I hope that you had a chance to get out and shoot the fog last night and this morning. I love shooting in the fog for two reasons. The first is that it gives that magical feel to the surroundings. The second is that it hides the background. You can shoot your subject and not worry as much about distracting backgrounds ruining your images. Next time the fog is rolling in, look for an area of fog with trees and streetlights. If you can position yourself so that the trees and fog are backlit by the lights, you’ll get some mysterious results.
This set of images was taken last night as I was driving home. I’d like to think that these look like a magical fantasy world, but they are all shot from the parking lot of Wolters Kluwer in Riverwoods. Driving back down Lake Cook Road I saw the fog enveloping the street lights in the parking lot and I pulled in to see the office building reflecting in the pond. With the help of the fog and a tight crop, I extracted some dream-like captures from the corporate parking lot.
I wrote about this recently, but I think it’s important that we find locations near us that we can make into great photographs. Most of us are weekend warriors. We aren’t going to be in Bali or Africa any time soon. Rather than waiting to make these once in a lifetime trips, we need to give thanks for what’s near us. And if you live around Chicago what’s near us is some great architecture. Even a corporate office building can be turned into a story with a little bit of fog. And when you do get to Bali or the alien ship lands, you will be practiced up and ready to capture the moment.
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