Rays Through The Mist

Lets start with prediction. Fog forms near the surface when the air cools to its dew point. There is always a certain quantity of water vapor in the air, and warmer air can hold significantly more water than cool air. So when air cools, there reaches a point where it can no longer hold the amount of water vapor suspended in it, and condensation occurs.

Two factors must be in place for the type of intense surface cooling necessary to reach the dew point…clear skies and light winds. Under clear skies, the heat of the day is allowed to radiate out into space, whereas clouds act like a blanket trapping heat. And light winds limit the mixing of the air with warmer air just aloft, and therefore keeping it warmer. If a clear, cool, calm night is predicted, morning mist is likely.

Clear, Cool and Calm = Morning Mist

An additional rule is necessary when considering mist over water. The water body must be warmer than the air above it. This can limit opportunities for atmospheric shots over water bodies in the middle of summer, but can occur at any time of the year.

Cool Air and Warm Water = Mist

Now…you go out and hit the jackpot…but how do you shoot it. Hi humidity conditions can lead to condensation and moisture problems on the front elements of the camera. This will especially be true if your camera is nearly the same temperature as the outdoor air.
There are some great ways to help minimize this though. First off, a dry bag is essential. Keeping the camera in the dry bag is the best way to limit the amount of total water that the camera can come in contact with. But of course, it the camera is in the bag, you aren’t shooting with it. The front element of the lens is very prone to fogging in these conditions. My way of dealing with this…a solid rotation of cokin filters, rapidly changed when fogging occurs. I store these in a microfiber case so that they dry in between use, and they are usually ready again minutes later.

Other tips…when shooting in the fog, it is important to pick your focus point, but a high depth of field is usually not as important. The fog limits sharpness anyway. Also, the fog is usually a grey color, but you want to make sure you over expose the scene in the fog, just as you would with snow. You can bring the contrast back up later if you over do it…but it’s tough to overdo.

Lastly…sometimes a bit of mist on the lens can lead to neat effects…well worth the experimentation!

Shooting Through A Lens With Condinsation

So there you have it…predicting and shooting in mist…and how to enjoy the next clear and cool morning this spring!

Canon 50mm Macro; 1/20s @ f2.5

Canon 50mm Macro; 0.5s @ f8.0

Canon 50mm Macro; 1.6s @ F16

Now I shot the same series with my 150mm lens.  This time I had a working distance of 23 inches to get the same magnification, which gives you a lot more room.  Also notice that in the depth of field series, the overall depth of field is shallower.  This allows you to isolate subjects more in the field, while the 50mm would be better if you wanted to show more of the environment immediately surrounding the subject. 

Sigma 150mm Macro; 1/25s @ f2.8

Sigma 150mm Macro; 0.3s @ f8.0

Sigma 150mm Macro; 1.6s @ F16

Another interesting thing to practice with is maximum magnification of a lens.  There reaches a point where the subject becomes to close for the lens to focus upon.  When you move this close, the depth of field becomes extremely small.  Here’s two maximum magnification shots with the 50mm with a working distance of about 2 inches. 

Canon 50mm Macro; f2.5 at Maximum

Canon 50mm Macro; f16 at Maximum

And here’s two maximum magnification shots of the 150mm, with a working distance of about 7 inches. 

Sigma 150mm Macro; f2.5 at Maximum

Sigma 150mm Macro; f16 @ Maximum

You will notice that the 150mm appears much bigger in the frame, which is a function of the fact that it offers 1:1 magnification.  What that means is that the subject is projected upon the sensor through the lens at the same size as it is in real life.  Then when you blow it up…you get apparant magnification!

The last series that I shot was adjusting my lenses to shoot beyond maximum magnification.  To do so, you have to attach extension tubes, which allow for closer focusing, less working distance, and amazingly, the exact same depth of field.  When you add a 12mm extension tube, it makes a significant difference to a 50mm lens, but not much to a 150mm lens.

Canon 50mm w/12mm Extension; f2.5 Beyond Maximum

Sigma 150mm w/12mm Extension; f2.8 Beyond Maximum

A couple of last notes.  First off, these shots would not be possible without a tripod. When you are dealing with compositions so slight, and exposures so long, you need a rock of a tripod to rest your camera upon.  Any movement that you make with a macro lens is dramatically magnified, so handholding is usually out of the question.

Additionally, focusing manually is also important, as the lens auto focus has little idea what do do with a macro composition.  Select the object most important to your composition, keep it sharp, and let the rest fall into an artistic blur that you control with your depth of field through the aperture setting. 

Finally, it is great fun to work through the exercize of getting to know your lens, and I hope you found this helpful.  Besides the benefits of practicing, I learned something else today…my sensor is REALLY dirty.  Gotta do something about that before the hepatica emerge in the next two weeks!

There are a few places in the White Mountains that are known to attract foxes. The summit of Mount Washington, a few of the AMC Huts, the Cog Base Station all have fairly consistent resident populations. The foxes in these locations are fairly tolerant of humans, as part of their diets there are enhanced in three likely ways. First off, these foxes do feed directly on dropped scraps, inadvertent or otherwise, but I do hope it’s mainly inadvertent. Secondly, crumbs and scraps attract rodent populations that feed the foxes, and thirdly, the heat shelter of the building naturally invites more rodents.  Working with these tolerant populations is helpful, as though they are still wild and skittish, they are also curious, and you can usually get fairly close.

This round of shots was made possible when a student of mine on the hike let me know that the foxes were had dug up some discarded (not by our group) fruit loops outside of the bunk houses. The kids were on the porch taking pictures themselves, and I began sneaking around the side of the bunkhouse. My sneaking methods is a cross between a crawl and slither in very slight movements.

The camera had been set for my landscape shooting, and needed adjustment. I knew that a fast shutter speed would be necessary to capture the images hand-held without any motion blur. I ripped off my trusty filters, leaving them in the snow, dialed up the ISO to 400, and put the camera on burst mode, so I can fire off more than one shot per push of the trigger. Next I put the camera on aperture priority, and locked it wide open (F/6.3 on my Sigma 18-200mm hiking lens). This allowed for shutter speeds of around 1/1000 of a second.

Once the camera was set, it was all about position, background and composition. I tried to maneuver myself so that the fox was between me and a good background. This fine subject allowed me to capture him for about 10 minutes, at distances as close as about 20-25 feet. The session ended when he came in too close, I made a movement too sudden, and off he went.

In that time, I fired off about 50 frames. Some, the focus was off, some the composition was off and many more had awkward poses or looks. I think about four of the fifty are usable. Below is one more of the usable examples, and it needed some cropping to square to balance out an otherwise off composition.

Hope y’all find this helpful, and I’m always happy to answer questions.

Jim Salge Photography - Funny Fox