City

Holiday City

Holiday CitySunset at the Bay Bridge and SF 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)

Giant Night

World Series 2014, Game 2 SF Skyline from Oakland Pier Oakland, California I always love looking at the San Francisco skyline. There’s 2 beautiful bridges, a nice arrangement of short and tall buildings, a baseball park, the Ferry Building, and then the Transamerica Beacon to cap it all off. During the holidays the Embarcadero Center outlines their buildings with white lights. When the SF Giants are in the World Series, however, the entire city turns itself orange in support of their baseball team. During game 2 of the 2014 World Series, Willie, Alan, and I met in Oakland to photograph the orange skyline. We had hoped some clouds might roll in but things were looking very hit-or-miss on the drive to Oakland. Willie and I arrived extra early after severely overestimating the amount of traffic we would hit (we hit none). Turns out that our worries about sunset were pointless because the sky literally exploded with color for almost an hour. The sky turned into a giant orange color just as the Giants scored their first run in the game. As the game progressed the sky turned to an rangy-pink, red, and then an hour later, when we left, still had remnants of red in the sky. For the record, the purple tint to the left side of the water was caused by some lights from the Oakland pier. I remember Willie and Alan saying “whah, the water looks purple over here” as we were packing up. Shooting here turned out to be much more difficult than we had expected due to some crazy wind. Shutter speeds had to be kept shorter to ensure sharpness. Anything longer to blur the water and the lens would shake in the wind :( Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8: 170mm, f/13, 1.3 sec, ISO 640 6 images stitched and cropped to 58 megapixels

Morning Sunshine

Sunrise under the Golden Gate Bridge Kirby Cove, Marin Headlands, California I’m a night person and spend most of my nights editing photos till the wee hours of dawn. I like to get a few hours of sleep, wake up, and get to work. I don’t usually shoot sunrises because living on the west coast means we face the wrong direction for sunrise. Many mornings during the winter I do wake-up early though, to see if there’s low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge. On this particular morning I went to bed early knowing that I’d be getting up before sunrise, not for the fog, but because there would be a gorgeous sunrise in the morning. The GGB actually provides a perfect backdrop as it faces east when you drive through SF and into the Marin Headlands. A number of photographers were in place at Kirby Cove when Willie and I arrived and we had fun running around like crazy chickens trying to find rocks and different angles to use as foreground elements. The Golden Gate Bridge provides a perfect setting for the golden clouds that Mama Nature graced us with. Before the sun came up too high the city lights add to the beautiful morning! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8: 19mm, f/5.6, 5.0 sec, ISO 320 3 photo focus stack w/various shutter speeds

Birthday Girl

Birthday GirlGolden 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

Star Struck

SF Holiday Skyline San Francisco, California One of the reasons why I love San Francisco during the holiday time is that it gets an extra special treat to its skyline: the four Embarcadero Center buildings outline themselves with over 17,000 lights, the Transamerica Building lights their “Beacon” and several other buildings don themselves with festive colors. Trying to get Sammi to get into photography, I brought her on a trip to the Eastern Sierras with Willie and I where she froze her tuchas off. Wanting to give her a better experience I invited her along for our visit into the San Francisco to photograph its skyline. It wasn’t until I offered to take her to the “Boxing Room” for dinner (Southern Creole) afterwards that she agreed! Willie, Alan, James, Sammi, and I met high upon this hill overlooking the city. James had arrived early and setup 5 different tripods all over the hill. Reining him in, we all setup and waited. In previous years the Transamerica Building turned its “Beacon” on at 5pm but lately it’s been turned on at 6pm, almost an hour after sunset. The 20-30 minutes after the sun goes down is called “Blue Hour”, where the sky takes a beautiful blue/purple tone. By 6pm the sky is dark, shadows creep in, and the photos become boring. With high hopes for an early turn on I looked at the Transamerica Building at 4:55pm and saw the light was on! Yes! During the 20 minutes or so of Blue Hour I took a number of compositions. The scene is difficult because the Bay Bridge and its light provide a nice line on the left, but the city beneath it is somewhat boring. The main part of the city lies on the right but I didn’t want to ignore the beautiful lights of the Bay Bridge. To our left were some vines and a building that blocked the view and got in the way of our scene. I decided that a panorama was necessary and I wanted to get to make the city buildings appear slightly closer, so I through on the 80-200mm lens and took an 8-photo panoramic. I took a 9th shot to make the star on top of the Transamerica building even larger. I ended with a 177 megapixel image that I then cropped in various ways. Wanting to highlight both the bridge, the city, and the lines from the road leading through the photo, I cropped the full 177 megapixel pano into this 110 megapixel photo with a 2.5:1 aspect ratio. Zoom in to see all the amazing detail of the city in all its holiday glory! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF 80mm, f/9.0, 6 seconds, ISO 200 8 shot panoramic, blended in Autopano Giga 9th shot at f/16 for the lightstar on The Beacon See all 110 megapixels at Gigapan or view the full 170 megapixel uncropped version.

