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Aaron Meyers  > Art & Architecture > Man Made
My photos of art, architecture and those beautiful things that man has made!
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Aaron Meyers > Into the Fog
Foggy Sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge
Slacker Hill, San Francisco, California

There's a somewhat unwritten rule pertaining to fog at the Golden Gate Bridge that low fog never occurs two days in a row. Well, never say "never"! Almost every day for a week I woke up at 5am to check the fog and either go back to bed or drive up to San Francisco. This particular morning was the second one in a row that I hopped in the car and met Alan in San Francisco. The previous morning I witnessed a much lower fog from Hawk Hill. On this morning, by the time I crossed the bridge, Alan had already warned me that the fog was both a bit high and also really nice. I parked my car, still immersed in fog, threw on a number of layers of warm clothes, and began the huff up the half mile hike to the top of Slacker Hill. It was interesting to watch the fog disappear and the temperature rise about 15° as I walked. Off came the layers.

The fog rose and fell slightly as the sun rose but it stayed near the tops of the two Golden Gate Bridge towers. It was slightly higher than I would have liked but the clouds in the sky kept my hopes up for a beautiful morning. Sure enough, Mama Nature did not disappoint. At twilight the clouds began to glow pink and orange and as the sun got higher in the sky the clouds bursted with pink and red color. I came home with so many photos I was happy with that I didn't even know where to begin!

I chose this photo from earlier in the morning because of a couple of reasons: First, the glow in the fog was still fairly prominent. This was also about as low as the fog got and you can get a bigger glimpse of the two bridge towers and the city hiding in the background. Some color had started streaking into the sky but a couple of stars can still be seen in the upper right. A car and a biker made their way up Conzelman Rd as my shutter remained open for this 20 second exposure. It was a beautiful morning spent with Joe Azure, Jim Patterson, Alan Chan, Jared Ropelato, John Harrison and a number of other photographers. The saddest part of the morning was having to pack up early and head to my 9am meeting in the South Bay (I managed to get to the meeting at 9:02am!).

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
31mm, f/7.1, 20 sec, ISO 200
HiTech Filters
Aaron Meyers > Peek-a-Boo!
Fog Over Golden Gate Bridge
Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California

Back in March the weather conditions were perfect for low fog. After checking the conditions the previous night and getting a few emails from some other photographers I met up with Andy and Willie and we carpooled up to Hawk Hill. We picked up Alan (I think?) on the way. Full car. Full was the keyword for the morning because when we got to Hawk Hill we realized that pretty much every other Bay Area Photographer had gotten up too! We ran into Jim Patterson, Joe Azure, Andrew Louie, Darvin Atksinson and more! 

The fog was at a beautiful level on this morning. It rose and fell just above and below the deck of the bridge. In the background the lights from the Bay Bridge could be seen peaking out from above the cloud layer. The tops of some of San Francisco's most iconic buildings made an appearance. That's what I loved about the fog on this morning -- it seemed to be playing a peek-a-boo game with us. Maybe a little hide-and-go-seek too! 

The next morning proved to be another beautiful one, with mostly low fog and beautiful high thin clouds that lit up at sunrise. It turned out to be a wonderful 2 days of shoot. Also has been mostly my last 2 days of shooting for the past month and a half. I don't know where the time has gone but I've just been busy and not able to get out. I finally have a couple low key weeks where I might be able to get out, if the weather cooperates, before my summer schedule gets busy again!

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
70mm, f/10, 30 sec, ISO 250
Aaron Meyers > Packer Up
SF Skyline Lit up for the 49'ers
Twin Peaks, San Francisco, CA

When the San Francisco Giants won the World Series this past year the entire city bathed itself in orange to celebrate the victory. Various buildings lit up the city skyline in orange. When Willie texted me to say that the city was bathed in Orange, Gold, and Red for the 49'ers playoff game I knew I had to make it into the city! Only there was one hitch: my roommate and I had just invited her parents over for dinner to see the apartment for the first time. With a sigh and "If you're not home by 7pm I'm throwing your camera gear out the window while you sleep" I was granted permission to go!

