Story
This photograph turned out to be a pleasant surprise.
That morning, I had set out with a completely different image in mind. My plan was to photograph the sunrise behind the Benicia–Martinez Bridge. If I had turned the camera in the opposite direction from this tanker, that’s where you would see the bridge.
When I woke up and looked out the window, the sky was covered with clouds. My first thought was that it might not be worth going out. But sunrise photography often rewards persistence. Sometimes a thin ribbon of clear sky appears on the horizon beneath a cloud layer, and when the sun rises through it, the result can be spectacular. You never really know until you get there.
As I drove toward the waterfront, though, it became clear that this morning wouldn’t produce that kind of sunrise. The clouds were solid all the way to the horizon.
Still, I pulled into the parking area along the Carquinez Strait and looked out over the water. That’s when I saw it: the lights of a tanker docked along the shoreline, shimmering across the surface of the water.
Read the entire story in “Stories Behind the Lens” on Substack