I took this shot from Stout’s Point on Petit Jean Mountain. I had arrived early to get some sunrise pictures, but an overcast sky prevented that idea from taking shape. As I began thinking about other possibilities, I noticed that a fog had begun to develop in the valley below. Within minutes, the fog grew so thick that the valley floor was no longer visible.
I took several shots of just the fog with the mountains in the background, but they just didn’t provide the sense of depth or drama that I wanted to convey. I began to search from something that would make a suitable foreground subject and found these trees and boulders.
Since my camera was mounted on a tripod and the subject wasn’t moving, shutter speed was not a concern. To ensure the image was sharp from the foreground all the way to the distant mountains, I used the smallest aperture on my 24-70mm lens. I probably could have used a larger aperture, but any softness in either the foreground or background would have made the picture worthless.
Settings: 47mm, 5 sec, f/22, 400 ISO