Willie and I made our way over to Twin Peaks. This was my first time here and we arrived early and walked around taking in the sights. There are a number of curvy roads that lead up to Twin Peaks and we wanted to use the winding roads in our photos. The plan was to first stay wide angle and include the winding roads while there was still some light and then throw on the telephoto  lens as blue hour started to peak and focus on the colorful buildings. 

I made the prediction earlier in the evening that the Beacon might make an appearance tonight and sure enough it did! They couldn't turn the crown jewel on at 5pm during the holidays but they could for a sports team?! Don't question this, I was happy it was on! As the sun went down and blue hour kicked in the orange and gold lights became more evident. Blue hour came and went before I really knew it (perhaps it was only about 5-10 minutes long). 

I included Market Street, City Hall, Coit Tower, the Transamerica Building, and just a smudge of the Bay Bridge to commemorate the 49'ers kicking the Packers tuchases (yiddish for BUTTS)! You can also see that the tops of the Embarcadero Center buildings are lit in interlocking red and gold, just to the right of the Transamerica Building. What a neat sight!

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF:
112mm, f/11, 5 sec, ISO 200
Aaron Meyers > Lone Star City
Potrero Hill: 19th St and Texas Ave
San Francisco, California

One of the classic holiday shots that every SF photographer should have is the Potrero Hill cityscape. The beautiful S-curve of highway 280 draws the eye right into the city and certain buildings are lit up with beautiful holiday colors. The star on top of the Transamerica Building tops it all off. 

Zack had just received his brand new D600 and wanted to give it a try. We drove on over and arrived early at the corner of 19th St. and Texas Ave (thus where part of the name "Lone Star City" comes from). We were the first photographers to arrive but I knew that wouldn't last long. In all there were 4 other photographers that joined us. For almost the whole time we were able to stand in the middle of the road and direct cars around us. It was pretty fun watching the cars weave in and out of photographers. So nice of them! 

I wanted to choose a composition that included as much of the holiday lights as I could, without showing *too* many buildings and making everything small. I also didn't want to put the S-curve too close to the edge of the photo. Thanks to a number of other photographers who have shot this in the past I knew that Caltrain often crossed under the highway and every time a train passed by I would frantically click away, adding the trains light trails to the photo. I also got lucky when 1 car and a truck decided to change lanes on the highway, providing beautiful blinking lights on the S-curve! 

Happy holidays!

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF:
112mm, f/13, 30 sec, ISO 100
Star shot at f/16
No Filters, No HDR
Aaron Meyers > Into the City
Holiday Lights along Pier 7
San Francisco, California

Every year for the holidays there's a special treat in San Francisco: several of the buildings outline themselves in lights and a light on top of the Transamerica Building is turned on. It makes for a very beautiful cityscape! The best time to photograph the city skyline is at "Blue Hour" -- that half hour after the sunsets when there's still some color in the sky but all the harsh light from the sun is gone. Unfortunately the Transamerica Building wasn't turning their crown jewel on until blue hour had ended and the sky was dark.

Through some sleuthing I was able to get in touch with someone at the Transamerica Building and request that the Beacon be turned on an hour early on this particular evening. Everything seemed to be in place for the blue hour shot and Willie, Andy and I left work early and drove into the city. We met up with Alan and made our way over to Pier 7.

The lights along the Embarcadero Center buildings came on before the sun had even set. If the Beacon atop the Transamerica Building would come on we'd be in luck for a great night. We setup our cameras along the pier and waited for the light to come on. And waited. And waited. 5pm came and went. Turns out that the guy who was supposed to turn the light on at 5pm forgot and it didn't come on until 6pm, well past Blue Hour. With a little blending you get the idea of what we were hoping would happen naturally.

