Fog at Mt Tamalpais

Mt Tamalpais Sunrise | Sony Alpha a7R II + 80-200mm f/2.8 @ ~200mm, f/11, ISO 100, 1/80 sec

One of the things that I enjoy is looking at weather visualizations and forecasts to try to better understand the clouds that may (or may not be present) before I go out for photography. And of all the places within a day’s trip from home, I always dream about catching some beautiful clouds and fog at Mt Tamalpais. While the fog that rolls through San Francisco can often feel gloomy, being above the fog at Mt Tamalpais evokes a dreamier feeling. And with this in mind, I was excited to know that on the Fourth of July weekend, the forecast showed a heavy coverage of fog. Thus, my family visited Mt Tamalpais twice on this weekend – first for sunrise and then another for sunset.

For our first trip for sunrise, I woke up at 3 am and we were on the road shortly thereafter for the hour and a half drive up to Mt Tamalpais. Upon arriving to the locked entrance gate, we parked the car just outside and decided to hike up to a close by viewpoint instead. It was a very calm and peaceful morning, and we were the only ones inside the park. As we started our hike and came out of the shadow of the fog, I was convinced that we were running a bit too late to catch a good sunrise photo. But after about a mile or so of admittedly rushed and uphill hiking, we reached a clearing between the trees, and the view was stunning. We were just high enough to be at the fog level, and in the distant background, we could see Mt Diablo rising above the fog. The scene was so beautiful as the fog danced through the trees and the morning sunlight was defused through the fog. This created some beautiful pastel shades of color. The beautiful fog, the lovely pastel colors, the mountain, and the trees all made for a scene I could only dream of.

After about 15 minutes of time-lapsing and enjoying the view, we decided to continue our hike to the top of the viewpoint that we stopped short of. Just as I was packing my bag, the sun broke over the hills and created some beautiful light rays as it filtered through the trees and fog in the foreground. These beautiful light rays were only present for a minute or two, and I did not have time to setup my tripod or think about a composition. I did capture this handheld photo in the moment though. Since this scene was very bright, I ended up taking two different exposures to capture detail in the sky as well as the foreground; then, I aligned and blended them in Photoshop afterwards. While I do not think this is a portfolio photo, I have not edited many photos over the past year; so, it was exciting to try my hand at a more complex edit. And of course, it brings back good memories from this morning adventure as we hiked up this road since it was a shorter route than taking the trail (and of course, since there were no cars).

While at the viewpoint with the sun now above the horizon, we witnessed a cool natural phenomenon called a fogbow. In other words, if a rainbow is formed by light refracting through water droplets from rain, then a fogbow is formed by light refracting through water droplets from fog. As the morning sunlight started dissipating the fog, it was nice to feel the moisture in the air. To finish up our hike, we decided to take the longer trail back through the forest. There was still a foggy atmosphere amongst the trees which created nice, diffused light. And along the trail, I spotted and captured this nice tall tree which I thought made for a good subject.

Behind the scenes of my camera at Mt Tamalpais

Two evenings later, my family headed up to Mt Tamalpais again for some more hiking and to catch the sunset. After a comparatively shorter hike and then eating a homemade sandwich back at the car, we headed back out to the viewpoint to take in the sunset and the fog. And it definitely did not disappoint. With panoramic views above the fog and lovely soft light illuminating the scene, I was running around trying to figure out how I wanted to frame up my shot. The hard thing about taking a time-lapse of fog is that the fog can drastically change the composition based on what it reveals or hides; therefore, it is hard to predict how your photo might look in 10 or 20 minutes. But I guess that is the magical part about capturing a time-lapse of the fog. It is indeed a beautiful thing to see how the fog dances around.

Mt Tamalpais Sunset | Sony Alpha a7R II + 80-200mm f/2.8 @ ~100mm, f/11, ISO 100, 4/5 sec and 8/5 sec

Above, are two photos from a time-lapse sequence that I took (hopefully, I can post the video version to YouTube sometime soon). There photos were taken 14 minutes apart and aside from the hue of the setting sun changing, it is interesting how the fog changes the scene. I love how the fog interacts and flows through the trees. In the first photo, the fog creates these layers between the trees giving the photo some depth. While in the second photo, the fog levels had risen, and it created a nice frame around the trees in the middle.

In such a beautiful place with panoramic views, it might be tempting to try to capture everything with a wide angle lens. I do love wide views and even wrote a blog post about how to photograph using a wide angle lens. But in this place, I found myself gravitating towards using a telephoto lens to focus on a smaller portion of the scene. This allows me to be more selective in what is within the frame; thus, creating a better composition. I did try my hand at a wider field of view composition on the second day with my secondary camera; however, I decided these were not good enough to finish processing because the composition was unbalanced and there were too many distracting elements within the frame.

Family photo

My parents

Here are a couple of family photos from our two trips. Of course, I enjoyed taking photos and capturing the beautiful sights we witnessed. After all, it has been a while since I have done any photography. But these photos, memories, and adventures would not hold the same value if it was not shared with my family.