The Rising Mist

Weather in the mountains can be terrifying for the uninitiated. One moment you’re basking in the warm rays of the sun, the next, rain and wind blowing like the end times. Conditions like these tend to make people stay inside, but some photographers know that these rapidly changing conditions create drama. Light and shadow dancing across the front of your lens. Rising mist completes the scene though, taking an awesome view, to a magical composition, all in a days work for those brave souls willing to deal with the ever changing weather of the mountains.

Indeed, weather can be ferocious in the mountains, on this day it started calm enough, then came the rain. I waited the storm out, hoping for a break in the sky. When it finally did come and I was setup for this view, the rain returned. This marks the first time I had to cover my camera in a plastic bag to prevent damage. I was thinking of packing it in as the cloud rolled over the scene, but gave it another half hour, and I’m glad I did. The pass cleared, clouds lingered on either side, threatening to swallow up the view once more, but it waited until the sun had gone down and the magic was over to leave me in the clouds again.

This edit was challenging. While the overall scene was fine, I kept loosing the horizon. It kept blowing out. I went through 6 versions of this photo, each time tweaking the horizon a little more until I reclaimed all the detail. Then came the dodging and burning, and while often I can achieve it with the luma range tools, in this case I had to hand paint the sections I wanted affected by the end result… .In the end, it took me two days to really dial in the results we have here.

Until Next Time!

Aperture: f11
ISO: 125
SS: 1/13th
Focal: 47mm

Fujinon 16-55 f2.8