Interestingly Pier 7 is apparently too close to the Transamerica Building for the light on top to turn into a nice light-star like the rest of the lights in my composition. Stand further away from the Transamerica Building and you get a beautiful star. 

I chose a slightly off-symmetrical composition so I could include the outlined Embarcadero Center buildings. 

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
24mm, f/11, 13 sec, ISO 160
No Filters, No HDR
Aaron Meyers > City's Embrace
Sunrise Over Golden Gate Bridge
Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California

Waking up at 5am on a Saturday morning is never fun. Instead of staying all warm and cozy in my nice bed I was up and out the door to meet Willie and Alan to photograph sunrise. On the drive to San Francisco we noticed some really nice thin clouds in the sky and we had a feeling it would be worth the early wake-up! 

There was a slight debate about where to photograph the sunrise. The clouds were located to the north east of the city and we decided to plant ourselves west … that meant crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and heading over to Hawk Hill. Although we had arrived early, we got out of the car and saw that clouds already had a beautiful purple glow caused by the lights from San Francisco. Racing to find a spot we setup our tripods and started clicking away. Boy were we in for a treat! 

Photographing while the sun was below the horizon enabled us to capture this scene with the combination of the city lights, the beautiful red glow of the bridge, and the warm colorful tones in the sky. As the sun rose closer to the horizon, the lights in the city faded, the bridge turned dark, and the clouds lost their purple glow. And then they lit up! First slight oranges and yellows were visible, then brilliant pinks and reds. As the sun peaked itself over the horizon the color faded and tule fog began to roll in. Our early morning wake-up was worth the beautiful morning!

Despite the explosion of color towards the latter part of the sunrise, I decided I liked my earliest photographs the best. Here the city lights are visible, the bridge has its wonderful golden hue, and the water reflects the light. I also chose a 2x1 panoramic crop because it limited the amount of noise above and below the photo (empty sky above and trees below). I named this photo "City's Embrace" because I like the way that the bridge hugs the city. 

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
24mm, f/9, 1/3 sec“, ISO 250
HiTech 0.9 Reverse ND Grad
Aaron Meyers > Dancing Gateway
Fog Over Golden Gate Bridge
Marin Headlands, California

Fog on this particular morning was quite the surprise. Alan, Willie and I met up in San Francisco with the original idea of shooting a cloudy sunrise somewhere in San Francisco. By the time we arrived in the city the clouds had moved northeast and we decided to cross the Golden Gate Bridge to find a westerly spot to photograph. As we crossed the bridge into Marin we started to get excited -- there was a small layer of fog forming and we hoped it would keep coming in. We stopped at Battery Spencer but decided to keep driving. 

For the last 6 months Alan had an idea of trying to shoot a low fog photograph with the 2 towers aligned. The only problem is that you have to hike for quite a while to make it to the location and most people don't wake up early enough. Fortunately for us we had arrived much earlier than anticipated and if we booked it we would make it before sunrise. By the time we arrived at Alan's spot a much denser fog had rolled in and started covering most of the bridge. 

We were all pretty excited as we began shooting. Looking at the photos in our cameras showed a beautiful glow in the fog, some nice purple and blue tones, and the wonderful bridge. We shot the bridge with the 2 towers aligned first and then later moved back and to the right to shoot the bridge with a slight angle. Blue hour only lasted about 10 minutes and we ran around like crazy men trying to shoot different compositions. Ultimately I liked the slightly non-aligned photo the best, showing more of the bridge and giving insight into how the fog covered and exposed the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge. I titled this "Dancing Gateway" because I like the way that the fog seems to dance in and out of the bridge.

Our morning concluded with a beautiful sunrise as the clouds lit up in beautiful oranges and reds. 16 photos stitched into a 230 megapixel image were required to fit the entire scene in. One day when I have time to stitch the photo together properly I might even show you what it looked like!

