Adrift: 2 Years Of Patience Make One Incredible Timelapse Of Foggy San Francisco

Adrift is a breathtaking timelapse film created by Simon Christen, the same guy who brought us the incredible 'The Unseen Sea' from a couple of years ago. Adrift is what Simon calls his "love letter to the fog of the San Francisco Bay" and what a love letter it is. Over the course of two years, Simon waited for perfect atmospheric conditions to capture fog rolling down the Marin Headlands and into the SF Bay. Shot entirely at sunrise, this required Simon to be on top of weather conditions at all times and ready to go very early in the morning to make the trek to the headlands. Says Simon:

"The weather conditions have to be just right for the fog to glide over the hills and under the bridge. I developed a system for trying to guess when to make the drive out to shoot, which involved checking the weather forecast, satellite images and webcams multiple times a day. For about 2 years, if the weather looked promising, I would set my alarm to 5am, recheck the webcams, and then set off on the 45-minute drive to the Marin Headlands.

I spent many mornings hiking in the dark to only find that the fog was too high, too low, or already gone by the time I got there. Luckily, once in a while the conditions would be perfect and I was able to capture something really special. Adrift is a collection of my favorite shots from these excursions into the ridges of the Marin Headlands."

An absolutely awesome watch!

Via David Huff

Mike Kelley's picture

Michael Kelley (mpkelley.com) is a Los Angeles-based architectural and fine art photographer with a background in digital art and sculpture. Using his backgrounds in the arts, he creates images that are surreal and otherworldly, yet lifelike and believable. A frequent traveler, Michael's personal work focuses on the built environment of unique

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14 Comments

Definitely amazing! For once, putting "incredible" in the title, does not disappoint!

LOL. Thanks, Nathan. I try to never get too outrageous in the titles.

That was beautiful.

simply amazing!

Unreal! Gorgeous!

fantastic! my one critique is that i wish the video was a bit slower in order to really absorb the movement but simon did an awesome job. that's absolutely gorgeous. it's incredible how the fog flows like water, finding the path of least resistance. and the ending is perfect. i loved the anticipation as the fog begins overtaking the mountain. great job!

If it would play in a Cinema a would definetly go in for 5€.

Amazing

Wow, that was incredible. Just gorgeous, and that score worked perfectly; got chills at sunrise (2:04).

beautiful, absolutely love it! your patience and talent produced amazing results!

Beautiful...

It is amazing how you captured the fog like a the moving sea. It changes how one might view the fog in the future. Beautiful.

Wow! Each and every frame in that time lapse would be an instant fave on for example Flickr. Amazing stuff!

Best timelpase ever!!!..

So beautiful. You stopped an entire office of editors from working to watch....