Fog at Sunset

Fog at Sunset in Southern Humboldt.

Fog at Sunset in Southern Humboldt. [Photo by Kym Kemp]

Fog…one of the most beautiful (and, sometimes dangerous) parts of living in the Emerald Counties. Who has a lovely photo of the mystical white magic fluff to share with the rest of us?

[NOTE: Put all the filters on it you want. I couldn’t get the dang image to look anything close to the real beauty until I worked on it in Adobe Lightroom. Chagrined but undaunted, I’ll keep trying to capture an undoctored image that reflects the beautiful reality here but meantime, I settled for the above until I can get better.]

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33 Comments
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Kim Sallaway
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Kim Sallaway
6 years ago

Early morning at the bird blind in Loleta, CA.

David Wilson
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David Wilson
6 years ago
Reply to  Kim Sallaway

Beautiful, Kim! I love that one.

Chad
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Chad
6 years ago

Above the sea of fog

BT
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BT
6 years ago

Back Yard Trinidad, CA

JR
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JR
6 years ago

Beautiful photo. Yes, the fog can be dangerous when driving, but the winter fog in the Central Valley is even more so.

SunnybankRoar
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SunnybankRoar
6 years ago

Somewhere along HWY 36 during fire season

Joanne L Pardini
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Joanne L Pardini
6 years ago

Morning sun and fog over So Fork of the Eel

BonnieBlueSky
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BonnieBlueSky
6 years ago

That is an enchanting image.

Guest
Guest
Guest
6 years ago

Beautiful

M C W
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M C W
6 years ago

No filters. A hole in the fog during sunrise Southern Humboldt.

BonnieBlueSky
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BonnieBlueSky
6 years ago

Lovely. Thank you, Kym and contributors.

M C W
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M C W
6 years ago

Looking East, KettenPalm/Yolla-Bolly

M C W
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M C W
6 years ago

Sunrise Southeastern Humboldt

David Wilson
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David Wilson
6 years ago

Nice one, Kym.

The reason it’s sometimes hard or impossible to get one that looks the way you saw it is because when we see with our eyes, our brains help us by doing all of the color and tone balancing. If any color or tonal balancing are being done in your head as you view the magic — like toning down the highlights and filling the shadows — your camera won’t be able to capture it that way because it doesn’t have your brain interpreting and enhancing what your eyes see. At least, not until you use your brain after the fact to manually help it out in post-processing.

The redwood forest on a sunny day is a great place to note how your camera is unable — by itself — to capture the detail in both directly sunlit areas and the deepest shadows in a single shot. There can be a difference of 12 stops of light in that situation. But our yes can do it, with the help of our brains’ processing.

David Wilson
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David Wilson
6 years ago

This is a still from a 7-hour timelapse, during which dusk becomes night, the stars come out, and you will see the fog in its absolutely wild dance as it fills up the valley.

The timelapse is only 48 seconds:

https://youtu.be/_vH-_IYbD2Y

The Living Night – South Fork Eel River Watershed

The sun sets, the Milky Way slides across the sky, the living fog fills the South Fork Eel River valley, and humans light up below in this timelapse spanning the hours of 7:24PM September 2 to 02:34AM September 3, 2016. Watch it again to look at other areas to find all that is going on. View in HD if possible, and a bigger screen is better…

I stood on the great ridge line separating the watersheds of the South Fork Eel River from the North Fork Eel River, the former stretching before me and the latter at my back as the sun set over southern Humboldt. My hope was to create a timelapse that successfully spanned the sunset-to-night transition and catch the star-lit valley filling with fog as the Milky Way and starfield slid across the sky. I was at this spot a week before, and I had seen it do this then, but that night my camera wasn’t positioned to catch much of the fog itself. This time there was no sign of fog when I began, but I was not to be disappointed.

