White-crowned Sparrow in morning haze
A lot of people believe that “chamber of commerce” weather is the best for photography, so they don’t get out in anything but crisp sunny light. We have an abundance of such light here in AZ – a lot more of it than I really like. So, I rejoice on those rare occasions when there’s enough moisture in the atmosphere to create a little early morning haze, or better yet (and even rarer) some actual fog.
These conditions will soften everything and allow the photographer to show more detail that might otherwise be lost to deep shadow. It will also act as a diffuser of more distant objects and render backgrounds much softer than under “normal” light.
This White-crowned Sparrow was photographed at my usual haunt: the Water Ranch in Gilbert, AZ. Note the softening effect on the background and the openness of the normally shadowed underside of the sparrow as a result of the morning haze.
Green Heron on a foggy day
This Green Heron was also photographed at the Water Ranch, but on a different, very foggy day for AZ. The fog is so heavy here that it has taken a toll on plumage detail, but I thought that was a good tradeoff for the total obliteration of the busy background I’d otherwise have recorded.
When shooting in these conditions you might find it necessary to adjust the color temperature on any images to avoid the shot looking too blue. But if you do add warmth in the raw conversion with the color temperature slider be careful not to overdue it and lose the feel of the weather, or worse make the image look completely false. This is an excellent reason to be shooting raw and maximizing the benefits of digital.
