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
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
Dancing GatewayFog 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
