When to go shooting...

Harrington

At SmugMug, we've desired to get a great pano of the San Francisco Bay from Mt. Tamalpais to print at our headquarters. We also want to do some time lapse photography when we're up there. We want to take it in the early morning before the sun rises and have some fog but not too much fog where you can't get a shot. We went up last year in August for our first attempt. We had decent conditions, but our main camera we were using, an H3D failed on us. I took this shot with a 1D Mark III, but we are looking for more pixels and no stitch lines.

So we have decided to do a retry. We think the conditions will be best in August. We want some fog, but not too much fog in the early morning before the sun rises. We ideally would want skyscrapers peeking through the really low lying fog. When in August would be best to go? Now, mid or late august? Does anyone know how track the weather and know what the fog is going to be like? Are there any good webcams in the City? We are on standby to go up there any day now, since we're less than an hour away. Can any local bay area dgrinners give us some advice. If you're in SF, you could tell us how the weather looks when the fog rolls in during the evening.

Thanks for your help!

schmoo

Hey Kevin! Sitting in the conference room right now looking at the awesome pano of downtown, I don't know how you'll top that! But I have been keeping my eyes peeled for that kind of fog, too: The low-lying ones with buildings sticking up through the middle.

The only resource I know of is the SFgate fog forecast. Webcams would be awesome, and my ears are open, too.

Hows this one? http://webmarin.com/ They say it updates once a minute from Marin, but I wonder if anything is visible pre-dawn.

BTW I also moved this thread to the Locations forum so people will find this better.

Harrington

Thanks Schmoo, I totally forgot to ask you, sorry about that!

schmoo

Nah no worries, I'm a raw n00b. I do know there are tons of Bay Area photogs on Dgrin who will have many more seasons of fog knowledge to share, once they see this thread

Cygnus Studios

Harrington wrote:

At SmugMug, we've desired to get a great pano of the San Francisco Bay from Mt. Tamalpais to print at our headquarters.

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I have a client that also wants this shot, and I want one too. The fog report for the city is misleading in some ways. While it may be semi clear in the city, the fog, smog and haze between the city and Mt Tam can be quite different.
Try this for weather reports It really is a crap shoot at best.

Harrington

Cygnus Studios wrote:

Don't feel like the Lone Ranger. I have a client that also wants this shot, and I want one too. The fog report for the city is misleading in some ways. While it may be semi clear in the city, the fog, smog and haze between the city and Mt Tam can be quite different.
Try this for weather reports It really is a crap shoot at best.

Thanks for the advice! I'll be sure to keep my eyes on the noaa.com forecasts for Mt. Tam this month.

Andy

It took us 11 attempts to get The SF Pano Pre-planning and maximizing the odds are great, but the best advice I can give going into such a shoot like this is to expect the conditions to not be good. Be surprised if they are - and be persistent