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED-IF AF-S VR
220mm, f/11, 30 sec, ISO 160
Aaron Meyers > Summer's Blanket
Fog Over Golden Gate Bridge
Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California

Hopefully as each year passes by, we, as photographers, learn from our past mistakes and in turn become better photographers. A year ago I left things up to chance. Today, most of my photography is planned: I've learned to check weather forecasts, watch the "WunderMap" to follow cloud patterns, and even tried to understand what makes the low marine fog that we want so badly. I learned to check the SF webcams before I go to sleep and made a great new friend who could check the fog from his bedroom window and tell me if I should go back to bed or not (thanks Alan!). Last year I butchered a shot from here. This year I vowed to get it right!

The night before this particular morning I had checked both the weather and the webcams and text messages about the following mornings fog started rolling in. I was so excited that I actually woke up *before* my 4:15am alarm! Alan almost instantly messaged me to tell me: "get up here, it's going to be amazing! EVERYONE is coming!" I arrived early, ran into Yan and began taking photos. Alan and Wilson arrived shortly after and we started trekking up to Hawk Hill. I also ran into Jim Patterson, Joe Azure, David Yu, and Della Huff, who are all great local photographers!

The fog on this morning was pretty much a dream come true! The fog was just above the bridge deck when I arrived and throughout the sunrise I watched the fog move lower and lower. By 8am the fog was completely gone! I photographed the bridge from several locations on the road to Hawk Hill and had so many great photos that I had trouble deciding which was my favorite. 
I chose a photo from the blue hour of sunrise (which is really only about 10 minutes), when the sun was still somewhat low and the sky had purple tones to match the fog. A couple minutes later and the sky started to turn light blue, orange, and red, washing out the lights of the city in the background. I experimented with different aspect ratios of either 2:1 or 3:1, and found that a slower shutter smoothed out the fog while a faster shutter left more texture and bumps. Ultimately I chose quicker shutter speed of 10 seconds and a 2:1 crop so that I could include as much of the amazingly textured fog as I could.

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
29mm, f/11, 10 sec, ISO 64
No Filters
Aaron Meyers > Birthday Girl
Golden Gate Bridge, 75th Birthday Fireworks Celebration
Slacker Hill, Marin Headlands, CA

For most people living in the SF Bay Area, the Golden Gate Bridge is one of those beautiful things that always takes our breath away, no matter how many times you can see it. For photographers, it holds an even deeper appreciation as we both love the challenge and beauty and hate frustration of not getting "the shot". Interestingly, despite living only 30 minutes from San Francisco, I first learned about the 75th Birthday of the Golden Gate Bridge while reading the Alaska Airlines magazine on the way home from my trip to Kauai. The plan was to honor the Golden Gate Bridge with a day of festivities and a fireworks display to finish off the birthday celebration.

There were a lot of decisions that went into trying to capture the GGB fireworks: which side of the bridge do I want to be on, which location on that side of the bridge, how are we going to get there, how early do we get there, do I try to meet up with other photographers, etc. I know that I wanted to be on the Marin side, placing the San Francisco city lights in the background, and that I wanted to be high up, above any fog that might roll in. 

After emails went around with a number of photographers it sounded like a good number of us would be at Slacker Hill. I ended up meeting up with Wilson Ng and my buddy Zack and we left my apartment almost 11 hours before the fireworks were set to go off! We didn't know what parking would be like and we didn't want to risk missing the show! The drive to Slacker Hill was actually quite easy, despite a small detour after finding the main road up was closed. Parking was also easy at that hour: people were coming and going and spots opened up immediately. We huffed and puffed with all our gear: cameras, tripods, food, chairs, beers, extra clothes, etc, and got to the top. Shortly after we arrived, Jave, Alan, and Jared showed up and decided to grill up some amazingly delicious hot-dogs while we waited. A number of other guys, some from a G+ group, also showed up, and then went off in search of greener pastures.