Bay Crossing

Sunset above the Bay Bridge Treasure Island, San Francisco, California I love Christmas time in San Francisco because the city outlines itself with beautiful holidays lights. The Transamerica Beacon lights its beacon, a star at the top of its pointy roof. I’ve photographed the city from under the Bay Bridge but I’ve always also wanted to photograph it from above the bridge. Willie, Alan, and I met on Treasure Island and were the first to arrive at this spot above the bridge. Several other photographers joined us. I staked out a spot that looked straight onto the bridge and waited. In past years the Transamerica Beacon turned on at 5pm, perfect timing for our blue hour photographs. Last year, however, the Beacon turned on at 6pm, when the sky was too dark for good photographs. This year, luckily, it was back to 5pm and our photos would work perfectly! While waiting for the Beacon to turn on I decided to grab my big lens and take a few shots of the Bay Bridge, all by itself. I love the way the cars travel below and the long exposure captures their red tail-lights and yellow turn signals. As soon as I was done snapping this photo I had to change lenses and race to capture a wider view of this scene before it got too dark and the beauty of the city faded into night-time. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8: 120mm, f/14, 15 sec, ISO 100

Shot through the Bay

Sunrise at Rincon Park San Francisco, California There's a beautiful park that sits just under the Bay Bridge: Rincon Park. Photographers flock here to shoot the pylons along the water but often they walk right by the giant stature of the Bow and Arrow. Wanting to do something a little more unique, I stepped back from the pylons and threw on my super wide angle lens and did my best to capture the giant sculpture and the sky exploded in front of me. Properly warping this back so it didn't have the typical super-wide distortion was super fun. Yay! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 10 sec, ISO 100

Royal Blue

Royal BlueHearst Castle, Indoor Roman Pool San Simeon, California One of the most amazing pools I've ever seen. I made friends with the tour guide and she let me snap off a couple pictures after all the people had left!

Broken

BrokenSunset at Marshall Beach San Francisco, California Willie and I haven't had a good photo shoot in a while. All of our Death Valley shoots were a bust and we hoped that Sunday would change our luck. We watched as Saturday and Sunday morning brought amazing sunsets and sunrises yet we stayed in bed out of laziness. Not wanting to miss another good opportunity we hoped in the car and decided to try our luck at Marshall Beach in San Francisco. Neither of us had been here before and Willie was exhausted after a 10 mile hike the day before so I drove us through traffic as we found our way to the Golden Gate Bridge. Due to unexpected traffic we arrived at Marshall Beach much later than we intended. We raced down the mile long hike to the beach (it's pretty steep, but luckily the city of SF built a bunch of steps to make the trail down nice and easy). We got to the beach and quickly realized there were numerous compositions and we ran back and forth trying to find a good one before the sun got low and started lighting up the sky. Eventually we settled on a spot in the back that gave us a composition with rocks that would direct the incoming waves and provide some nice foreground motion. After finding a spot that I liked I got my Lee filter holder, remote shutter, and filters out and began to setup my tripod…. As I pulled open my tripod legs and went to attach my camera to the tripod my heart skipped a beat …. my bullhead looked strange. It was then that I noticed the knob that turns the quick release head to clamp my camera to the tripod was missing. Not a big deal I thought, I can at least use my fingers to turn the screw. Oh wait …. the clamp that moves in and holds the camera in was gone too!!! Completely missing. I have no idea how the entire thing fell off but it meant that my tripod was useless! I'm hoping that Acratech will replace the bullhead, or at least replace the part, for free. I was forced to hand-hold my shots for this shoot. Knowing that we needed long shutters to provide foreground motion Willie suggested that I use a rock to balance the camera. This was a great idea because it gave me a little extra stability without my tripod but it also meant that my compositions were limited to a couple spots. My thoughts of catching waves crashing over some other rocks were dashed. Despite the lack of tripod I still managed to get a number of shots that came out decent and since I was slightly higher up the beach I also managed to stay more dry than Willie, who took a splash over his new rain boots. Unfortunately for us, Mamma Nature is still mad at us and although there were *perfect* clouds above the Golden Gate Bridge, a bunch of low, thick clouds rolled in at the horizon behind us and blocked the light from reaching anywhere. Oh well, Black and White it is, which turned out kinda neat! Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 48mm, f/13, 0.4 sec, ISO 640, "Rock" Tripod (see above) Lee Filter Holder + 0.9 HiTech Soft ND Grad

