On Location Photographing a foggy winter woodland

On Location

May 28

What is the fascination many photographers have with a foggy woodland?

Trees in a foggy wintry woodland — Fujifilm XT5 | XF16-55mm | 51mm | 0.4 Seconds | f/7.1 | ISO125

I’ll try to answer.

Along with simplifying and adding a sense of depth to a composition, nothing brings a sense of mood and atmosphere to a woodland like some mist or fog. Along with softer edges and textures, the diffused light falling on the trees creates an ethereal atmosphere and a sense of mystery in the photos and being drawn to lower contrast scenes in general, the resulting look and feel it can create appeals to my taste and style.

Like a lot of landscape photographers, as soon as the weather app shows even a tiny chance of fog in my local area, I’m immediately planning an early morning trip to one of the woodlands I like to photograph, keeping my fingers firmly crossed that any fog predicted comes to fruition.

So, back in April 2023, when all my weather apps were aligned and fog was predicted for the next morning, I packed my bag and set the alarm.

In my bag was my Fujifilm XT5 and both my XF16-55mm and XF50-140 lenses but during the shoot, I stuck with the standard zoom and the telephoto remained in the bag for the entire shoot.

Thankfully, on this occasion, the predictions were right and there was thick fog throughout the woodland. I decided to concentrate on just a small section of the woodland and in the two or so hours I was there, I must have only walked two or three hundred yards.