Forecasting Low Fog

A How-To Guide to Predicting These Conditions for Photography

I woke up this morning and thought I might find some nice low fog, one of my favorite conditions for photography. Why did I think that? Well, we’re in the time of year when the air temperature is getting cooler in the mornings, and the bodies of water and ground are holding the heat of the warmer days that preceded. That plus the added moisture from the rain the previous day, made fog likely.

Fog forms when the dew point, a measure of the water content in the air, matches the air temperature, creating 100% humidity and condensation. Dew points don’t often reach as high as the air temperature during the day, which is why fog forms most often in the late night and early morning, when diurnal cooling brings the temperature down to its lowest point.

We most commonly see low fog form this time of year around bodies of water such as rivers, lakes, and ponds. As the temperature in the air lowers, bodies of water are then warmer, relatively, and provide an abundant source of moisture through water vapor. Another area, outside of bodies of water, that you commonly find ground fog on cool mornings are open fields and farmland. That’s because this type of low vegetation holds a ton of moisture and warmth. As the night progresses evaporative cooling combines with diurnal processes and often creates fog in these areas, as well.

Fog can form on cloudy days, especially during and after rain at all times of year and in winter when warm air comes in over snowpack, without the need for a body of water or open field nearby. After all, the same processes that create clouds, create fog, which is really just a cloud on the ground.

But, for the most part, this is the type of fog doesn’t allow sunlight to come through, which is the type of magic light I’m most often looking for. That’s why I specifically target these cool, relatively clear mornings around bodies of water when seeking foggy conditions.

Low fog with sunlight streaming through and interacting with the fog and land, creating warm highlights and cool shadows, is easily one of my favorite conditions to capture, and therefore I seek it out whenever I can.

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Putting Weather Knowledge into Action

Looking out for low fog here in Bath is fairly simple. Because I live near a large body of water, the Kennebec River, I simply looked out my window this morning at 5:30 AM to check the conditions. After noticing fog hovering in the trees, I got out of bed, grabbed my camera, and drove around for a little while considering my options. Going down by the river, I could see some fog hovering across the water, but what little there was, was clearing quickly. I wasn’t feeling great about what I was seeing at ground level, so I drove back home and got the drone to see if I could find a more interesting perspective and get over into the thicker fog.

Flying above the river, I noticed there was some fog, but not a lot. I took one image pointed into the sun with the Bath-Woolwich Bridge and decommissioned Carlton Bridge, which I must admit are not the greatest subjects, or at least ones that I’m really drawn to. One small bonus was the inclusion of Maine’s First Ship in the lower left-hand corner.

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The next image was spinning around to capture the view in the opposite direction, a little more interesting subject matter, but with less flattering light (front light is usually so). I did like the bit of fog hovering over the land, but would have preferred more in the foreground.

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The next move was to fly into some of the thicker fog and mist up near the Max L. Wilder Memorial Bridge that connects Woolwich to Arrowsic Island. This was by far the most beautiful light and interesting composition of the morning. These are the type of conditions I was hoping for.

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Finally, I flew over to one of my favorite subjects, Doubling Point Lighthouse, but found the fog missing and the light completely lacking. Oh, well.

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Considering Future Options

After I got home, I pulled up the satellite to help me plan future outings. I wanted to see where I might find fog on mornings with similar conditions. I’ve done this before, but a refresher is always helpful. The satellite viewers I use can be found at https://weather.ndc.nasa.gov/GOES/. Because low fog is a similar temperature as the ground, it doesn’t show up well on infrared. This makes it harder to track in the hours before dawn when that’s the only satellite option. This was taken about 2 hours after the sun was already up, when the best light was over, but the fog was still hanging around.

This satellite image clearly shows major river valleys and bodies of water in New England, along with some general lowland fog in areas of southern New Hampshire and Midcoast Maine. You can clearly make out the Connecticut River Valley between Vermont and New Hampshire, a well-known fog creator, along with the Androsscoggin River Valley and some of the lakes such as Winnipesaukee, Sebago, Rangeley Lakes, Flagstaff, and Moosehead. To get a better idea of the places to look, I took the satellite and overlayed it with a google maps screen shot using Photoshop to create a more informative guide.

While it didn’t line up perfectly, it gives me a good enough idea of where to search next time we might have similar conditions.

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I think some of the most interesting opportunities are in places where you can hike up to mountain peaks and overlooks looking out above the fog at sunrise. To that end, I checked out the Mount Washington tower camera to visualize what that might look like.

One thing to note about the very highest peaks, is that you are almost too far above the fog to create an interesting image, unless you have a telephoto lens and can pick out some of the details below. I think the best images are going to come at lower elevations with the sea of fog out in front of you with areas prominence poking through like islands in the sky, or fog hovering through trees in the foreground.

Another type of fog that I haven’t mentioned yet is the marine fog that hugs the coast of Maine in the warmer months. This forms when warm, moist air flows over relatively cooler waters, kind of the opposite of radiation fog, which we’ve been talking about so far. I think there are opportunities to photograph this, but it’s really hard to find scenarios where sunlight comes through the fog because it sets up over water to the east, which is the direction the sun is coming up. It usually blocks the light instead of catching it.

What I have been able to do, is to get above it in the Camden Hills, as seen in this image from Mount Battie, taken last fall.

While I like my image above, my friend John Putnam has an even more striking image of marine fog from Cadillac Mountain in Acadia. You can see that here. In the satellite image below, you can clearly see that Cadillac is rising above the fog on this morning, as well, and that the vantage from Mount Battie would also be looking out over a sea of fog.

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Putting it All Together

It’s all about finding that dividing line between fog and clear skies. If you’re too close to the water, too deep in the valley and deep in the fog, you’ll just have fog and no light. If you’re too far away from the water, or the conditions favor very little fog, then you’ll have mostly clear skies! Different mornings will bring thicker or thinner fog, depending on how cold the air is, how warm the water is, and how much moisture there is in the air. Being creative means responding to the changes and finding the right place at the right time to make interesting images.

I captured this image with the drone last fall above the Cribworks Rapids section of the West Branch of the Penobscot with Mount Katahdin in the distance:

And by all means, aerials aren’t the only interesting perspective. Here’s a photo from Sugar Hill looking at Franconia Ridge, at ground level:

Everyone is going to find their own perspectives of these beautiful conditions, just remember that you generally want to be on the edge of the fog bank, where the light can come in and do its magic. Too far inside, and you won’t get the light, too far out, and you won’t have enough fog.

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For some more inspiration that highlights the type of imagery that I’m talking about here, check out the work of Jamie Malcolm-Brown on Instagram. He’s a lover of low fog and has made some of the most beautiful captures of these conditions that I’ve seen. Some of Chris Bennett’s mountain and drone images also come to mind, as well as Isaac Crabtree’s.

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I hope this helps inform you about my process and maybe inspires you on your search for great conditions for landscape and scenic photography in your area, even if it isn’t New England! This in-depth type of newsletter will only be available to paid subscribers going forward, but I wanted to give everyone a taste of what that content will look like.