Coit Tower, Fog. San Francisco, California. December 16. 2010. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Swirling fog and mist engulf San Francisco’s Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill.
One more in this series of photographs of the San Francisco waterfront and downtown areas in brightly back-lit, early morning conditions in which the City was nearly obscured by drifting fog. All of the photographs in the series were made from a location near the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge, just a bit up the road into the Marin Headlands. Like several of the others, this one was shot with a 400mm focal length lens, pointing almost directly in the direction of the rising sun. For some of the exposures I had to stand a couple feet in front of the camera, at the maximum extension of my remote release cable, and carefully position my hand to shade the front element of the lens.
Here the fog has almost completely obscured Coit Tower at the top of Telegraph Hill. If you look very carefully to the left of Coit Tower you can barely make out the ghostly image of the top of one of the towers of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. It was my good fortune that a slightly less opaque section of the drifting fog momentarily framed the summit of Telegraph Hill.
This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
G Dan Mitchell Photography
Flickr | Twitter | Facebook Fan Page | Facebook | Friendfeed | Email
Thanks to both of you!
Sathish, avoiding the blown highlights is, indeed, often a big challenge when photographing brilliantly sun-lit clouds. It was very much a challenge in a few of the other photographs in this sequence, especially the one with the light beams streaming between the buildings of downtown San Francisco. If I have to chose, I’ll almost always take slightly underexposed shadows over blown highlights when shooting digital. Fortunately, in this photograph I was able to constrain the field of view so much that the really bright stuff didn’t enter the frame – though I had to stand in front of the camera and shield the lens from light that is outside the frame.
Michael, I very much appreciate your comment. You might have figured out that one subject that really intrigues me is misty, cloudy, rainy, foggy or otherwise obscured atmosphere and subjects seen through it. I’m sure you understand that sometimes I get up to shoot and lament, “Darn, the weather is too clear today!” This day was a lesson (one of many, no doubt) about why it is best to usually not give in. The weather forecast was not promising, calling for perfectly clear morning skies. At when I stopped to shoot here on the way to m real destination, it was nearly completely clear aside from some clouds over downtown San Francisco. But then – and apparently without prior permission from the weather forecasters! – fog suddenly began to form in the most air above the Bay, and in a matter of minutes the atmosphere had completely change.
Dan
Love that fog! Very well done.
Just brilliant. Amazing that you were able to pull so many details. I usually end up getting some blown highlights, and if I am lucky, the shadows that stream through the fog.
Looks like the summer is back in full swing in San Francisco – wonder how a timelapse of the entire scene would look.