The promise of a foggy morning on the evening weather bulletin had me all excited and ready for an early morning alarm call.
The reason being that fog in our part of North Wales tends to flow in from the Irish Sea and fill up the low lying farmland in the Vale of Clwyd, which acts like a funnel between the high ground of Snowdonia to the west and the Clwydian Range of somewhat gentler peaks to the east.
Whether or not you can get above the fog is open to question, but definitely worth attempting as the sight of a rolling sea of mist lapping up the slopes of the Clwydian Range is not to be missed.
So I arrived at the Pen Barras car park inbetween the twin peaks of Moel Famau and Foel Fenlli hardly able to see where I was going, but fortunately for me I know these two mountains very well, and I knew that the best view (if there was one) would be from the side of Foel Fenlli looking northwards along the line of the Clwydian hills as they marched towards the North Wales coast, with Moel Famau and its famous ruined Jubilee Tower, being a focal point for my composition.
Climbing up Foel Fenlli, weighed down with LowePro rucksack and tripod, I was soon clear of the fogbank and looking out over a spectacular sea of swirling mist.
Quickly setting up my camera gear, complete with lens heater to keep the condensation at bay, I was able to start shooting the 1000+ frames needed to create this time lapse video just as the sun rose, catching the summit of Moel Famau and then slowly lighting up the landscape before finally setting a lovely pinkish glow onto the roiling vapour below me.
In the end I was able to spend three quarters of an hour filming the spectacle before the fog rose in a huge wave and overwhelmed my chosen vantage point, bringing the session to a rather soggy halt.
So it was a gentle climb back down Foel Fenlli to my car and the short drive home for breakfast, buzzing with what I'd just had the priviledge of witnessing and capturing in this time lapse video.
Filename - clwydians fog timelapse 01
Camera - Canon EOS 6DMK2
Lens - 24-105mm zoom @ 24mm
Exposure (start of sequence) - 1/15 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Exposure (end of sequence) - 1/160 sec @ f/4, ISO100
Filters - 2 stop neutral density graduated filter used to reduce the brightness of the sky relative to the foreground.
Shooting interval - 2 seconds
Software - Adobe Lightroom and Premiere Pro
Music - 're The Ocean' by Andy Litherland
Location - Foel Fenlli, Clwydian Range, North Wales
This clip - HD 720p, 30fps (4k and 1080p HD formats also available)
Clip duration - 45 seconds
All content copyright © Howard Litherland 2009-2024 unless otherwise stated.