I’m not big on Nature Photography, but today’s photoshoot was a little getaway of mine.  During a family party today, I grabbed my dog Luna and left for a little bit.  The sun was about to set and I really wanted to catch the perfect sky out today.  The clouds seemed like they didn’t move, and it just seemed like a great day to be walking alone with my dog.  We first drove out west through some cornfields in North Aurora.  These were neverending.  It seemed every field had a “Private Property” sign up, and I didn’t feel like getting shot by a farmer today, so I started driving up north to see if there was anything worth capturing… and there it was… The Kane County Forest Preserve.  When Luna and I first arrived, we immediately saw a what looked to be some sort of Lookout Tower.

Lookout Tower

There were no other cars in the parking lot as the park was about to close… and me, being myself, continued to venture out down this eerie path.  I walked down this path not knowing how long I would go down, but had a feeling there would be something worth seeing.

Path 1

Path 2

We walked for about a half mile through this eerie path and stumbled upon a ledge overlooking a lake.  The sun was just about to set so I tied up Luna to this post nearby.  I began snapping away for about 10 minutes when Luna began to bark.  The hairs on my neck began to stand as I remembered that there were no other cars in the parking lot.  Then out of nowhere, this woman walked up and sat down about 5-10 feet from me.  Out of everywhere else to see the sun set… she had to sit this close to me??  I thought that was really odd.  The weird part was that when she walked up, my dog went silent.  I tried making conversation with the woman; About how nice the sunset was, but she never really made eye contact with me.  She replied with short answers and seemed really out of it.  Just staring out to the sun.  It began getting really dark out, so I packed my stuff up and started walking down the path again.  As I was walking, I started thinking about my little encounter with the woman and had this uneasy feeling.  What if she were a ghost?  The hairs on my neck stood up again.  I looked back down by where she was sitting, and it was almost completely dark out… but I could still see her sitting there.  I was convinced she was a ghost.  No woman in their right mind would be sitting in a dark forest preserve staring out into the sun like that.  I hurried along and drove back to the party.

The Lake Sunset