Last Day in Salem (Day 2)
I woke up to an absolutely insane amount of fog. Normally that would be depressing when you’re on vacation, but as I said in the previous post it only added to the charm of Salem. It was a bit worrisome though because visibility was very low and I also was concerned about having to take a train to get back to the city and if the train would be canceled. Any other time that wouldn’t bother me because I could always catch another train later in the day but I had to be back in NYC on that particular train because I was going straight from the train station to work. Luckily there were no problems the next day but it did have me worried.
I stuck to walking mainly while I was there. I think the only times I took Uber was to and from the train station in Boston. I wanted to get a box of candy to bring back with me for my co-workers so I went to Ye Olde Pepper Candy Companie and I got two boxes of chocolate, one for the office and one for home. The candy was delicious and I definitely intend to stop there again next time I’m able to go to Salem. On the way there I passed by the Pickering Wharf Marina and got some of the best pics of my trip.
As the picture above shows, that fog was no joke. I didn’t edit it to look that foggy. If anything, I lifted some of the fog so you could see the building behind it. I decided to walk around the marina a bit and take some pictures since I knew that I wouldn’t be able to comfortably photography anything lugging a bag with boxes of candy with me.
This area was so beautiful and peaceful and a photographer’s dream. I’d love to come back here in warmer weather so I can spend a lot more time wandering around. Even though it wasn’t cold when I was in Salem, despite it being the end of December, I imagine it would be really picturesque in the spring or summer.
There are lots of restaurants here with amazing views of the water (obviously). I did want to go to Sea Level Oyster Bar (they even have creme brulee!) but it didn’t happen on this trip. Maybe the next time I’m in Salem I can go and my mom will go with me because I definitely will take her with me. I think she’d like the calmness of Salem. I got a lot of cool fog pictures here but I kept most of them in color. I only do a mix of black and white and color on the rare occasions I do street photograph.
This was the only picture I converted to black and white because I thought with the heavy fog it would look better in black and white.
I took so many pictures of these chairs because I kept photographing them from different angles and then I couldn’t decide how much of the background I wanted in the picture. Did I want a mix of the water and the chairs, or just the chairs? High angle? Low? I think I like the first picture the best but maybe whoever is reading this likes one of the other images better.
One thing that I notice in Salem is that has some absolutely amazing street art. There were so many cool murals that I wasn’t able to photograph them all.
I actually did have to do some heavy dehazing on the first picture (the fog was that thick) and it still doesn’t look as sharp and clear as I’d like, but even the fog doesn’t take away from how stunning these murals are.
Salem was definitely one of my favorite trips of last year. What I liked most about it was the vibe. There were plenty of interesting things to see and places to eat, but it didn’t have that almost overwhelming energy that a big city has. This made it much more enjoyable to wander around and really appreciate what you were seeing instead of that anxiety producing feeling of people everywhere so you feel like you can’t even breathe without someone in your space.
