at the inversion layer can be spectacular. I went down underneath.
In the morning I headed over to the western edge of the Kittitas valley where it's tucked into the crevasses at the base of the Cascade mountains. I love going back in there. It's never easy, it can be bleak, but I usually come back with something I like. Beautifully bleak.
I'm a Northwest photographer. Precipitation, in all its manifestations, is the default most of the time. If you can't work with gray, it's hard to work at all. But if you think about it, it'd be a big task to get light this soft in the studio. See it that way and options open up.