Sea Fog : A first for me

The ocean has for many years been a strong draw for me, its the changing conditions, the rawness of the coastline and the uniqueness of each wave that brings me back time after time, Today was different however as I was going to be visiting a beach with very little wave action, no coastline other than the clear beach and conditions that Ive not photographed before and looked like they wouldn’t be changing much.

These conditions are sea fog, and after receiving a call from my brother who was visiting a relatively close beach, to tell me that a sea fog was rapidly moving in, I packed my bags, jumped in the van and set off on what would be a photography adventure with a difference for this week.

As I drove close to the coast, I could see the fog rolling in and as I arrived at my destination it was clear, well not very clear in visual terms, that this fog was as thick as he had mentioned and I would have a different challenge on my hands for this one.

Parking up the van, just in time to join my weekly video premiere on Youtube, I was able to chat with everyone who had joined. If you’ve not joined one yet, I would love for you to come to hang out, each Sunday at 5 pm to chat together as a group about the video of the week.

I could go very lightweight for this adventure, as I would only need to carry my camera body and my 70-200mm telephone lens. Using this lens would allow me to pick out certain subjects on the beach as well as keep the minimalist feel to the images caused by the thick fog. If I had wanted to revert to my wide lens, then I would have had a different challenge as the subjects would have been too small. the frame and the fog wouldn’t be as apparent.

Many people were walking along the beach who would serve as my subjects, plus a fisherman was just setting up for the evening, and I knew for sure he would be one of my subjects. Off on the Horizon here lies a stunning island and lighthouse, however, this wouldn’t even get a look in, as it wasn’t anyway visible.

After taking my fill of shots, it was time to head back to the van and as I arrived back I once again pointed my camera towards the fisherman who was now sitting in his chair, and it was at that moment that a flock of ducks, rose and flew right over his head, Thankfully I was already framed up so it was just a matter of hitting the shutter and freeze the action.

As sunrise approached I removed in the van, there was no point in my standing outside after all, as it was clear that the thickness of the fog was going to block all possible light, and as the light faded I settled in for the evening, had some food and worked on my next Photography Location Guide “ The Clare Coast” before retiring for the night before kicking it all off again in the morning for sunrise. Would the fog have disappeared?

Waking from my alarm, I took a look out the rear window to see that yes the fog had disappeared, but that the sky was now a blanket of plain grey, there wasn’t going to be a sunrise either for me, so it was time to utilise the van even more and head back in, open the back doors, and from there frame up my shots. The subject was now going to be Ballycotton Lighthouse, which sits nicely on the horizon, the fog however hadn’t cleared totally and was sitting right on top of the lighthouse itself. Now Ballycotton lighthouse is one of four lighthouses in Ireland that aren’t white, instead, it is painted black, plus it doesn’t have a white light, it instead has a red LED. This LED doesn’t cast any light beams out as it revolves, but instead adds a single point only when the light is facing firstly towards the camera.

So having my Camera sat at the back of the van on the tripod, I just had to wait for the light to revolve around before grabbing the shot. As the sun rose, albeit without any light, it was the turn of the seagulls to wake and fly into my scene, adding some nice scale to the images, and not long after a local trawler would arrive back towards Ballycotton Harbour from its night time visit expedition, and this would pass directly in front of the lighthouse, once again I grabbed the shot.

As the light increased and the fog ebbed and flowed, I noticed a pristine white cloud, coming slowly towards the top of the lighthouse, would it arrive in a gap in the fog, or would the fog envelope the view once more before I could grab the shot? Thankfully the fog played ball and I was able to grab the shot within minutes of the fog closing back in again.

Finally, it was time to play around, so a small gap on the horizon in the fog, revealing the low-level clouds behind gave me the idea to shoot some ICM, and after taking one shot I then moved over to the lighthouse to try the same.

Overall, not the greatest of photography shoots for me, but still one that I enjoyed and tried new things. I’ve been saying for years and will no doubt say again many times more, bad conditions don’t exist in landscape photography, there is always a shot, and I think I was right on this one. What do you think?

You can see the images I managed to capture in the gallery below or watch the adventure on the Youtube video from Sunday at 5 pm

Images below are taken from this adventure, If you would like to purchase one for your wall, please get in touch.