Sasha Mukhamedov // San Francisco, CA
If you’ve been following along on this journey, and specifically this blog, you know that weather has always been a worry for me. Thankfully, I’ve been blessed with great weather on all my shoots; and although I didn’t know it at the time, I was blessed with great weather on this shoot as well.
The morning of the shoot I left my brother’s house at 3:40am, headed into San Francisco to pick up Sasha and my new friend Nathan (whom I had yet to meet), and started the trek to Point Reyes. By 5:30am, the sun was peaking over the horizon, and pre-shoot excitement started creeping in, knowing I was about to get some (hopefully) epic images.
This trip was specifically planned a few months prior, when I had driven out this way with Ellen, and we never found this trip. We had given up literally less than 100 feet away from the tree’s parking lot. I ended up driving back with my family after the photo shoot, finding the tree, and marking it with GPS tracking so I’ll know exactly where it is next time. And this trip was that next time. I fully planned for the same beautiful sunshine, even asking Sasha to pack her favorite sunnies.
At the three-quarter point of the drive, the ambient light started darkening, and I realized that the famous San Francisco/Pacific bay fog was rolling in. Nathan, the only native from the Bay Area in the truck, suggested that there was a chance that the fog blows over in 10 minutes, or that it would stick around all morning. Hoping for the former, we continued on. By the time we reached the parking lot, the fog was so thick that we could barely see 20 feet in front of the truck. Now, I was bit a worried.
We got out, put sweaters on, and started the five minute walk to the tree. Though only five minutes, the 35mph winds and lack of visibility made the trek seem like an eternity. What I did not expect was the cold, in the summer month of June. After reaching the tree, we decided to head back to the truck and wait about 15 minutes and see if the fog might burn off.
Fortunately for me, once my timer went off, the fog was still hanging around. I had never photographed in fog before, and I was a little nervous to try to figure out the exposure for film, but we had made the two hour journey… what’s a little fog between friends?
The fog and wind proved to be the most epic combination. I couldn’t have planned for better weather. I told Sasha to make a pose that was almost as if she was being blown away by the wind. True to form, she struck a pose - but didn’t have to act much, as she gracefully held the stance long enough for me make the image - and before she was blown over.
June 4, 2021
