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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
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
Hidden Gems Fog Over Golden Gate Bridge Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California On this particular morning the fog at the Golden Gate Bridge was just at the bridge's deck level. Crossing over the Bridge from San Francisco into Marin County was an eery feeling as I was engulfed in fog at the same time as being able to see the stars above. As I drove up to Hawk Hill I looked down on a beautiful scene below me: the Golden Gate Bridge glowing, San Francisco peaking it's head out above the blanket, and the beautiful curves of Conzulman Road winding towards me. As the sun rose and began washing out the color of the bridge and the city lights I decided to try a number of different compositions and shutter lengths. Here I focused on the fog as it began to blow off from the tree line and disappear as the sun baked it away. Leaving the shutter open for 30 seconds captured the movement as the fog began to dissipate. Above the bridge you can see the fog leaving, beginning to reveal Alcatraz. This was such a beautiful scene I had to post more than one photograph from here! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 48mm, f/16, 30 sec, ISO 64 No Filters
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
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!). 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. Ultimately 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
Marshall's Sunset Marshall Beach San Francisco, California Willie and I went to Marshall Beach a couple months ago hoping to catch a nice sunset above the Golden Gate Bridge (GGB) but came home with nothing. Willie went back and although there was a nice sunset along the coast, again, the GGB stayed gray. Hoping that the 3rd time one of us visited this beach would be the charm I grabbed my gear on Easter Sunday and drove up to Marshall Beach. I arrived about an hour early and was pretty excited. The entire drive up to SF had some beautiful looking clouds and I was hoping it would stay that way. Of course as the sun began to set the fog started to roll in … sorta. There was just a wispy patch here and there. Some bigger clouds rolled in with some boring texture (see the photo above), but nothing too awful. Along the horizon a couple clouds rolled in and I sat there praying that they wouldn't block the sunset. To my horror, some thickish clouds perched right in front of the sun and blocked most of the sun from getting through. Enough light made it to give a slight glow to the clouds and a little bit of recovery in Lightroom brought out the purple and pinks that you see above (I only brought saturation up +5 in this). Trying to figure out a composition for this shot was a little difficult. The area that I had scouted previously and really liked was under water. Low tide was finishing up just as I arrived sunset would be on its way towards high(er) tide. The problem was I didn't know how high it would rise before sunset. There were a couple options for compositions and I ran the risk of choosing some rocks that would either be completely underwater or perhaps completely void of water. Fortunately I chose wisely and the waves covered these 4 sets of rocks just as the sun was setting. I liked that they made a little semi-circular shape, with the rock in the back left getting some spray from the incoming waves. Overall I was pretty pleased with how the photo came out! On my way out I was approached by another photographer, Tran Mai, and we had a nice chat about photography, photo-outings, and places to shoot. Apparently there's a big SF crowd that gets together often and she mentioned she'd include me in the future. I'm excited to meet the crew! Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 28mm, f/14, 1/5 sec, ISO 200 Lee Filter Holder + 0.9 HiTech Soft ND Grad
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
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" href="javascript:openLB(2485667774,'',XLarge,'',1024,512);">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
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
See photo in original gallery.
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