All is Calm

Both Norfolk and Lincolnshire seem to be under a blanket of fog at the moment, the days and nights are both still and grey. While this can make landscape photography somewhat challenging at times with a lack of beautiful warm low light, if you try to embrace the murk and include it in the composition, you can capture some rather striking images.

I was out for a stroll on the sand banks to the Eastern end of Wells- Next-The-Sea with my Nikon D4, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8 and Manfrotto tripod one afternoon last week and was struggling for a bit of inspiration. The light was flat and visibility was low. I was looking for interesting details either on the sandy beach or possibly a small boat nestled in one of the many small lagoons that are created during low tide. Nothing was really working for me until I turned back towards the town and saw that the mist had thinned considerably, allowing tantalising glimpses of the quay front and its many boats. The conditions were calm and the boats were casting lovely soft reflections in the water. I set up my tripod and got to work. It can be slightly tricky shooting in foggy conditions because although it may look dull and dreary it's actually more than likely far brighter than you may think. The camera is probably going to underexpose the scene because of this so exposure compensation will need to be used if shooting in Aperture priority, a value of +1 E.V. being a good starting point. I mainly shoot in manual mode when photographing landscapes and also manually focus. I find that this gives me the greatest possible control over the captured image and it also slows me down, something that I feel is very important when shooting this type of photography.

Looking back towards the Quay at Wells-Next-The-Sea.