St Johns Fog
Sunday, November 19, 2017
A couple weeks ago I was set to go check out a new spot for a Portland sunrise. I do struggle with finding new places to shoot in town so this was really exciting for me. I use an app that helps predict sunrises, and this one was supposed to be amazing. That morning I woke up at 5am , but just wasn’t feeling it. I told myself I’d go tomorrow. So I went back to bed.
About an hour later on turned on my computer. For the next couple hours I was pulverized with images on social media, the news, and a couple emails from people all making me realize I had missed one of the most amazing sunrises we have had in a while. A friend of mine emailed me later that day to tell me he had gone to the spot, and it was spectacular. I was not thrilled. Its the price I pay. One of my biggest difficulties can be motivation to get up really early and just get out there.
I beat myself up pretty good for the next couple weeks. We got a lot of rain, but we were finally looking at a nice weekend. The sunrise conditions looked great for Saturday morning. And the night before they mentioned fog on the news. This spot is pretty high up, so that was great news to me.
I got up Saturday morning at 5 am, and looked outside. I didn’t see any fog. I thought about getting back in bed, but decided I was going no matter what. I took my time packing my gear, and when I walked outside there was definitely fog. I was ecstatic. I jumped in my car and rushed to the spot.
I pulled, hopped out and started setting up. I was a little later than I should have been, and very rusty, so it was a bit of a scramble to get setup. I was shooting a time-lapse with my Canon 6D fitted with my Canon 70-200mm f4L IS. I would also be shooting stills with my Sony A7Rii, with a really cool Olympus Zuiko 200mm f5 that I got on eBay for $75. These Sony mirrorless cameras are great because you can use most old lenses with a. simple $10 adapter. This lens is amazing for $75. This was one of my first shots, taken from the Canon doing the time-lapse sequence.
Break in the Fog
I shot for the next half hour, chatting with a couple other photographers I met that morning. The fog got really high, which was fantastic for the time but completely hid the bridge by the time the sun rose. I was absolutely thrilled. Normally I probably would have explored a bit around the base of the bridge but was far to excited to get home and check out my captures.
The first thing I discovered was that somehow the Canon had been bumped, or the ballhead was not quite tight and the images for the time-lapse did not line up, and photoshop was not cooperating by helping me. I struggled for hours, as I was honestly more excited for the time-lapse than the other shots. Eventually I decided to salvage what I could and combine a few images into a simulated long exposure. That was my big regret of the morning, that I had not done any long exposures of the rolling fog. This was the result-
30 Moments in a Sunrise
I really liked how at this period of the sunrise the red in the sky and taken over and was reflecting a beautiful hue on the fog. The pink had darkened, but would be back.
So no time-lapse, but there was no way I was going to complain about the morning. It was one of the most amazing visual experiences I’ve had in a long time. A much need reminder of why I love shooting so much. After doing some editing and spreading some images around to friends and colleagues, I knew I had really captured something special. I hope you enjoy the images! Thanks for reading!
Behind the Bushes
Rising Above the Fog