The sun rises on a foggy morning in the forest.

Fog, that stealthiest of weather phenomena. It may come in on little cat feet, but it sends me pouncing for my camera like a lioness bearing down on a springbok. Photographers spend good money (and make some epic messes) attempting to create the atmosphere that fog lends to a scene. But natural fog is fleeting; you’re on the clock as soon as you know it’s there. With a little prospective scouting of some prime locations near you and an understanding of the conditions that are favorable for fog, you can be ready to turn that haze into some spine-tingling photos.

We usually check the weather forecast to see if we need our umbrellas or our heavy coats the next morning. Now I check it to see if I need my camera. The NOAA website has a very nice graphical weather forecast that can be customized for the information you want. There is a fog predictor bar graph, and a line graph that maps the dewpoint along with the ambient temperature. When the dewpoint is the same as the ambient temperature, Mother Nature lets the fogs out.

The NOAA website includes a fog forecast and a dewpoint/temperature graph.

The thing about fog is that it is most impressive with some light behind it, be that the sun or artificial lighting (such as streetlights or neon). You can also add light from the front with flash or continuous lighting, further obscuring your subject in the haze. Slightly overexposing your image can enhance these effects as well. But once that sun comes up, you’d better get on with it, because your misty minutes are numbered.

All that being said, you may be treated to a foggy morning or evening by surprise. It won’t hang around forever, so decisive action is the name of the game. This is what happened to me the first time I shot in fog. I went to the grocery store early in the morning, and there was dense fog the whole way there. I decided that if it was still there when I got home from shopping, I would grab my camera and see what I could find to shoot. I am fortunate to have a museum in my neighborhood with a replica rocket out in front, so that seemed like a perfect subject. It would look great surrounded by haze, and it was close enough to get to before the fog lifted. Those shots were a success, along with the picnic pavilion across the way that looked like an Ewok structure on Endor with the fog surrounding it. I vowed to be ready for the next foggy morning with some locations in mind.

Jay came through like a champ in tipping me off to my next fog shoot. On that day, the fog was patchy, and there was none at the house. He called me five minutes after he left for work and told me there was heavy fog in the area he was driving through. It just so happens that the very cool Satellite Park is right in that area, along with a large forest. I grabbed some basic kit and headed straight there, getting some nice shots as the sun came up.

The next foggy morning took me to a somewhat obvious location that I had been keeping in my holster for just such an occasion: an old cemetery on a hill. As soon as I saw the fog, I knew exactly where I would go. There wasn’t a lot of sun to backlight the water vapor, but I was able to get some shots with a long background that stacked the haze up nicely. Because the cemetery is very old, many of the monuments I shot were covered in moss and worn by time, adding to the melancholy atmosphere. I had been waiting for this for a while, and I was not disappointed.

Photographers are great at seeing opportunity in the unholy hours of the morning, remote and inhospitable locations, and hostile weather conditions. Fog is relatively tame and accessible compared to all that, but for most of us it doesn’t happen every day. Embrace the novelty and challenges it brings, and see your vision materialize from the mist.

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Low Visibility Approach

Boarding Pass: MIA

Boarding Pass: SFO (Downtown Go-Around)