Lone Star City

Lone Star CityPotrero 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

Burn City

Sunrise Over Golden Gate Bridge Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California The best photographers that I know are also great planners, researchers, and weathermen. Every once in a while, though, things can be lucky. This was one of those mornings. My old roommate and her husband had come to visit and he had just purchased a D800 and some professional lenses. He wanted to get out and shoot the bridge. While the women slept we woke up early and drove to the city. I wasn’t even sure if I would take my camera out because the weather forecast didn’t look good. I feared we might even get rained on. I’ve spent way too many mornings at Hawk Hill for it to be the first place I want to stop. At this point I want to find some new spots but Jason had never been to Hawk Hill and we didn’t wake up early enough to make it to one of the other spots. As the sun began to get close to the horizon we were treated to a wonderful surprise: the sky lit up with stunning pinks and oranges! There was a brief burn that was followed by smooth pastels. Knowing the color wouldn’t last long I snapped off a panorama as fast as I could. We kept shooting until the clouds thickened and the color disappeared. Perhaps Jason was my good-luck charm? Now if only Jason had realized he was shooting at ISO1600 the entire time :( Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED: 80mm, f/10, 13 sec, ISO 320 7 shots stitched with Autopano Giga

Christmas Time

Christmas TimeHearst Castle Dining Room San Simeon, California

Thread the Needle

Thread the NeedleTransamerica Building seen through the 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

Marshall's Sunset

Marshall's SunsetSunset at the Golden Gate Bridge Marshall Beach, San Francisco, CA 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

City by the Bay

Sunset under the Bay Bridge Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA I've made a number of trips to Treasure Island (Yuerba Buena Island, to be exact) to visit this spot under the Bay Bridge. It's not easy to get to, you have to park far away and walk, and the traffic getting here is a pain in the butt, but it's always worth the effort! The way the Bay Bridge frames the photo is pretty much perfect. I have a number of photographs from here that I love, but none with a sky that was entirely lit up with pink, purple, red, and orange color. Willie and I left work pretty early to get to the Bay Bridge in time. Even leaving at 2pm, we still got stuck in a bunch of traffic. I also invited one of my co-workers, Alex, along, since she's been wanting to play with her shiny new D800. Jeff and Tung happened to be waiting in the car when we parked, so the 5 of us made our way to the bridge and down to the spot. We all were in for a treat. Escaype had predicted a beautiful sunset and we had high hopes as we waited and watched the clouds fall into position. We kept praying they'd move a bit faster, so it would fill in some empty holes in the sky. Luckily for us, it did exactly that, and the sky little up like pillows, with beautiful pinks, and oranges filling the sky. The holiday lights along the Embarcadero complete the beauty of the SF skyline. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 29mm, f/14, 0.5 sec, ISO 100

Christmas Sunrise

Christmas SunriseSunrise at the 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

Boatworks

BoatworksGolden 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.

City's Embrace

City's EmbraceSunrise 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

Into the City

Into the CityHoliday 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

Follow the Pink Fog Road

Foggy sunrise enveloping San Francisco Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California All of us that live in the Bay Area have grown accustomed to the fog. Although we don't get much rain, we do get fog. It's our version of "weather", and if you live in SF, it's the thing you check on a daily basis in the summer. No fog and there will be a beautiful warm day. But on the days when the fog rolls in, San Francisco can be 20-30 degrees colder than the rest of the area. The forecast had called for low fog on this particular morning, so naturally there were a bazillion photographers on Hawk Hill when I arrived with Zack. I had been to the same spot the morning previous with Willie for another morning of beautiful fog. The fog height was higher than we wanted for the Golden Gate Bridge, so I focused my attention on the way the fog was enveloping San Francisco. I used a longer telephoto lens to get into the city. In this capture, I Loved how the rising sun was glowing off the top of the fog, making what looks like a road into the city. Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8: 135mm, f/11, 0.6 sec, ISO 80

