Mount Tamalpais Dreamscape

Mount Tamalpais Dreamscape, originally uploaded by Della Huff Photography.

There seemed to be a lid on San Francisco yesterday. The sky was a dull gray, and a near-constant light drizzle dampened the city. I had all but given up on an interesting shoot for sunset, but I thought that despite the high fog layer, that maybe the fog would top out below 2000 feet. So I headed to the "roof" of the Bay Area: Mt. Tamalpais.

The fog was so thick on the way up windy highway one that it was pretty harrowing with all the hairpin turns. Finally, as I headed up Pantoll Road, I broke through the fog, and was treated to an incredible view: a broken sea of fog out over the Pacific, and fog pouring over the hillsides from the inland side, like a giant ladling cream.

Since I arrived right at sunset, I didn't have much time to scout out a location so I headed directly for a location I'd picked out on an earlier visit. I was in luck: that particular ridge wasn't being bathed in fog.

I used a moderately long exposure (13 seconds) to show the movement in the fog. I also used GNDs to balance out the bright sky. I only saw one other car on the top of Mount Tam. Here's the sunset that everyone else in the Bay Area missed!

Canon 5D, Canon 24-70L, f/22 @ 13s, ISO 50. 2-stop soft and 3-stop hard Lee GND filters.