Many years ago when I first came to Milan, winters were cold and foggy. Nowadays fog in the centre of Milan is quite rare, which is why when I say it was good and foggy the other evening I whipped out to attempt to capture the atmosphere, and to try out a fast 50mm f1.4 lens.
Here, then, are a few black and white photographs of Milan in the fog. Why black and white? First, I like black and white, and second, black and white captures the mood of foggy nights better, or so I think.
There is also an image of the, er, Christmas butterflies in via Paolo Sarpi. Well, they look like butterflies to me, but I think they are supposed to be angels.
Foggy shot one:
Looking in the other direction along via Procaccini in Milan:
And the Christmas butterflies gracing via Paolo Sarpi. The fog had started clearing by this point:
And last, this is Christmas Time, or butterfly time, perhaps:
If more fog envelops Milan, good thick pea souper stuff, I’ll be out there once more to shoot the fog, so to speak.
Another four photos of Milan by night can be seen in this Flickr set: Foggy Night in Milan
For the technical, these captures where shot in RAW, with the camera, an EOS 40d set to black and white, but in DxO Optics, they showed up in colour. I converted them back into black and white adding some DxO magic to try and achieve a good ‘black and white’ look.
Katrin Geilhausen says
Hi Alex,
I came across your site upon googling ‘fog in Milan’.
I am about to embark on a long term photography project involving foggy places. On my first and only visit to Milan it was quite foggy and I was very impressed, and I have subsequently heard that fog is not uncommon there, unlike London (where I live) which has this outdated rep of being foggy/smoggy, but where good proper fog is a super rare occurrence.
Anyway, what I wanted to ask you is this: Even though you say Milan is less foggy than it used to be, could you recommend a time of year during which fog occurs most frequently, so that I can time my next visit accordingly? I am only in the beginning stages of this project, and am thinking that on the long run the most sensible thing to do is contact local metereologists, but I though I’d make a start and your site happened to be the first one I got to. Gotta start somewhere! Your help would be much apprechiated.
Thanks and best regards,
Katrin
Alex Roe says
Hi Katrin,
About the best time of year to come to Milan for fog is December, I’d say.
In years past, the fog was really thick at around midnight and after. It’s not the same no though and the fogs we’ve had this winter have not been pea soupers at all. Being a photographer myself, I have been hoping for some good, thick atmospheric fog, but have not been at all lucky! Two almost decently foggy evenings and that’s about it!
I understand, but don’t really know, that it still gets much more foggy in the area around Milan.
Hope this helps.
Happy fog hunting,
Alex