Quickly making its way around the web is this gorgeous timelapse of the San Francisco fog. This isn’t any ordinary timelapse, mind you, photographer Simon Christen spent over two years capturing, in his words, “the magical interaction between the soft mist, the ridges of the California coast and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge.” If you’ll remember, Christen is the same photographer who created Vimeo’s Staff Pick The Unseen Sea.
Called Adrift, the video is a love letter to the San Francisco Bay Area. Not only did Christen have to make sure the weather conditions were just right, checking weather forecasts, satellite images and webcams to see when the fog would glide over hills, he also had to wake up at the crack of dawn (5am) to drive 45-minutes to get these incredible shots.
Here’s one of his favorite stories, “One of these mornings was particularly memorable. I planned to arrive an hour before sunrise, which meant waking around 4am. When I approached the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, all I could see was the thick fog. I kept driving up the winding road that climbed above the bridge, and finally broke through the fog to find the spectacularly clear sky above with some small clouds drifting by. It was a beautiful, surprisingly warm morning for the season, with the fog horn blowing below. I parked the car, grabbed my backpack and headlamp then started to hike down a small trail to one of my favorite spots. The conditions were perfect. Both towers were peeking out from the mist and slow waves of fog where splashing onto the bridge itself. The lights on the towers illuminated the fog in a way that reminded me of boiling hot lava.
“I set up both cameras, double checked the settings and started shooting. As the sun neared the horizon the clouds above lit up with a vibrant glow. The fog below spilled into the different valleys of the Marin Headlands, caressing the hillsides tenderly, before spilling over the ridges and sinking back into itself. Finally the sun rose, shining its first rays onto the sea of fog below me. The mist lit up golden, casting long shadows onto itself. The scene was magical. I lay in the tall wet grass, watching the spectacle unfold in front of me, in awe. Three hours later I packed up my gear and headed to work.”
Talk about dedication.
