For around 10 days, in the middle of January 2026, my town of Bend, OR was locked in a monochrome embrace of fog. While the temperatures in town didn't get above 24F, up on Mt Bachelor people were skiing in balmy Spring like conditions with blue skies and temperatures up to 50F. Now, the snow and ski season has been the worst on record, but that's another story.
I was ecstatic about the fog. It's not super unusual to have inversions during the winter, heck local brewery Deschutes Brewery has a beer named Inversion IPA. The airport may get shut down for a day or two, though I don't believe that happened this time.
The fog coincided with me getting into photographer Adrian Vila who shoots black & white, in square format. He's also known as the Fog Whisperer because he seems to get foggy conditions more often than not. Central Oregon had become a blank, foggy canvas for me.
The first zone I hit looking for images was about an hour away, up near Sisters, OR. I really wanted a shot of the old growth ponderosa pine trees in the fog. I knew there were groves up there and that the spacing between the trees was great, along with wonderful undergrowth that wasn't too busy or chaotic.
On the first day, I snapped the image above. I thought it looked great on the back of the camera, but in reality it seems a little boring. It's possible a little sunlight would have helped, but asking for fog and sunlight is a tall ask. Looking further, it's perhaps the trees that are making it a little dull. Some old growth ponderosa's have beautiful bark that looks like tiger's fur, unfortunately the foreground tree isn't that impressive.
I drove up three more days, hoping to find better trees or a better composition, but unfortunately the fog stayed just a bit too high in the sky each time.
On one of the days though, when there was no fog at ground level, I did spot the composition to the left. With a little light, the beautiful old pondys stood out against the hoar frost needles. I love this shot and think it's my favorite ponderosa image that I've made.
As the days in the fog wore on, I continued to venture out. I went to Smith Rock State Park where the tops of the cliffs were shrouded and I captured the image on the left of this small, gnarled juniper framing the Monument cliff.
Even closer to home, in fact only about two miles away and technically in town, I captured the shapely pine down by the Deschutes River. I vaguely remembered this tree from some time ago, but it looked magnificent in the fog.
Then I made it to Lava Lands. This is one of my favorite local zones, just outside of town, about 20 minutes from home. I love the rugged nature of the lava rock, all the gnarled trees, and when it's clear, the views of the Cascade Range. I knew with the fog there would be compositions galore.
My first thought was to shoot the train tracks in the fog, and I absolutely love the top image. It came out better than I had visualized. The little tree on the right adds just an extra dash of intrigue.
Once I took that, I began to wonder how it would look with a train. As freight trains don't have public schedules and I wasn't about to sit around all day waiting, I let go of the thought. Four days later, however, I was in town when I saw a train leaving, heading south. I U-turned and raced the train the 12 miles to the location and just barely got there ahead of it.
Once that was done, I focused my attention on the gnarled trees in the area. I took a ton of shots and love them all, but the ones above are my favorite.
