I’ve photographed fog around the Bay Area more times than I can count, and I still get excited when I see it pouring over the hills. You can go back to the same spot over and over and get something completely different. Sometimes all it takes is a little tree line peeking through for a few seconds.
I was back around San Francisco and Marin for this trip, chasing fog at sunrise, sunset, and pretty much any other time I could find it. We got some beautiful little islands of trees, light rays, a fogbow that had me running up and down trails, and finally a morning of low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge that I had been hoping to photograph for years.
I put together two videos from the trip, which you can watch below. I’ll take you along for the shoots and talk through what I’m seeing, how I’m composing the images, and the settings I’m using.
Watch part one: Finding Simplicity in a Sea of Fog
When you’re above the fog, there’s so much going on that it can be hard to decide what to photograph. I love looking for little sections within that bigger view. A few trees, a ridge, or a bit of fog spilling over a hill can be enough for a photograph.
Little islands of trees, with the light and fog changing around them.
Finding a composition as the fog moves
The 100–400mm is one of my favorite lenses for this. I can start with a wider view, then zoom in and pick out the little details that catch my eye. A tree line might look nice on its own, but then the fog shifts and separates a few trees from the rest. That’s usually when I get really interested.
Those moments don’t last long. I was shooting compositions that would disappear almost as soon as I took the photograph. But then another section of trees would pop out somewhere else. You have to keep watching, because it can change in seconds.
I like trying a few different ways to frame the same scene, too. Sometimes I’ll put the trees right in the middle. Other times I’ll leave a lot of empty space around them. I also try to give myself a little room to crop, because some of these images end up working better as a square or a wider frame.
Little openings in the fog kept revealing new compositions.
Choosing a shutter speed for the fog
I love a good long exposure of fog, but sometimes it takes away the part of the image I liked in the first place. If there are interesting little swirls or waves, I’ll usually want to keep some of that texture.
For one of these sunrise shoots, I was at ISO 100, f/6.3, and around 1/200 second. Everything I was photographing was far away, so I didn’t need to stop down for more depth of field. The fog was already very soft, and I liked what I was getting with the shorter exposures.
I also tried a 10-stop ND filter to see how a longer exposure would look. If you have time, I think it’s worth doing both. Sometimes the longer exposure works beautifully, and sometimes I much prefer the quicker shot. You don’t really know until you try it.
Two different scenes: textured fog on the left, smooth flowing layers on the right.
Watch part two: The Fog Photograph I’ve Been Chasing for Years
The second video has some of my favorite moments from the trip, including the fogbow and that last morning at the bridge. There was a lot of running around, watching the fog, and trying to get into the right position before it changed.
Stopping for light rays in the trees
I was driving down the mountain when I saw these incredible light rays coming through the trees. Of course I had to pull over and photograph them. I grabbed the 100–400mm again and tried a few shorter exposures, then decided to see what a long exposure would do.
I stacked an ND64 and an ND1000 filter to get a 30-second exposure in daylight. Sometimes the texture in the fog makes the rays a little harder to see. Smoothing out that movement helped them stand out, and I was really happy with how this one came out.
Looking for smaller details in the forest.
Chasing a fogbow
The fogbow took a bit more effort. I could see it, but I was having a hard time finding a composition that worked. I kept walking up and down the trails with the 16–35mm, trying to get the trees into a good position beneath it. Eventually I found an angle with these beautiful layers of trees and the bow above them. It was one of the more incredible things I’ve photographed.
Different views of the fogbow above the trees.
I played around with a polarizer, too. Rotating it would bring out different sections of the bow, so I kept trying different compositions while it was still visible. Getting back up the hill afterward was a bit of a slog. I hadn’t realized how far down I’d run until I had to climb back up. Very worth it, though.
The Golden Gate Bridge photograph I kept coming back for
On my last morning, we got this beautiful shallow layer of fog around the Golden Gate Bridge. The light was coming from behind the city, and for a little while the bottom of the bridge was completely hidden.
I’d been trying to get a particular composition here for years, with the Transamerica Pyramid lined up through the bridge. I’d photographed versions at night, at twilight, with fog, without fog. But the conditions never quite gave me what I was after. This morning, with that backlight and the fog hiding the lower part of the scene, it finally had the look I wanted.
I loved the vertical lines of the bridge against the glowing city. A lot of the detail in the buildings disappeared in the backlight, which gave it this really graphic look. I shot some tighter frames, then went wider to include more of the skyline before the fog faded.
I’ve photographed this bridge thousands of times. Trying to find something I haven’t done before is always a challenge, but mornings like this are a pretty good reason to keep coming back.
If you’d like to get into more of the settings and filters, I have a separate article on shooting fog and long exposures. You can also see more of my fog photographs and timelapses in Symphony of Fog.
I really hope you enjoy the photographs and the videos. You can watch part one here and part two here. Thanks for coming along!