My GPS Camera Phone

Generally, fog is thought of as a thing that obscures vision and makes things difficult to see. With regard to photography, it is just the opposite.

Fog actually helps you see better.

Many photos I’ve taken in the past at the Paynes Prairie overlook have been on days with clear skies and no fog in sight. You could see for miles and the sun lit up the green surroundings. Good consditions for shooting the obvious, but not good for highlighting the obscure.

This morning, the fog was incredibly thick – as it is this time of year – with the moisture actually visible to the naked eye. You could see waves of tiny droplets floating by in the breeze, getting caught up in the thousands of spiderwebs, shedding light on one of nature’s invisible masterpieces. The surrounding foliage was covered in spiderwebs, producing a visual as if there was a big net covering the prairie. Had the camera been able to capture this with some reasonable amount of detail, I’d have posted it. Looking at this image, though, should give you a good idea of what it was like.

Spiders are amazing.

This is a great time of year to capture spider webs because we get a lot of fog in the morning. When I say fog, I’m talking about the type that’s like rain in suspended animation. The thick and damp fog with low visibility. However, with this low visibility comes high visibility.

And if you aren’t sure who Howard Roark is, go here and be enlightened.

More fog in upcoming days. Happy Friday!

As I left the parking lot of my kids’ school this morning, I looked up to find the sun just above the trees, attempting to burn through the morning fog. If you remember, I did something similar during a visit to Paynes Prairie back in December.

Fog is a great diffuser and can be used to your advantage. Jon has captured some amazing shots in foggy conditions, showing what positive effects fog can have on your photos. (And to think that people pay hundreds of dollars to achieve the same effect in Photoshop!) The next time you’ve got a foggy day (or night), take out the camera and start shooting.

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Here’s the follow-up I promised yesterday. The other shots didn’t come out as good, so they are being put aside for a rainy day. Enjoy.

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What a total coincidence today’s photo is. I was tagged by Opal to post one of my favorite photos. Instead of digging through the files, all I had to do was shoot one with the trusty camera phone.

On my way into work, I decided to pass my normal turn and stop at the Paynes Prairie overlook. It was a foggy morning and I expected to capture some decent photos for the blog. After snapping a few photos, I started to gear up for my ride to work, but was distracted by the sun suddenly being obscured by a heavy fog bank. Quickly, I opened up the camera phone and looked up, surprised to see four palms in a row with a fog-filtered sun just above. As soon as I captured the photo, the fog lifted. Amazing.

This is one of my favorite shots. I did absolutely no retouching on this one. It’s right off the camera phone. No cropping, no levels, no sharpening. The only thing I did on the phone itself was adjust the brightness to -1 to counter the bright, fog-diffused sunlight. There’s more from this morning that I’ll load up for posting this week. Everything is dead, but it brings a new kind of beauty to the prairie.

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I’d also like to welcome everyone who may have found their way here via Vegan Momma. Opal was kind enough to feature me in her sidebar RSS feed and I’m appreciative for the gesture. Thanks!

Finally, celebrity daddy-blogger Joe at joeprah.com has inflated my ego with a fabulous blog review. Please go visit him and tell him how awesome he is. I mean, really, how can you not want to read a post titled, Mission Impoopable?