Look at that, the storks are back!
so I wasn't as lucky this time as I was last year when I made an image of those 2 storks
I called it "The Nest", it's still one of my favorite images to date
it was thanks to the fog, the fog made possible that shot
or at the very least, it made it much better
Today is very foggy, so I thought we could talk about how the fog improves our images
and how we can create images that otherwise would be impossible, how to use it to our advantage
but first, let me play a little video with some Bronica porn
This is so, so beautiful... but as beautiful as it looks, this is not enough to create a good image
Fog is not enough, we still need a subject, subjects like for example this one here
Fog is just a facilitator, I like to call it the "poor photographer's bokeh"
because it helps you isolating your subjects from the background
we are going to talk about this later
Snow is another element that can help us doing the same, it's more limited to the ground
but if we are lucky enough to find something like a downhill slope, for example in this image
of these 3 trees that I made a few months ago, this image would've not been possible in any conditions but snow
they look like they are floating because they are on a downhill slope covered with snow
I love fog, I love snow, but my favorite conditions is when I have both, snow *and* fog
I had those conditions not too long ago, a few days ago, during the Camino
I was able to capture 2 trees there, they were not beautiful or anything like that, just regular trees
but with the snow and the fog they looked like drawings, I love those images
just imagine if I was able to find prettier trees
This is the power of the fog and snow, we can use them to our advantage to create amazing images
that we wouldn't be able to create otherwise
Another time when I had amazing conditions, snow and fog, was in Indiana a couple of years ago
I made the image "The Last of Winter" there
but I had even better conditions later that day on a beach at Lake Michigan
it felt otherworldly, it felt like I was on another planet
But the lack of subjects meant that I wasn't able to create good images there
I found some cracks on the ice and whatnot, but I wasn't able to find anything to capture
and that's what I mean when I say that you still need a subject
ok, so what kind of subjects? what kind of scenes we can capture when we have foggy conditions like these?
I'm going to give you 5 ideas and we are going to look at some of my own images
images I've made over time in foggy conditions
Number 1 is lines that disappear in the fog, it could be any kind of lines like
roads, paths, train tracks, or even power lines... I don't know if you can see them here
but they look amazing in the fog because it looks like they go to nowhere
they just disappear in the background
it could be fences, anything that creates a line or a curve
that disappears far away, it creates mystery, it sparks the imagination of the viewer
because you aren't showing the whole thing, you have to use your imagination to try to see what's beyond that fog
I love those kind of images, and I've created quite a few over time, let's look at some of them
Number 2, hide and seek
I'm not an expert on fog, I don't know if every kind of fog is the same
but when I say fog I mean any kind of low clouds that touch the land, that touch the subject
and affects your photo in any way
In this case, I'm talking about those clouds that sometimes go through mountains, trees...
they hide just part of the subject, they might be hiding the bottom of a mountain and showing just the top
or hiding the bottom of the trees and showing just the top of the trees
These are fleeting moments, the fog can be moving really quick
So the compositions and the images that you can create might change really quick
I'd recommend taking a bunch of photos and just choosing the best ones afterwards
because you never know, you can't predict what the fog is going to do
This can create amazing images, again some of my favorite images were made this way
where some fog was hiding a part of the subject, let's look at some examples
Number 3, subject isolation
I talked about this at the beginning of the video, but what we are looking for here is subjects
that are usually surrounded by a lot of stuff, a lot of noise in the background
but thanks to the fog we are able to capture those subjects without that noise
without those elements in the background
subjects we are looking for here might be trees, buildings, anything is usually pretty busy
and that with fog becomes more simple, a simplified scene, that's what we are looking for here
let's look at some sample images
Number 4 is the atmosphere that the fog creates
and the way it transforms a place, and there's no better example I can think of right now
than this one, this is just an ordinary place, an ordinary hill, it doesn't look any special, it's not that pretty
but with this fog, look at this! This looks amazing, it looks otherworldly, it looks like a different planet
as I said earlier
and this is all because of the fog
This is a great opportunity to place a person, or an animal, or an object in these landscapes
it's going to create eerie and dreamy images
Sometimes, the fog isn't thick enough to block all the sunlight, so we can capture the sun in the sky as well
That can create very dramatic images
Another example of great atmosphere is when you go to the very edge, where the fog is starting to fade away
because you might have some light going through trees and creating those beams of light that look so cool
Let's look at some examples
Number 5, above the clouds
If you can, get to higher ground because you might find what's called a cloud inversion
when you have the clouds covering the lower parts of the landscape
but you are on top of a hill, a building, or something
so you are able to capture those clouds hiding the whole landscape and maybe, if you are lucky,
showing just some parts of the tallest objects, a building, trees, bridges or something like that
This has happened to me many times in the past, but my favorite time was at the Golden Gate Bridge
where the fog was rolling in under the bridge, showing only the top part of it
and then a boat passed by and I was able to capture that scene
I was very happy to have experienced that and to have captured that
Another thing that you can look for, and these are some examples
These are just 5 ideas that hopefully inspire you to create new images, something different next time
you run into foggy conditions like these
I hope you liked this video
Thank you so much for watching, and see you in the next one!