Fog Waves, Stunning Photos of the Famous San Francisco Fog Blanketing the Marin Headlands

San Francisco photographer Nick Steinberg has captured absolutely stunning images of the famous San Francisco fog rolling in waves that sweep over the Marin Headlands to blanket the valley in between. In the company of other photographers such as Lorenzo Montezemolo, Steinberg spent a great many a chilly night atop Mount Tamalpais to capture these gorgeous images.

Recently in my studies of the area I have discovered something amazing! During the summer months, when the fog is created from high amounts of inland heat, it gets too high to shoot in the bay area (including the Golden Gate Bridge) as it is usually above 1,000′ and the bridge sits at 746′. In addition, since it is coming from the Pacific ocean, the coastline is pretty much unshootable. So the only option is to hit up the high vantage points, one of the best being Mt. Tamalpais, which sits at 2,572′. Mt. Tam allows you to get, “above it all” and is literally heaven on earth as you feel on top of the world or almost on an airplane looking down on clouds. What I discovered from hundreds of trips up there is, when the fog rolls through and is at the perfect height and density, it will create wave-like movements as it contours the land. This is where I coined the term “Fog Waves” as it literally looks like waves that resemble the ocean.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.