I started shooting the still photographs for this timelapse at 7:24PM on September 2, 2016 to catch the sunset light disappearing. It wasn’t until about 9:30PM that the fog first came into the view far down the valley. It rolled up both River valleys simultaneously, the South Fork before me and the North Fork behind. It flowed like a fluid, billowing, advancing, and retreating as it filled the valleys and washed over the hills. It spotted like a wildfire, with puffs appearing here and there ahead of it. The Milky Way slid across the frame above. The camera took photographs at regular intervals. Humans turned on their lights, some zipping busily about below. The fog danced in the valley, up and down, forward and back, always gaining, filling the the spaces it found, approaching my position. Eventually the fog reached me, rolled over me, but then it withdrew once more.

As the fog before me retreated, from behind the fog from the North Fork’s valley rose up and began streaming past. I could watch both fog banks from where I stood, and saw them rising to meet each other precisely where I stood upon the ridge top. Soon the two seas of fog met beneath the glowing antennae of Pratt Mountain, a nipple on the ridge to my right, leaving the peak floating above it. Moments later the peak was lost. I took the final shot at 02:34 AM, as the fog gained total dominance and I could no longer keep the camera dry.

Soundtrack by Jerren Wilson

David Wilson
Guest
David Wilson
6 years ago

[Sorry for the double post; it didn’t take the photo the first time, and won’t let me delete it…]

This is a still from a 7-hour timelapse, during which dusk becomes night, the stars come out, and you will see the fog in its absolutely wild dance as it fills up the valley.

The timelapse and description: https://youtu.be/_vH-_IYbD2Y

The Living Night – South Fork Eel River Watershed

The sun sets, the Milky Way slides across the sky, the living fog fills the South Fork Eel River valley, and humans light up below in this timelapse spanning the hours of 7:24PM September 2 to 02:34AM September 3, 2016. Watch it again to look at other areas to find all that is going on. View in HD if possible, and a bigger screen is better…

I stood on the great ridge line separating the watersheds of the South Fork Eel River from the North Fork Eel River, the former stretching before me and the latter at my back as the sun set over southern Humboldt. My hope was to create a timelapse that successfully spanned the sunset-to-night transition and catch the star-lit valley filling with fog as the Milky Way and starfield slid across the sky. I was at this spot a week before, and I had seen it do this then, but that night my camera wasn’t positioned to catch much of the fog itself. This time there was no sign of fog when I began, but I was not to be disappointed.

I started shooting the still photographs for this timelapse at 7:24PM on September 2, 2016 to catch the sunset light disappearing. It wasn’t until about 9:30PM that the fog first came into the view far down the valley. It rolled up both River valleys simultaneously, the South Fork before me and the North Fork behind. It flowed like a fluid, billowing, advancing, and retreating as it filled the valleys and washed over the hills. It spotted like a wildfire, with puffs appearing here and there ahead of it. The Milky Way slid across the frame above. The camera took photographs at regular intervals. Humans turned on their lights, some zipping busily about below. The fog danced in the valley, up and down, forward and back, always gaining, filling the the spaces it found, approaching my position. Eventually the fog reached me, rolled over me, but then it withdrew once more.

As the fog before me retreated, from behind the fog from the North Fork’s valley rose up and began streaming past. I could watch both fog banks from where I stood, and saw them rising to meet each other precisely where I stood upon the ridge top. Soon the two seas of fog met beneath the glowing antennae of Pratt Mountain, a nipple on the ridge to my right, leaving the peak floating above it. Moments later the peak was lost. I took the final shot at 02:34 AM, as the fog gained total dominance and I could no longer keep the camera dry.

Soundtrack by Jerren Wilson

wildman
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wildman
6 years ago

Camel Rock again, with the fog breaking away

Arlene Lennox
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Arlene Lennox
6 years ago

I took this picture of a Hawk (I believe it’s a red tail hawk) with my iPhone at the Hwy36 &US 101 interchange. He is most always there perched on top one of the signs looking for dinner. I have so many more of him that it was hard to just pick one. You can see the fog creeping its way up the Eel River and the Van Duzen River in the background.

Irlydntcare
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Irlydntcare
6 years ago

This was Crescent City

E B T
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E B T
6 years ago

Big Lagoon

Taylormarten
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Taylormarten
6 years ago

All these photos are beautiful & really sum up this little ol’ part of the world. Thank you for posting them. Keep on.