Fog over the Pacific Ocean Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California Most of the time when there’s low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge I find myself there during sunRISE. OK, perhaps not “most of the time” ... I’ve actually never been at the Golden Gate Bridge for low fog at sunSET. On this particular evening, however, my plans to photograph the SF coast were thwarted by fog and I quickly made my way over to the Bridge. Although the fog had ruined my chances of shooting the coast, it hadn’t quite made its way over to the Golden Gate Bridge. In yet another detour from my plans, I made my way over towards the Pacific Coast side of Hawk Hill and looked out over a giant blanket of fog. Off in the distance the fog was beginning to envelop this hill and I loved the way the fog obscured the hills and created a giant blanket behind the trees. The line section of road helps draw the eye into the photograph. I chose to keep this photo dark so that it would stick with the mood of the scene. Additionally, since the sun had set and blue hour was now starting to set in, the fog took a slightly blue tone. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED: 185mm, f/13, 30 sec, ISO 100
Fog over the Pacific Ocean Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California The year 2013, for my photography, was a fairly slow year. Although I came home with many great images Mama Nature was out to get me way too often. The previous evening I walked out of work an hour after sunset and saw the sky *still* ablaze with color. It looked like Mama Nature was out to get me again. The next day, this day, the clouds looked to be sticking around and I had no intentions of missing out. Willie and I left work and drove up to the SF Coast with the intentions of photographing the Sutro Baths. In typical 2013 fashion, Mama Nature was out to get us and fog began to roll in almost as soon as we got there. Guess we weren’t going to shoot the coast. Our only option was to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and hope the fog stayed low and continued to fill in. The heat of the sun kept the fog away from the Golden Gate Bridge and we, once again, had to abandon our plan and try something else. We hiked over a small hill to see what the fog looked like on the Pacific Ocean side of the coast and were greeted with a stunning layer of fog. Without any interesting foreground elements on this side of the Marin Headlands Willie quickly suggested using the telephoto lens to get some intimate fog shots. One area of fog that peaked my interest was a bowl-like section of fog that was creating sand-dunes of fog. The rolling hills of fog were stunning to look at. I also knew that I wanted to smooth out the fog ... I threw the Lee Big Stopper on and increased my shutter speeds to 20 seconds. What do you think, a neat patch of fog? Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED: 145mm, f/11, 20 sec, ISO 100