As we waited a number of people noticed there was a bunker a bit closer to the Bridge. off they went to check it out, and when they came back, half the photographers with us took off for the bunker. Shortly after that Alan and Jared decided they were gonna head there to. After a long debate I decided to join them and raced off after them. So much for Slacker Hill! This spot, which was closer to the bridge and further to the west had a better vantage of the city, but it was also more susceptible to fog and was an unknown, as none of us had shot it. An hour and a half more of waiting, a beer run back up the super steep hill, and some more waiting and the show finally began! 

Boy were the fireworks incredible! Not only did they launch from a barge, but they also launched from above and below the bridge! It was quite the spectacular show and a fitting way to celebrate the Golden Gate's 75th birthday!  The Golden Gate Bridge is near and dear to many of us -- we've had some wonderful times, and some frustrating times with her, but like me, many of us continue to have our breaths taken away each time we see her. Happy Birthday old girl!

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
40mm, f/9, 3.3 sec, ISO 200, Tripod
Aaron Meyers > Boatworks
Golden Gate Bridge, 75th Birthday Fireworks Celebration
Slacker Hill, Marin Headlands, CA

The GGB is a special structure for many of the local San Francisco photographers and although I don't get up here as much as I'd like, I always admire the beauty of not only the bridge, but the landscape in which it was built into. Knowing that parking would be limited and photographers would be out for this special celebration I arrived early (9 hours early or so) with Zack and Wilson and hiked to the top of Slacker Hill. Shortly after Jave, Alan, Jared, Carl, and Toby showed up and a number of photographers followed. 

During the time we waited we hung out, got to know each other, grilled some sausages, and eventually started debating if there was a better spot for the fireworks. Alan disappeared and when he came back he swore that there was a better spot. So off Jared, Alan, and I go, down a steep hill and over to a bunker that was lower, further west, and hopefully had a better view. While "better" may be relative, we all decided to stay and shoot from this location instead of the normal Slacker Hill composition.

We had some time to kill before the fireworks and as the sun set and blue hour began I could hear photographers all around me firing away. The color in the sky was behind us but blue hour is always pretty when you're looking at the Golden Gate Bridge. BY the time blue hour began I noticed a lot of boats had gotten into position waiting for the fireworks to start. I thought they might pose an interesting subject for a photo so I dialed the ISO down, set the aperture to f/13 for some decent light-stars, and clicked away. It took 90 seconds to get the exposure right and in that time the boats moved all around, creating an interesting abstract effect of color, movement, and an almost semi-firework in the water. I have another photo with much sharper boats (at a higher ISO and faster shutter) but I thought this was much more interesting. 

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
24mm, f/13, 90 sec, ISO 250, Tripod
No filters used because I was too lazy. I under-exposed slightly to keep the sky from blowing out and then pulled the rest of the photo up.
Aaron Meyers > Christmas Sunrise
SF Bay Bridge
San Francisco, California

For the past couple of years my buddy Zack and I have woken up early and driven to San Francisco for sunrise on Christmas morning. Being Jewish and not celebrating Christmas we're both usually away from our family, our friends are with their family, and the city is completely dead, which is perfect for photos. Unfortunately for us we left my apartment a little bit later than planned and got to Pier 14 just as the light was started to get good. I raced to try to setup my camera, figure out the framing, and start snapping away … then realized I wanted some filters and had to race to put on the Lee Filter holder and filters. All in all - I didn't really get a chance to figure out my composition, how many pylons I wanted, which pylons were the best to include, etc. 

It happened to be low tide (mostly low) so we got a good amount of the pylons showing, and there was enough cloud coverage to provide some color, but it was totally hazy/foggy and made the scene a bit eery. In fact, the light reflections from Oakland didn't come through at all, and I think I didn't get setup in time to capture the light reflections from the bridge. There were a bunch of seagulls flying around the scene too, and you can just make out a seagull on the left-most pylon who happened to sit there for a good majority of the ~6 minute exposure! 