Packer Up

Packer UpSF 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

World Series Threading

World Series 2014, Game 1 Transamerica Building seen through the Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco, California The Giants Win the Pennant! The Giants Win the Pennant! San Francisco loves to support its sports teams and when the Giants won the NL Championship the entire city lights itself to match its teams colors. City Hall has turned orange; Coyt Tower decks itself in orange; and for each World Series game the Transamerica Building turns its Beacon on in Orange glory. Willie and I drove up to the Marin Headlands early in the evening and made our way to the teeny little spot called “Thread the Needle”. In this specific spot the Transamerica Beacon lines up perfectly in the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Nick Sternberg met up with us and the 3 of us enjoyed the evening to ourselves. While the Transamerica Beacon did light up orange, it was a bit more disappointing than we thought. The orange light isn’t as bright as the normal white Beacon and thus didn’t turn into a giant star like we’re used to. Additionally, the orange light looks almost red and is dwarfed by the lights on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Oh well, at least Coyt Tower and the Embarcadero Center buildings are lit in beautiful orange colors. And of course the Giants beat the Royals 7-1 in Game 1! Here’s to 3 more! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8D ED AF 170mm, f/16, ISO 400, 30 sec

Rock Drop 2015

Top of the Rock GE Building, Rockefeller Center New York, NY New York City has always held a special place in my heart for a number of reasons but mostly because I lived 45 minutes from “The City” for all of my childhood. I’ve spent many nights in the city with family, watched numerous Thanksgiving Day Parade’s, ice-skated, seen Broadway plays, ballets, watched the Rockettes and enjoyed The Nutcracker. The one thing I had never done though, was bring my SLR to capture photos of the city. I spent New Years Eve in New York and decided that I was going to bring my camera and be on top of the city at blue hour before The Ball dropped. The top of the Rockefeller Center Building (also known as “Top of the Rock” and home to NBC Studios) has some of the best views of the NYC skyline: Times Square off to the right, the Empire State Building and World Trade Center in the middle, the Brooklyn Bridge to the left ... in fact, you can see where “The Ball” is setup on the very right of the photo, all set to go for the midnight countdown! I arrived at Top of the Rock at sunset and staked out my spot on the 68th floor, between 2 sections of the glass walls. The spacing between glass panels is just wide enough for a lens to fit through and that’s exactly what I did. Tripods aren’t allowed and I had to hand-hold the camera and keep shutter speeds short by increasing the ISO and aperture. Just below Top of the Rock lies one of NYC’s most famous restaurants: The Rainbow Room, which holds a special place in my heart. In 1986 the Rainbow Room underwent a major renovation, overseen by Joseph Baum, my great-uncle. The Rainbow Room and other restaurants he spearheaded like The Four Seasons and Windows on the World (on top of the WTC) became some of the most well known and highest grossing restaurants in history. Although I was too young to participate, my family had many parties at the Rainbow Room, just a few floors below where I was standing to take this picture. I thought about staying to watch The Ball drop, or even trying to barge my way into The Rainbow Room to pretend I was partying with my great-uncle but when my belly started to rumble I decided it was time to go. Happy New Year everyone! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S: 24mm, f/6.3, 1/10 sec, ISO 800

Goodnight Giant

Moonset during 2015 World Series Game 4 Treasure Island, San Francisco, CA I've always loved this location under the Bay Bridge — the way that it captures the San Francisco skyline is hard to beat. The Embarcadero Center lights ... the Beacon atop the Transamerica Building ... Cost Tower ... the bridge lights all make a pretty surreal scene. Just to the left of this frame lies AT&T park where on this particular night the San Francisco Giants (baseball team) hunted for a World Series Game 4 victory. The entire city skyline turned itself orange for them, from the lights on top of buildings, to an orange Beacon and orange glow of Coit Tower. The Giants responded with an 11-4 victory! Even the moon made an appearance, as it set right behind the Transamerica Building. It was super fun to meet Matt Walker for the first time, after so many conversations on Flickr, Facebook and text. Also great to shoot with Rebecca and Wilson Ng, then meet up with Jeff and Tung who were above us (and the Bay Bridge). Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 42mm, f/18, 30 sec, ISO 400