Who doesn’t love fog? Well besides some of good friends who live in and around the bay area of San Francisco most photographers I know also love fog. Theres no question we all love dramatic sunrises and sunsets with colors exploding over the skies as mountain peaks turn a fire red. Nothing however, changes and alters a familiar landscape like a cloak of fog does. Fog can take a common unremarkable landscape and transform it into a mystical and magical location in mere seconds. Common landmarks become hidden from sight and the feel of the landscape changes by the minute as fog drifts in and out of valleys and canyons hiding or revealing only portions of mountains as it see’s fit. Photographing in fog is a bonanza for landscape photographers keen on searching for unique images of familiar locations.
The unsettled weather pattern we’ve been experiencing here in Colorado for what feels like the last two months has presented quite a few opportunities of late to photograph in the fog. Generally speaking, fog on the Front Range of Colorado and in the foothills in particular while not rare, is also not a common every week occurrence. Colorado’s quick moving weather systems often mean that storms move in and out of the Front Range with speed. The back end of these weather systems often leaves us with beautiful clear blue skies and little in the way of lingering clouds, fogs or moisture.
This past week has been an exception to that rule. One slow moving system after another has blanketed the Front Range with fog, rain and snow depending on elevation. At first blush it’s easy to want to make a back handed comment about another cloudy, rainy day but it’s also apparent that it’s a good idea to take advantage of the unsettled conditions in the field while one can. 
I spent the past few days in the foothills just west of Boulder taking advantage of the foggy conditions. Walker Ranch Open Space on the backside of the Flatirons was just about perfect on Sunday morning. Thick fog enveloped the slopes on the backside of the Flatirons as well as the South Boulder Creek drainage making for countless opportunities to photograph the moody landscape. I could spend hours photographing in conditions like those at Walker Ranch Open Space on Sunday morning. There were literally new opportunities and compositions by the minute as I stood high on a ridgeline observing and photographing the conditions.
So while part of me was yearning for a little sunshine, the photographer in me was happy to be out in less than ideal conditions taking advantage of the conditions mother nature had in store.