I'm not in love with this photo but I wanted to make sure to capture something from pier 14 before the America's Cup comes to SF and the renovations remove these classic pylons. This is one of the most photographed spot in SF and it will become a thing of the past soon :(

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
32mm, f/9, 376 sec, ISO 640
Lee Big Stopper + HiTech 0.9 Reverse ND Grad
Aaron Meyers > Thread the Needle
Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco, California

Christmas time in SF means a couple special things for us photographers: The Beacon is lit atop the Transamerica Building and 17,000 lights outline the four Embarcadero Center buildings. Because of this I had 2 shots I really wanted to take: 1) the SF skyline from Treasure Island, under the bay bridge (see previous photo), and 2) "Thread the Needle" -- the Transamerica Beacon taken through the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Having already shot the skyline from Treasure Island I needed to go back and get The Beacon in the GGB.

I convinced my friend Zack to leave work and drive up to SF with me. Luckily the traffic was pretty light and we made it to Marin in plenty of time to setup and wait for the blue hour. Zack's D70x wasn't really working so I leant him my D300s while I used the D700. Having been here before I knew that I really wanted ~300mm on a DX body so I was going to have to hope that my 70-300mm lens on the D700 would be good enough and I could just crop it. Unfortunately, the 70-300mm is not exactly the best lens, produces ugly lightstars and didn't take very good pictures. Just as blue hour (or the 5 minutes of it) hit, I asked Zack to switch lenses and borrowed his 80-200 f/2.8 lens, which was MUCH better. 

I tried numerous different compositions, and I even have the typical close crop of this but ultimately I liked including the bridge in this photo. I think it shows more of the scene and puts a little more focus on San Francisco as opposed to a tighter cropping focusing on the beacon. We call this "threading the needle" because the Beacon, which looks like a needle, fits perfectly in the north tower of the GGB. Note that the photo may looks like it's not properly leveled because the bridge appears to go up in the photo … I assure you that this photo is actually level (and I even double checked before/after I took the photo), it's just an illusion due to the angle the photo was taken. 

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF
155mm, f/11, ISO 250, 30 sec, Tripod
Aaron Meyers > Holiday City
SF Bay Bridge and Skyline
San Francisco, California

Willie and I have been wanting to take the now popular San Francisco skyline photo from under the Bay Bridge for a while now. The photo is much much nicer during the holiday time when the lights outlining the buildings are turned on and a bright white light (called The Beacon) is turned on at the Transamerica Building (the triangular building). Willie checked the webcams for a couple nights this week and it looked like The Beacon was on, and I got confirmation from a friend in the city that it was also on (although, she described it as a "blinking light" -- I should have known this was bad information … read more about that).

We left work early and headed out to Treasure Island with plenty of time to find parking, hike up the hill, find "the spot" and then get setup. Unfortunately when US-101 and I-280 merged we hit a HUGE Friday afternoon holiday traffic. We arrived at Treasure Island much much later than planned (almost an hour later), and had to high tail it up the hill and over the Bay Bridge (we were both sweating pretty badly). After hopping the guard rail we actually found the spot pretty easily (just as we were walking over the Bridge a CalTrans truck drove by and screamed over the loud speaker "No photographs from this side of the bridge." We kept walking). We scouted out the area for a while, found our spots and then waited for the light to get nice.

Luckily for us there was an absolutely BEAUTIFUL sunset that night, which makes the photo much more interesting. As the sun went down we could start making out the lights on the buildings, first some random window lights, then the building outlines, and then a light on top of the Transamerica Building. A light … a red blinking light … NOT the white BEACON we were hoping for. In fact, The Beacon *never* showed up for us :( We still came away with a great shot but both Willie and I felt jipped because The Beacon is the icing on the cake of this classic shot. We're going to have to re-attempt it another time :(

Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
42mm, f/16, 30 sec, ISO 125
No filters, NOT an HDR (all from 1 exposure)
Aaron Meyers > Foggy Sunrise
Fog Over Golden Gate Bridge
San Francisco, California

