Drewbot • nprfreshair: Simon Christen lives in Oakland and...

nprfreshair:

Simon Christen lives in Oakland and has been pointing his camera across the bay at San Francisco for the past year, taking time-lapse photos of the city. “About halfway through the project, the fog became the main subject,” he writes in an e-mail, “and I tried to find locations to highlight it.”

I will be ordering prints if I can…
My five favorite fog spots:
Mt. Davidson in the evening, when you can watch the fog come in from both the West and the East, surrounding the city
Fish Ranch Road, in the Berkeley hills. If you’re lucky enough to get a low thick fog, you often can get above the cloud cover as you drive these switchback roads. The fog settles between the hills and is as flat as water. The hilltops look like atolls.
West Oakland BART Station in the evening. This might be my favorite view in the East Bay, though not in a traditional sense. If you’re waiting to commute east from San Francisco, take the first train that comes (especially if it’s not yours.) Exit at West Oakland, immediately after you come out of the tunnel. The crisp air on the open concrete platform that reminds me of a ship’s deck is the most refreshing of the day. The fog seething through the Bridge (if there’s none already over the Bay) is a perfect coda.
Driving to the airport, early in the morning, as you emerge from the Tunnel. I never make this drive anymore, but when I was commuting from my parent’s home in Walnut Creek I made this trek every month or so. There’s something about being up earlier than usual which makes you extra perceptive to the little things around you. The fog isn’t little, but the site of it receding as the sunrises is one of the reasons I occasionally miss living in the East Bay.
Taking off from SFO, flying to a northern destination. Planes take off and land at SFO from the south, meaning north-going planes must switchback and buzz San Francisco after takeoff. I’ve only seen this once, but if you’re flying to Portland or Seattle when the fog is thick but low, San Francisco is transformed into an archipelago. The peaks are islands that the clouds buffet against like waves and Sutro Tower pokes through the fog like a buoy.

Simon Christen lives in Oakland and has been pointing his camera across the bay at San Francisco for the past year, taking time-lapse photos of the city. “About halfway through the project, the fog became the main subject,” he writes in an e-mail, “and I tried to find locations to highlight it.”

I will be ordering prints if I can…

My five favorite fog spots:

Mt. Davidson in the evening, when you can watch the fog come in from both the West and the East, surrounding the city
Fish Ranch Road, in the Berkeley hills. If you’re lucky enough to get a low thick fog, you often can get above the cloud cover as you drive these switchback roads. The fog settles between the hills and is as flat as water. The hilltops look like atolls.
West Oakland BART Station in the evening. This might be my favorite view in the East Bay, though not in a traditional sense. If you’re waiting to commute east from San Francisco, take the first train that comes (especially if it’s not yours.) Exit at West Oakland, immediately after you come out of the tunnel. The crisp air on the open concrete platform that reminds me of a ship’s deck is the most refreshing of the day. The fog seething through the Bridge (if there’s none already over the Bay) is a perfect coda.
Driving to the airport, early in the morning, as you emerge from the Tunnel. I never make this drive anymore, but when I was commuting from my parent’s home in Walnut Creek I made this trek every month or so. There’s something about being up earlier than usual which makes you extra perceptive to the little things around you. The fog isn’t little, but the site of it receding as the sunrises is one of the reasons I occasionally miss living in the East Bay.
Taking off from SFO, flying to a northern destination. Planes take off and land at SFO from the south, meaning north-going planes must switchback and buzz San Francisco after takeoff. I’ve only seen this once, but if you’re flying to Portland or Seattle when the fog is thick but low, San Francisco is transformed into an archipelago. The peaks are islands that the clouds buffet against like waves and Sutro Tower pokes through the fog like a buoy.

(via bbook)

Source: NPR