2025 DU Member Photo Contest presented by Drake Waterfowl Systems | Waterfowl Hunting Category Winner: "Floating the Fog" - Nathan Howe, Natick, Massachusetts Early October in the Northeast is well known for big swings in weather. The morning Nathan Howe shot this image was no different. As Howe and his hunting partner John Keating launched their boats into the Charles River and set up for the hunt, a thick fog blanketed the entire river. “As legal shooting light came around, we could hear the ducks, their wings overhead and all around us, but we couldn’t see them at all,” Howe explains. “They had no idea we were there, but we couldn’t see them to shoot either. So, we just sat there and enjoyed the morning.” As the pair picked up decoys and began to make their way back to the boat ramp, Howe, drifting behind Keating in his kayak, noticed that the fog was beginning to break.“I reached into the kayak and grabbed my phone and started snapping photos as he and his dog, Beau, floated in front of the sun,” he says. “I never even looked at the photos until I got back to the truck.” This particular hunting spot has been pretty good to Howe, considering that he shot a banded mallard drake there nearly one year to the day before he captured this photo.“I thought it would be cool to share that memory with a broader community,” Howe says. “I assumed a lot of people would appreciate the photo if they hunt, or if they don’t, or if they fish. It’s just a good photo of what hunting represents. Even though we didn’t shoot any ducks, it was a great experience.” Equipment: Apple iPhone 12 Pro Max . . . Photo: Nathan Howe (fb)

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