Whenever the fog appears in Morro Bay, it rolls and tumbles rapidly over the seaside. If it’s heavy enough, it envelopes the entire town.
The sudden arrival of the marine layer is one of my favorite occurrences in this world.
On Wednesday afternoon, I stepped outside and realized the rv park was succumbing to thick glorious fog. I hastily grabbed my camera and my dog Mavis and we began the short trek to the ocean. On most days, Mavis walks me, but my eagerness to photograph the fog, combined with the concern it would dissipate fueled me. Mavis lagged behind with a quizzical look that said, “what’s the rush?”
We made our way along the Embarcadero and I marveled at how the fog diffuses and refracts the light. Next,we hurried along the waterfront and down the piers.
Finally, as the sun was setting behind a diffuse wall of gray, we arrived at the beach.
It was there I realized why I am so drawn to fog.
I’ve long been drawn to black and white photography. Removing color from a scene, simplifies and minimizes the non essentials while highlighting the subjects.
It spotlights the drama and amplifies emotion. One concession is that when someone looks at a black and white image, they know the image does not reflect the real world. Life is in color.
That is, except in the fog.
For the first time, I was struck by how fog impacts color.
Fog desaturates everything it touches. Vibrant primary colors are transformed into a muted gray.
The typically azure California skies and verdant rolling hills fuse together.
For a fleeting afternoon, I was gifted the incredible opportunity to wander and document a monochromatic world.
After dark, the fog remained. I headed back to the water to scout locations for long exposure photos. As I was standing on a small wooden dock, I watched the skies in awe as the fog made its departure. In less than a minute, it rolled away over The Rock at Morro Bay leaving just a small halo around the base. I had no time to fetch, my camera, but did capture the scene with my iPhone (see below).
I converted these images to true black and white, you can see the original “color” files aren’t much different. They have an antique, sepia quality. I’ve included a diptych below to illustrate this.
