Fog on the Forth

Returning from a week in the far north-west of Scotland in late March, I decided to travel via Edinburgh, both to visit some old friends and to try to make some long exposure images of the Forth bridges.

After a happy evening I woke in Strathearn just south of Perth to find my anticipated view of the Ochil Hills completely obliterated by thick fog - but one of my favourite conditions for photography. As I drove south, the sun strengthened so that by the time I was passing the splendidly misleading turn-off to ‘Crook of Devon’, the sky was clear and my heart sank at the thought that I had probably missed the moment.

But fortune was on my side. While the fog had lifted from the hills, the temperature inversion over the Forth Valley was still holding and I was amazed to see just the upper bastions of the bridges peeping through pure white fog.

Turning off to North Queensferry, I descended through the fog, parked at the old pier and eventually succeeded in making this image of the 130 year-old rail bridge.

Mounting my Lee Superstopper, which gives a 15-stop reduction to the normal exposure, I was able to expose this image for 30 seconds allowing not only the water to be smoothed but also catching the drifting fog as it started to lift off the river.

As you can imagine, I tried lots of different compositions over the couple of hours the fog held in. I also think that other people who had stopped to take in this wonderful scene were bemused as they watched me frantically running from one side of the pier to the other trying to catch the fast changing scene before me.

I especially like this image because the combination of atmospheric fog and the use of long exposure seems to capture the sense of the eerie calm that I felt so strongly. The long exposure also adds the dimension of time passing while the fog blocks out the southern riverbank, so that this iconic structure - now a UNESCO World Heritage Site - becomes a ghostly form above the fast flowing waters of the Forth, emphasising its history and the triumph of Victorian engineering it represents

For me, most importantly, the image captures the sheer excitement of just being there that remarkable day.