I liked this photo because the light around the south tower (the right tower) is amazing. I'm not really sure why I didn't post this as my original flickr photo -- I think I wanted to originally go with a wider crop (the photo I did post) but decided to them crop it down similar to this shot. I actually prefer this photo now that I already posted the other one :P

Last week Willie and I made an attempt at getting the Golden Gate Bridge with low fog. Unfortunately there was either no fog, too much fog, or back to no fog. This week the fog has been nice and low but we were watching it on the webcams from our homes and not with our own eyes. We decided to wake up early this morning and drive up and hope the fog would cooperate. Luckily, it did … mostly! It was a bit higher than we wanted but it still managed to show enough of the bridge to make the photo kinda interesting. We're gonna keep trying (we even found a better spot to shoot from for next time).

This is a 4 shot stitched panoramic.

Nikon D300s w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S
38mm, f/10, 34 seconds, ISO 200, Feisol Tripod
HiTech 3-stop Reverse ND Grad, and 2-stop ND Grad

A Black and White version of this photo is also available.
Aaron Meyers > Intentionally Gross
Prager Winery and Port Works
Napa Valley, California

A couple friends and I spent a weekend in Napa and on our way back we stopped at Prager Winery and Port Works. They're known for their amazing dessert wines, and also because they've been sticking real and fake dollar bills to their walls since the 1980's. They also have a window that they haven't cleaned since prob. the 1980's, which you see here!
Into the Fog
Foggy Sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge
Slacker Hill, San Francisco, California


There's a somewhat unwritten rule pertaining to fog at the Golden Gate Bridge that low fog never occurs two days in a row. Well, never say "never"! Almost every day for a week I woke up at 5am to check the fog and either go back to bed or drive up to San Francisco. This particular morning was the second one in a row that I hopped in the car and met Alan in San Francisco. The previous morning I witnessed a much lower fog from Hawk Hill. On this morning, by the time I crossed the bridge, Alan had already warned me that the fog was both a bit high and also really nice. I parked my car, still immersed in fog, threw on a number of layers of warm clothes, and began the huff up the half mile hike to the top of Slacker Hill. It was interesting to watch the fog disappear and the temperature rise about 15° as I walked. Off came the layers.

The fog rose and fell slightly as the sun rose but it stayed near the tops of the two Golden Gate Bridge towers. It was slightly higher than I would have liked but the clouds in the sky kept my hopes up for a beautiful morning. Sure enough, Mama Nature did not disappoint. At twilight the clouds began to glow pink and orange and as the sun got higher in the sky the clouds bursted with pink and red color. I came home with so many photos I was happy with that I didn't even know where to begin!

I chose this photo from earlier in the morning because of a couple of reasons: First, the glow in the fog was still fairly prominent. This was also about as low as the fog got and you can get a bigger glimpse of the two bridge towers and the city hiding in the background. Some color had started streaking into the sky but a couple of stars can still be seen in the upper right. A car and a biker made their way up Conzelman Rd as my shutter remained open for this 20 second exposure. It was a beautiful morning spent with Joe Azure, Jim Patterson, Alan Chan, Jared Ropelato, John Harrison and a number of other photographers. The saddest part of the morning was having to pack up early and head to my 9am meeting in the South Bay (I managed to get to the meeting at 9:02am!).

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
31mm, f/7.1, 20 sec, ISO 200
HiTech Filters
Aaron Meyers > Into the Fog
Foggy Sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge
Slacker Hill, San Francisco, California

There's a somewhat unwritten rule pertaining to fog at the Golden Gate Bridge that low fog never occurs two days in a row. Well, never say "never"! Almost every day for a week I woke up at 5am to check the fog and either go back to bed or drive up to San Francisco. This particular morning was the second one in a row that I hopped in the car and met Alan in San Francisco. The previous morning I witnessed a much lower fog from Hawk Hill. On this morning, by the time I crossed the bridge, Alan had already warned me that the fog was both a bit high and also really nice. I parked my car, still immersed in fog, threw on a number of layers of warm clothes, and began the huff up the half mile hike to the top of Slacker Hill. It was interesting to watch the fog disappear and the temperature rise about 15° as I walked. Off came the layers.

