a misted lens

how I fell in love with fog

A decade ago, standing high on a hill near an Iron Age fort, I watched swirling fog rise up from the river valley — it’s a moment that I describe in the introduction to Chasing Fog. I lifted my camera from where it hung round my neck and I looked through the lens at the fog as it wove through the trees. The woods around me suddenly felt different: beautiful, but also potent and uncanny. In that instant everything changed; fog put me under its spell, and the enchantment has never worn off.

I fell in love with fog through the lens, and with my camera (or my phone, whichever I have to hand) I am still forever seeking to capture the way that fog feels: the mood, the story, the physical and also the emotional landscape. In photography, as in reality, fog can be elusive, but here are some tips from my many misty mornings, all of which you can achieve with just your phone…