I prefer a wet San Francisco to a dry Manhattan.
July 5, 2013 1:24 PM   Subscribe

"Adrift is a love letter to the fog of the San Francisco Bay Area. I chased it for over two years to capture the magical interaction between the soft mist, the ridges of the California coast and the iconic Golden Gate Bridge."
posted by gman (27 comments total) 25 users marked this as a favorite
 
Very pretty. Reminds me of the planet shots in Solaris for some reason.

As an aside, why do peeps feel it's necessary to insult my home town before they talk about how much they love theirs? When I say I love NYC I don't preface it with a crack about how lousy I think Chattanooga is.
posted by 1adam12 at 1:32 PM on July 5, 2013


I used to live in Pacifica and that's the place to be if you want fog. It's like living in a horror movie set in London when it rolls in. And it is awesome.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 1:36 PM on July 5, 2013 [4 favorites]


1adam12, those comments are an acknowledgement that New York is the default Desirable Place to Be. They aren't insults.
posted by Pistache at 1:45 PM on July 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'd like the time lapse to be slower... it seems a bit too fast for contemplative absorption. Still a lovely piece of work.

And as a person who often feels too warm, this reinforces the idea that I should probably live in SF someday.
posted by weston at 1:46 PM on July 5, 2013


Today brings us back our regularly scheduled July weather: 55 and foggy.

I recognized some of his shots taken in the Marin Headlands. I've never gone up there at dawn, but a lovely day of hawkwatching it is when there's an inversion layer below us - a sea of fog with bridge towers poking through, and hawks gliding by above.

I'm never leaving this city.
posted by rtha at 1:49 PM on July 5, 2013 [10 favorites]


OMG, where's the city?!

Whew, there it is - but for how long?

One year, we did hawkwatch from a nearby hill (Slacker) because road construction prevented access to Hawk Hill. Fog on Slacker was miserable.
posted by rtha at 2:18 PM on July 5, 2013 [3 favorites]


This is amazing. It reminds me of the Hubble Deep Field, in how it makes my hind brain shiver.
posted by lydhre at 2:56 PM on July 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


Some of those shots are phenomenal, particularly the ones where the fog is spilling over the edge like a waterfall.

why do peeps feel it's necessary to insult my home town before they talk about how much they love theirs?

If you are talking about the post title, I'm pretty sure it was a (clever) play on Manhattan, the cocktail.
Both cities are awesome!
San Francisco and NYC are two American cities I'd consider leaving Canada for.
posted by chococat at 3:02 PM on July 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


What is this nonsense? There's no such thing as a dry Manhattan. You make it with sweet vermouth.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 3:51 PM on July 5, 2013


Thank you, that was beautiful. I left SF nine years ago and much has faded, but that made me remember how much I loved the fog.
posted by eggkeeper at 4:09 PM on July 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


It has been so warm this summer that it doesn't feel like hime. I love this city so much and, 18 years after moving here, it still seems slightly fantastic to think I live here. They'll have to take me out of here in a box.

And NY is the only other city that holds any attraction for me as a place to live.
posted by janey47 at 4:46 PM on July 5, 2013 [1 favorite]


What is this nonsense? There's no such thing as a dry Manhattan. You make it with sweet vermouth.

That's why it's called a dry Manhattan, as opposed to a plain-old Manhattan. Likewise, a perfect Manhattan uses both types of vermouth.

Also, it's made with rye, dammit. Not bourbon, not Canadian Club. RYE. As in made from rye grain. Personally, I just stick to Alberta Premium. 100% rye and Mr. Lahey approved.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 5:04 PM on July 5, 2013


Beautiful. I've been up to SF a number of times but I never quite seem to catch the city in its full foggy glory.

The fog is apparently named Karl and it has an Instagram.

why do peeps feel it's necessary to insult my home town before they talk about how much they love theirs?


How is stating a preference for one city over the other an insult? It's not all about you. What a typical New Yorker. (This is more of an insult if you may.)
posted by peripathetic at 5:17 PM on July 5, 2013


I grew up in Monterey which has very similar fog patterns, the main difference being the fog is usually lower (on the ground) and is not backed by as much wind.

After living in Virginia and Ohio, I moved back to California (SF) and during the summer I would giggle that while the rest of the US experienced triple-digit heat and torrential humidity, SF would be 55 and foggy.

I used to think of the fog as akin to the canopy of an evergreen forest, something that nourishes the denizens below and protects them from the inhospitable and dessicating sun. Turns out summer weather in Northern California yields mountain and arctic runoff which surges into the Pacific to produce a near-daily fog layer.

I still giggle when the summer fog rolls in. Either that or I wake up grateful for the meteoroligical sustenance and protection.
posted by mistersquid at 5:38 PM on July 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


One of the great pleasures of my route home from work - north on 280 - in the summers is watching the fog pour over the hills at Crystal Springs reservoir.