The fog rose and fell slightly as the sun rose but it stayed near the tops of the two Golden Gate Bridge towers. It was slightly higher than I would have liked but the clouds in the sky kept my hopes up for a beautiful morning. Sure enough, Mama Nature did not disappoint. At twilight the clouds began to glow pink and orange and as the sun got higher in the sky the clouds bursted with pink and red color. I came home with so many photos I was happy with that I didn't even know where to begin!

I chose this photo from earlier in the morning because of a couple of reasons: First, the glow in the fog was still fairly prominent. This was also about as low as the fog got and you can get a bigger glimpse of the two bridge towers and the city hiding in the background. Some color had started streaking into the sky but a couple of stars can still be seen in the upper right. A car and a biker made their way up Conzelman Rd as my shutter remained open for this 20 second exposure. It was a beautiful morning spent with Joe Azure, Jim Patterson, Alan Chan, Jared Ropelato, John Harrison and a number of other photographers. The saddest part of the morning was having to pack up early and head to my 9am meeting in the South Bay (I managed to get to the meeting at 9:02am!).

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
31mm, f/7.1, 20 sec, ISO 200
HiTech Filters
Into the Fog
Foggy Sunrise at the Golden Gate Bridge
Slacker Hill, San Francisco, California


There's a somewhat unwritten rule pertaining to fog at the Golden Gate Bridge that low fog never occurs two days in a row. Well, never say "never"! Almost every day for a week I woke up at 5am to check the fog and either go back to bed or drive up to San Francisco. This particular morning was the second one in a row that I hopped in the car and met Alan in San Francisco. The previous morning I witnessed a much lower fog from Hawk Hill. On this morning, by the time I crossed the bridge, Alan had already warned me that the fog was both a bit high and also really nice. I parked my car, still immersed in fog, threw on a number of layers of warm clothes, and began the huff up the half mile hike to the top of Slacker Hill. It was interesting to watch the fog disappear and the temperature rise about 15° as I walked. Off came the layers.

The fog rose and fell slightly as the sun rose but it stayed near the tops of the two Golden Gate Bridge towers. It was slightly higher than I would have liked but the clouds in the sky kept my hopes up for a beautiful morning. Sure enough, Mama Nature did not disappoint. At twilight the clouds began to glow pink and orange and as the sun got higher in the sky the clouds bursted with pink and red color. I came home with so many photos I was happy with that I didn't even know where to begin!

I chose this photo from earlier in the morning because of a couple of reasons: First, the glow in the fog was still fairly prominent. This was also about as low as the fog got and you can get a bigger glimpse of the two bridge towers and the city hiding in the background. Some color had started streaking into the sky but a couple of stars can still be seen in the upper right. A car and a biker made their way up Conzelman Rd as my shutter remained open for this 20 second exposure. It was a beautiful morning spent with Joe Azure, Jim Patterson, Alan Chan, Jared Ropelato, John Harrison and a number of other photographers. The saddest part of the morning was having to pack up early and head to my 9am meeting in the South Bay (I managed to get to the meeting at 9:02am!).

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S:
31mm, f/7.1, 20 sec, ISO 200
HiTech Filters
See photo in original gallery.
Camera: Nikon Corporation (Nikon D800) |
more details: exif |
original size: 7194px x 3597px |
Current: 600px x 300px |
Other sizes: S • Medium • L |
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Keywords: car bridge road architecture city hill fog golden deck lights sunrise historic california ridge colors marin headlands landmark san francisco golden gate bridge epic nikon ggb golden gate marin headlands 2013 d800 low fog nikon d800 aaron meyers photography
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