Place: St. James Farm Forest Preserve, DuPage County IL
Date: September 30, 2019
Camera Sony ILCE 6500 (crop sensor)
On this September morning I went for a sunrise photo outing without specific expectation. I was pleased to find patchy ground fog. I love foggy conditions because you never know what photo opportunities might arise.
As the sun came up, the sunlight and the shadows from a group of back lit pine trees projected themselves onto the fog above the trees, creating this almost unreal scene.
Conditions changed rapidly and I had to work fast. To tame the enormous dynamic range I used 3 brackets (1 1/2 stops each) with subsequent HDR merge in LR.

Place: St. James Farm Forest Preserve, DuPage County IL
Date: September 30, 2019
Camera Sony ILCE 6500 (crop sensor)
Foggy Sunrise 2
A few minutes after I took the previous photo I thought the spectacle was over. Walking around to the right I was able to capture this unexpected bonus shot (lesson: it’s not over until it is over). The cone of sunlight is again interrupted by the shadows of tree branches. Photographing from the side creates more of a conventional sunburst effect. This shot also captures more of the surroundings and conveys the mood of the foggy scene.