The other great pleasure is leaving 100-degree temperatures and arriving home to 60-degree temps. Aahhhhh....
posted by rtha at 5:51 PM on July 5, 2013 [4 favorites]


That was beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes remembering how much I loved living in the Bay Area. I'll be back one day...
posted by number9dream at 5:54 PM on July 5, 2013


Never gets old, I love living here.
posted by bradbane at 7:23 PM on July 5, 2013


Noticed this other video of his on youtube with someone else's music. I thought the music worked really well, especially with shots of the city peeking through the fog.

(First time posting a link from my mobile. Hope it works ok. If not, search for "Simon Christen" and "Electric Whispers" on YouTube. )
posted by marsha56 at 7:49 PM on July 5, 2013


One of the great pleasures of my route home from work - north on 280 - in the summers is watching the fog pour over the hills at Crystal Springs reservoir.

I was thinking of that spot when the thread turned to fog spilling over hills. BTW, that valley is sitting right on the San Andreas fault.
posted by rdr at 7:54 PM on July 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


That's gorgeous. Just another reason why I expect to be packing up and moving west in the next year or two.

So when is the best time to experience the fog? I've been out to San Francisco several times now, (Autumn, Winter and Spring) and have yet to see even a wisp of this supposed fog!
posted by Cat Pie Hurts at 8:20 PM on July 5, 2013


Summer. July and August, especially. "Summer" for us is September/October.
posted by rtha at 8:35 PM on July 5, 2013 [2 favorites]


The only time I was in SF was in June several years ago. Needless to say, I loved it and the morning fog was both astonishing and delightful. I found myself feeling a little sad as it burned off during the day. This is a fabulous video. Thank you for posting it.
posted by Anitanola at 9:51 PM on July 5, 2013


I have a cousin who was born and raised and still lives in Marin County. I was privileged to live south of SF (Santa Cruz) and north of it (Cotati) for a total of six too-short years. I still yearn for that part of California, even though I now live in beautiful (in other ways) Colorado. Meanwhile, my cousin and all his local friends have utterly NO IDEA that they live in one of the most gorgeous, perfect places on earth. To them, it's just where they live. Fog is an annoyance.

I found it easier not to be envious of them living there all their lives when I realized that they don't appreciate it nearly as much as I do.
posted by caryatid at 10:48 PM on July 5, 2013


Such a great video. I am completely in love with the fog in SF and am often confused when coworkers complain that it's not sunny.

Cat Pie summer is good for fog. It's most dramatic when we've had a couple of hot fog free days and it rolls back in on that last afternoon.
posted by oneear at 11:40 PM on July 5, 2013


Beautiful video. The time lapse was just the right speed to show the fog moving like a river. I loved the shot with the city in the distance and the fog coming in from behind the camera and running downhill to all the lights and buildings.

I live in Santa Cruz and we get the same fog but without the wind. I love how it's cool and mysterious (pun intended) in the morning, then sunny in the afternoon, and then the fog roles in again. We'll get a few days without the fog sometimes and maybe it will get hot, and then the fog roles back in to save us. It's fantastic.

Occasionally I'll be up in The City (San Francisco of course). I stayed a week on business in the financial district. From my hotel room, perhaps ten stories up, I could see the flags on top of the neighboring skyscrapers whipped to tatters by the wind, disappearing intermittently behind fast moving fog. The fog is more like a daily storm in The City.
posted by DrumsIntheDeep at 9:34 AM on July 6, 2013


Sure it's pretty ... from above. Try spending 3 months under perpetually grey skies at ~55 degrees with a ceaseless damp wind off the ocean. It's insanity inducing and murder on my garden - the constant dampness brings black soot mildew, powdery mildew, blossom rot, etc.,.

The only upside is watching tourists turn blue in their shorts and tee-shirts because they never got the memo about the need for wool sweaters, scarves and hats when they visit SF in the summer.
posted by echolalia67 at 9:56 AM on July 6, 2013 [1 favorite]


Been going to Chrissy Field/Beach a lot this summer, both to let my dog run in the surf and to just walk around gawking at the views. Most late mornings, the fog seems to break here—right at the Golden Gate Bridge. So you get the damp coolness and the sea breeze with the bridge towers half obscured in fog and all the crazy islands and mountains shining in the sunlight just to the east. And this is the primary main reasons I maintain the unrealistic expectation that I'll get a house in Cow Hollow next time I move, because I want to live in that scene and walk that beach every day.

I spent a lot of time in Pacifia, years ago, and the solid fog was (like in the Outer Sunset) just too much for weeks at a time, although some of the most delightful nights I've had involved standing at the end of the Pacifica pier with a couple of friends, drunk, huge El Nino waves pounding the coast.

It has been so hot this summer/late spring that living on Alameda has felt like Walnut Creek or something. Hot as hell by 11 a.m., little or no fog in the mornings even on the water. But at least when I see the fog swirling over Sutro Tower I know the cooler air will be coming across the bay shortly. Beautiful video.
posted by kenlayne at 1:00 PM on July 6, 2013


« Older Being a mermaid "is a lot more fun than bagging...   |   There never was a golden ratio Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments