The Mist in Close-Up

  It's lovely seeing light through a blanket of mist, someone once tweeted, although not all light makes it through, of course; that's what makes mist look misty. I know this. And I know what mist is, of course: it's where we get the word "mister" from. Not the honorific, the spray. So I don't understand why I was so surprised by what the flash on my phone picked up:

 Specks. As if I'd taken a photo of dust, the flash had picked up specks. Tiny illuminated bits, not hanging in the air – which if I think about it for a second, is obvious – but flurrying around my face like snow. Not a blanket of snow though. Not remotely blankety, but busy. Nor particularly "over there", which is I suppose another quality I unconsciously associate with mist, but here was the mist in close up, like standing too close to a Seurat. Why do I find the business of mist so surprising?

 

Again, not snow.