Misty hills of Big Sur

Mists in Big Sur

This picture was taken at Big Sur during my vacation trip there with my wife and my in-laws. The picture conveys a mysterious mood, a tranquil scene that hides more than it shows — in a way similar to the enticement of a good belly dance or strip show. The very things we do not see invite is into the picture, draws our attention in, and to the clues that we are given. It wouldn't seem, not to me at least, however, to be a particularly open-ended picture. The mystique and tranquility are reasonably obvious readings of rolling mist-covered hills such as these — it is not necessarily a picture that brings a viewer something new every time they revisit it as much as it is a sure-fire way of retrieving these calm, tranquil feelings it evokes. As for how the tranquility comes about, my feeling is that it is connected to several aspects of the image. First of all, there is not much movement in the picture itself. The picture depicts a pair of hills, not about to move any time soon. But then the hills themselves are shrouded in the mists, are almost hidden away themselves in a soft, rolling gradient of blue tones. All in all, there is very little conflict in the picture — slowly rolling gradients of blue that end in pleasant countryside silhouettes, and what slopes there are, are gentle and tapering off. Nothing that sends the eye off with any speed, and nothing in the picture itself that moves particularly much.

Golden Gate Bridge in sunset

Golden Gate Bridge in sunset

Marin headlands in the sunset

Golden Gate Bridge in the creeping fog

Misty bridge

[CA Roadtrip] As the fog settles and the sun sets…

…everything takes on a reddish hue…

Big sur in the evening fog

A somewhat different perspective from yesterday. As magically and fairy-tale-like as before.

Big sur in the evening fog

A vision from a fairy tale, these rolling hills creeping up under the fog blanket they're hiding under.

O'Farrell in a sunny daze

Sutro Tower disappearing into the fog

The Sutro Tower, our characteristic three-pronged antenna tower, is one of my absolute favourite architectural features in San Francisco. Seeing the tower rising up (or not, as it were) always puts a smile on my face.

Today was foggy. Looking out across the city, the base is easy to see, but not much more.

As for presentation, the stylistics chosen here were equal parts a really flat and dull foggy light, and that I spent a large part of today looking at the SF MoMA exhibition on Henri Cartier-Bresson. Who did quite a bit of colour photography, but in the end decided that shouldn't count to his œuvre.

A container passes San Francisco in fog

Fog City

Today is December 24: it's Christmas eve, the part of Christmas we celebrate most intensely in Sweden. What better picture to publish than a portrait of my home town, dressed in its most charmingly sheer fog negligée?

God Jul — from all of us in the crowd here in my new apartment in the Tenderloin.

Fog descending on Oakland horse

When the Bay fogs up, there is essentially nothing that is too low not to fade away with the milky whiteness of the fog.