Fog Bows

[Mike Hollingshead]

Thought I'd post this "discovery" the other night. Guessing some others might not have known how easy it is to see these. I sure didn't. I left early(3 a.m.) to shoot low thick fog with stars, but stumbled across some fog bows off some street lights. I then tried walking about 50 yards ahead of my car headlights to see if I could see them that way too. The things are cool as hell if you've never seen them at night.

Street light is behind me and on the right about 50 yards or so. There is a certain distance you get away from the light source and it really comes out for you.

I'm standing about 50 yards ahead of my car looking away from my car. It was highly messed up to see this for the first time. They are that bright. What was perhaps the oddest part, was the very bright light in the middle of it. It looked like a car coming at you in the fog, but it's somehow your car lights reflecting back at you. Some definite photo ops with this. I'm just not sure if it takes a special type of fog water droplet size or what. I know those matter, but not how much yet. Also, the car one was a full halo, all the way around. You could see the white arc right ahead of your feet. Takes a pretty wide angle lens to get it all though. These are at 10mm on my Rebel. If you were to sit in your car, you'd see no clue of that thing out there.

Couple more on here. http://www.extremeinstability.com/08-9-9.htm

 

[Jeremy Ludin]

Holy S&*T! Both are nice, but that 2nd one is phenomenal! Definitely have to give this a go....soon. Only problem is, I have to be to work @ 6 a.m. every morning. This looks like it could definitely be addicting.

 

[Mike Deep]

I was just looking at these on your blog, Mike. Amazing.

The fog around here gets really good by late fall, I'll have to try and look for these.

 

[Chip Redmond]

That is awesome! I bet you get some cool stuff with different hues of lights and what not. Living in a river valley we get alot of fog, that looks worthy of dragging myself out of bed early for! Definitely giving this a shot! Thanks for sharing your find!

 

[Heidi Farrar]

So, anyone want to place bets on how long it takes for a forwarded email of "last photos prior to an alien abduction!!!" surfaces? (Brought to you by those responsible for Inside the Eye of Katrina!!!)


I like 'em. They are pretty other-worldly

 

[Dan Robinson]

I've seen these many times driving in fog. Sometimes you can see them from streetlights.

 

[Travis Stone]

well looks like I have something to do this morning. Nice discovery and use of the camera

 

[Christine Hudnall]

These are pretty darn cool there Mike. I have to agree with Heidi though, especially on the second image, that is a definite 'walk toward the light' kinda image.

Went and looked at the rest on the blog, you did good. What I want to know though is - did you see any children coming out of the rustling field of corn?

You talked about the bright light not being your actual headlights, this makes sense to me, because we are taught, don't use your upper beams in fog, because of reflection back at you. You've just given proof of what they mean!


*Wishing and hoping for cooler temps here in the sauna of Florida*

 

[Stephen Levine]

I've had the fascinating experience of seeing them caused by natural forces.. sun and moon.

One morning while walking on my way to work in N. Texas, McKinney, I saw a complete full fog bow to the west just up the street from me as the sun was rising to my back. Twas awesome.

Also another place I've seen them is on the Coast in Galveston. As ocean fog rolls in, the lowering sun sets part of it into a glowing arc.

 

[Ed Boik]

Slightly related to the fog bows, I remember driving down country roads in the midwest at night and watching the fog pour off the corn (standing 7 ft tall) onto the adjacent roadway and roadside ditches.

Phenominal photos, Mike.

 

[Jeff Smith]

Wow....that's all I can say!

 

[Paul Hadfield]

Rather than start a new thread, figured it would be best to simply resurrect this one. Happy to report that after this morning, I can finally take fog bow off the list of things to score. A few more pics are currently on my blog.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Congrats on the fog bow bag! That is a bright one for day time too. Not sure what it is about the day but it seems hard to get them very bright at all for some reason. Guess it's just a contrast thing since night is, well, so dark compared to one's headlights.

 

[Paul Hadfield]

Thanks, I think I had two things working to my advantage... sun angle for being around 7:40 AM CDT (prior to as well as shortly after, it wasn't as good) and for being just within the very edge of the fog bank. In the first pic on my blog you can see me basically approaching a wall, too far away and all you saw was pillars on the horizon, too far in and it was lost in the filtered mist.

 

[Paul Hadfield]

Unexpected update, I didn't think I had a pair of shots that I would be able to effectively stitch together but I did so there you go, the full effect.