In the mountains I usually awaken while it. is still dark outside, and on my most recent visit I was camped in a forest. So I have virtually no idea of the specific conditions I will find when I head out. Will there be clouds? Frost? haze? I won’t know until I get to a location and the light begins to appear. I can anticipate the range of possibilities to some extent ,but occasionally I am completely surprised. That was the case on this morning when I emerged from the forest campground, arrived at a meadow, and found it filling with beautiful ground fog.
Such conditions often are very transitory — all it takes is a little breeze or a slight increase in the temperature and fog is gone. So I quickly headed to a spot I know of where I thought some trees might be silhouetted against the pre-sunrise sky and fog. It was my lucky morning… the fog continued to thicken and spread for a while, and I managed to make this photograph of those trees and a distant Sierra crest peak as the fog drifted my way.
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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email
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