{"id":4548,"date":"2012-02-28T06:24:15","date_gmt":"2012-02-28T13:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=4548"},"modified":"2026-03-27T08:08:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T13:08:01","slug":"in-a-fog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2012\/02\/28\/in-a-fog\/","title":{"rendered":"People, Birds And A Sea Star In A Sea Fog"},"content":{"rendered":"

While I prefer to have beautiful morning sun, photographing in fog can be quite fun too.<\/p>\n

During the winter months sea fog can roll onto the shore of Fort De Soto<\/span><\/a> and it doesn’t usually show up on radar.<\/p>\n

\"The The sun was trying to break through the fog, Fort De Soto County Park, Florida – Nikon D200, handheld, f5.6, 1\/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 300mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After driving for 45 minutes to get to the beach I often felt like it would be foolish to turn around without taking a shot so I would walk the beach with camera in hand. Besides it is difficult to tell how quickly the fog will burn off.<\/p>\n

The glowing orb in the photo above is the sun through a thick fog bank.<\/p>\n

\"PeoplePeople and birds in the fog on the beach ~ Guess they were ignoring the “Do Not Feed the Birds” signs – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/2500, ISO 400, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

The fog muffled\u00a0the sounds, I remember I could barely hear the waves lapping the shoreline the day I took these photos, the cries of the gulls sounded distant and the fog on my skin felt like dew drops.<\/p>\n

I had remembered to open the windows of my vehicle while driving to the fort so my camera and lens were the same temperature as it was on the beach, that helped to reduce any fogging on my lens.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Herring Gull in a fog – Nikon D200, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

When photographing in a fog I like to be close to my subject to minimize the softening effect of the moisture laden air. I sand-crawled up to this adult Herring Gull just inches at a time and then raised my lens to photograph the subject.<\/p>\n

\"LaughingLaughing Gull preening in the fog – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 400mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Not too far from the Herring Gull I found this Laughing Gull preening where the gentle waves were being\u00a0pushed onto the sand. Despite the thick fog I was able to get a catch light in the bird’s eye even in this funny pose.<\/p>\n

\"Ring-billedRing-billed Gull resting on the sand – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/1250, ISO 250, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 340mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

Between the Gulf and a tidal lagoon there was a spit of hard packed sand where I found this resting Ring-billed Gull, how could I resist taking its picture? Some people won’t bother to photograph gulls because they are common, I guess I don’t fall into that group. I like to photograph them.<\/p>\n

\"GrayGray Sea Star in a lagoon – Nikon D200, handheld, f6.3, 1\/350, ISO 500, Nikkor 80-400mm VR at 145mm, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

After photographing the birds on the beach I prowled in and around the mangroves at the edge of the tidal lagoons and found this huge Gray Sea Star, it was about the size of a dinner plate. I wish I could have used more depth of field to get the tips of the arms sharp too, but I had to work with the light I had.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I didn’t turn around to head home when I saw the thick sea fog that morning, if I had I\u00a0would have missed photographing\u00a0some of these beautiful things and the memories of wandering in a fog.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my photos from Fort De Soto County Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m glad I didn’t turn around to head home when I saw the thick sea fog that morning, if I had I may have missed photographing some of these beautiful things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":134017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1299,27,25,704,188,2000,410,1302],"tags":[1589,4039,1303,4040,4175,8487,3984,5531,3539,521,4264,4317,3995,4160,156,4316,4019,4156,4468,8488,4065,8489,4319,4318,6987,4190],"class_list":["post-4548","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-herring-gulls","category-avian","category-florida","category-fort-de-soto-county-park","category-laughing-gulls-gulls","category-pinellas-county-florida","category-ring-billed-gulls","category-sea-stars","tag-herring-gull","tag-beach","tag-beach-walkers","tag-feeding","tag-fog","tag-fog-bank","tag-foggy","tag-gulf","tag-gull","tag-gulls","tag-larus-delawarensis","tag-larus-smithsonianus","tag-laughing-gull","tag-leucophaeus-atricilla","tag-low-light-2","tag-people","tag-preening-2","tag-resting","tag-ring-billed-gull","tag-sand-crawled","tag-sea-fog","tag-sea-star","tag-sea-stars","tag-starfish","tag-sun","tag-sunrise"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/herring-gull-fog-mia-mcpherson-5368.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-1bm","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13782,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/01\/25\/four-intimate-gull-portraits\/","url_meta":{"origin":4548,"position":0},"title":"Four Intimate Gull Portraits","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I like gulls. I especially like being able to see them up close when the opportunities arise and will take advantage of my close proximity by taking portraits of these beautiful but often disliked birds.","rel":"","context":"In "American Herring Gulls"","block_context":{"text":"American Herring Gulls","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/gulls\/herring-gulls\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Peaceful Laughing Gull portrait, Fort De Soto County Park, Pinellas County, Florida","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-portrait-mia-mcpherson-5874.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/laughing-gull-portrait-mia-mcpherson-5874.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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