Human beings are drawn to warm and dry places. It's in our nature. We like sunset photos. Warm, saturated colors delight us. That's why every landscape photographer knows the best time to take photos is in the magic hour (the hour around sunset or sunrise). The quality of light during this period gives the richest color of a day.
As a photographer, I am inevitably attracted to the magic hour. My heart sank when I saw a cloudy day. (True, there were subjects I could shoot in a cloudy day, but the longing to see the sun is always strong.) Since I do most of my shooting around Northern California coast, I have to deal with another natural phenomena which blocks sun: fog.
Contrary to the stereotypical sunny California, the California coast, like most coasts, is foggy. (You can tell from the number of lighthouses built along the coastline and the Hollywood horror movies it inspired. Where do you think John Carpenter got the idea for his "the Fog"?) Sometimes, the fogginess is almost incomprehensible. I can't recall how many times while I was driving on a perfect clear and sunny hwy 1 I suddenly entered a different world. Everything blocked. I could only see a few feet ahead of me, and it's all grey. I kept driving yet I realized I was trapped. I didn't know where I was going. The air started to feel wet and cold, even salty. I could still hear the ocean, yet I felt I was wrapped by total silence, a silence that even if you scream nobody will hear you.
(How I managed to drive out of that self directed horror movie I had no idea.)
It took me a long time to consider shooting in foggy weather seriously. Fact is, more than 50% of the time the weather will be like this. If I just walk away and wait for a sunny day, I will be wasting a lot of time. Also life is not always sunny. My vision (in life as in photography) will be seriously flawed if I only look at sunny days. That's what photography teaches me.
Contrary to the stereotypical sunny California, the California coast, like most coasts, is foggy. (You can tell from the number of lighthouses built along the coastline and the Hollywood horror movies it inspired. Where do you think John Carpenter got the idea for his "the Fog"?) Sometimes, the fogginess is almost incomprehensible. I can't recall how many times while I was driving on a perfect clear and sunny hwy 1 I suddenly entered a different world. Everything blocked. I could only see a few feet ahead of me, and it's all grey. I kept driving yet I realized I was trapped. I didn't know where I was going. The air started to feel wet and cold, even salty. I could still hear the ocean, yet I felt I was wrapped by total silence, a silence that even if you scream nobody will hear you.
(How I managed to drive out of that self directed horror movie I had no idea.)
It took me a long time to consider shooting in foggy weather seriously. Fact is, more than 50% of the time the weather will be like this. If I just walk away and wait for a sunny day, I will be wasting a lot of time. Also life is not always sunny. My vision (in life as in photography) will be seriously flawed if I only look at sunny days. That's what photography teaches me.
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