All images © 2007-2013 Aaron Meyers
The year 2013 was a fairly slow year for my photography. Although I came home with many great images it seemd like Mama Nature was out to get me way too often. The previous evening I completely missed an absolutely stunning sunset and walked out of work an hour after sunset to see the sky was *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 didn't want my plan to go smoothly 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. 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 dunes of fog. The rolling hills of fog were stunning to look at. I tried a number of compositions and ultimately decided I liked leaving some room on the right for the lines of fog to let the eye flow. I also knew that I wanted to smooth out the fog, hence 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
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
Normally I photograph low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge during sunrise but this evening was the first time photographing it during sunset. A failed attempt at shooting the coast (thanks to the fog) meant I ended up at Hawk Hill ready to photograph the Bridge. Prior to sunset the fog had stayed away from the bridge and was hugging the ocean, not quite making it into the city. Willie and I had wandered away from the bridge and were photographing some amazing fog formations on the Pacific Ocean as the sun dipped below the horizon. Every few minutes Willie or I would run over to the GGB and see if the fog had started to move in. About 10 minutes after the sun had set, and in the middle of photographing a neat “sand dune” of fog, Willie came racing over screaming “PACK UP NOW. WE’RE GOING OVER TO THE BRIDGE!” And off we raced. I think all the photographers around us thought we were crazy: “who are these guys running like there’s a bear chasing them?” We wanted to get into position before Blue Hour kicked in. Our running paid off and we arrived at our favorite Hawk Hill spot a few minutes before blue hour started. We spent the next 45 minutes or so enjoying the wonderful blue hour sunset fog. The fog glowed as the deck of the bridge was mostly exposed, and even a layer of fog started to light up as it crept into the city. Both of us spent some time taking panoramas for higher resolution but I also snapped some single exposures of the scene as well. The fog continued to creep in and it turned out that I liked this single exposure photo much better than the higher resolution stitched panoramas. What do you think of sunset fog? Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 42mm, f/14, 30 sec, ISO 320
