Into the FogFoggy 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
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
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
