50.0

Fog on this particular morning was quite the surprise. Alan, Willie and I met up in San Francisco with the original idea of shooting a cloudy sunrise somewhere in San Francisco. By the time we arrived in the city the clouds had moved northeast and we decided to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to find a westerly spot to photograph. As we crossed the bridge into Marin we started to get excited -- there was a small layer of fog forming and we hoped it would keep coming in. We stopped at Battery Spencer but decided to keep driving.

For the last 6 months Alan had an idea of trying to shoot a low fog photograph with the 2 towers aligned. The only problem is that you have to hike for quite a while to make it to the location and most people don't wake up early enough. It's a long, up-hill/down-hill not-so-fun morning hike. Fortunately for us we had arrived much earlier than anticipated and if we booked it we would make it before sunrise. By the time we arrived at Alan's spot a much denser fog had rolled in and started covering most of the bridge.

We were all pretty excited as we began shooting. Looking at the photos in our cameras showed a beautiful glow in the fog, some nice purple and blue tones, and the wonderful bridge. We shot the bridge with the 2 towers aligned first and then later moved back and to the right to shoot the bridge with a slight angle. Blue hour only lasted about 10 minutes and we ran around like crazy men trying to shoot different compositions. Ultimately I liked the slightly non-aligned photo the best, showing more of the bridge and giving insight into how the fog covered and exposed the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. I titled this "Dancing Gateway" because I like the way that the fog seems to dance in and out of the bridge.

Our morning concluded with a beautiful sunrise as the clouds lit up in beautiful oranges and reds. 16 photos stitched into a 230 megapixel image were required to fit the entire scene in. One day when I have time to stitch the photo together properly I might even show you what it looked like!

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR
220mm, f/11, 30 sec, ISO 160