Is fog the holy grail of landscape photography?
A blog about photography
Is fog the holy grail in photography? Or just in landscape photography?
A few weeks ago is was once again in the forest of the dancing trees (Speulderbos) in the Netherlands. In the past visits before this one, I had terrible conditions. Wind, rain, clouds. The weather prediction were off once again.
This morning, they were off again. But this time, they were the good kind of off, because we got a lot (and I mean A LOT) of fog. And when I got fog in the mist, I’m dancing of joy!
Speulderbos, The Netherlands in fog.
We had so much fog, even the sun didn’t came through for a good 2 hours. But, I had a blast during these few hours. When shooting in the fog, try to keep your shutterspeed short. The mist is mooving and when you’re shooting a longer exposure, the mist will disappear in your images. If you keep the exposure short, you’ll have more images with a lot of mist.
Also, try to shoot a brighter exposure. This way the mist stays white, instead of gray.
Schaapskooi, The Netherlands. A misty heather.
But, when the sun finally gets through the mist, you get the real magic. Because fog and sunlight creates these beautiful light rays. For these conditions, the tip about the shutterspeed stays the same. These conditions changes with the minute. It comes and goes really fast and you have to be a bit lucky to have these conditions at where you are at that moment. That’s also why I never stay to long in one spot and move a lot around when photographing the forest.
The Speulderbos, The Netherlands during a foggy morning with light.
The road during sunrise in the Speulderbos, Netherlands.
The bicycle lane in the Speulderbos, Netherlands in the fog with sunlight.
After seeing these images, what do you think? Is mist the holy grail of photography? Or just for landscape photographers?
For me, it really is. I strive to find mist everytime when I’m out. It’s just spectacular.
