San Francisco & Bay Area

Photos from beautiful San Francisco, California

Pot of Gold
Sunset rainbow over green hills Silicon Valley, CA One of my favorite local scenes to photograph are the hills. The Bay Area has a lot to photograph but it's mostly known for its cityscapes and seascapes, so it's fun to photograph something different. And photographing it from the air is even more fun and different. Willie asked if I wanted to go fly the drone with him and the forecast looked perfect for some hills photos. Low clouds with a clearing at the horizon are perfect to light up the hills but also provide something interesting in the sky. When photographing the hills, I don't actually want a colorful sky -- the orange and reds from the sky don't go well with the green hills. But a nice glow in the clouds pairs perfectly with the warm shades on the hills. The setup was perfect -- before the sun went down, a hole in the sky cast light-beams all around. The sun dipped behind the clouds for a while before popping out just before it was blocked by the hills and dipped below the horizon. For a while, Willie and I were getting rained on. We let it past and then put our drones back up, and that's when I noticed a rainbow had come out. I flew to a nearby hill to use as a foreground and captured this stunner. DJI Mavic 2 Pro: 10.26mm, f/4, 1/80 sec, ISO 100
Spoooky Surprise
Halloween Sunset along the Bay Redwood Shores, California I've been fortunate to have extended family that lives so close to me here in California. They made it feel like "home" even before I had settled in. One of my favorite activities is to join cousin Andy for a spooky Halloween party at his house. The family has younger kids that still dress up and go trick-or-treating (well, some of them are too old now). But the absolute best part is that Andy is the PUMPKING CARVING *MASTER*. He's crafted some of the most creative and well executed pumpkin's I've ever seen (this year he turned a pumpkin into a whale, with spouting water included!). I almost always bring my camera to the party and this year I had a warning that sunset might be nice. As the kids got ready to trick-or-treat I kept an eye out on the sky, and sure enough, right at sunset, the sky above the house went crazy with pinks and orange and red. Thankfully they live right by the water so I was able to go down and catch a little reflection at the edge of the shore. I had left the tripod at home, so I used some rocks and my knees and a slightly higher ISO to get the camera to stay steady for the photo. Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 1/8 sec, ISO 320

Bloody Early
Lunar Eclipse over Oak Tree and Hills Silicon Valley, California While a lunar eclipse isn't quite as rare as a solar eclipse, it can still be fairly neat to see. When I witnessed the solar eclipse in August I planned for months on where to go and how to see it. For this lunar eclipse, which occurred on January 30, 2018, I didn't plan as far in advance. What's special about this lunar eclipse is that it's basically an ultra-rare "Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse. What that means is there's a lunar eclipse (moon eclipse) that occurs during the second full moon of the month (Blue Moon), and it's also during a point in the orbit when it's very close to earth (Super Moon). The "blood" part comes in because the solar eclipse makes the moon appear red. Willie and I decided the night before that we would drag our butts out of bed and go photograph it. Since the moon was going to be fairly high in the sky it made things hard for aligning the moon with San Francisco and we opted to stay close to home. Our plan was to try to align the moon with some trees. Both of us arrived just before the moon went into total lunar eclipse and we spent almost an hour taking photos of the moon and the sky, while the moon was still too high in the sky to frame with trees. Just before 6am we got into position and waited as the moon finally dropped above the trees and we were able to take a snap. The moon has not been enlarged in photoshop -- this is exactly how my 600mm lens captured the moon. I captured a second, longer exposure to get the foreground to start to be visible and blended the two. Nikon D800 w/Sigma 150-600mm Moon: 600mm, f/8, 1.0 sec, ISO 1600 Foreground: f/9, 30 sec, ISO 1600

3 Smiling Amigos
Sunset over Sunflowers Silicon Valley, California This isn't the first time that I've photographed sunflower fields. I've always loved them -- I don't have many memories as a toddler but I still remember playing with a few sunflower stalks when I was teeny. In high school I loved to eat sunflower seeds while sitting on the bench at baseball games (hey, I was designated pinch runner!). Willie, Zack, and I drove over to these sunflower fields on a night that was predicted to have a beautiful sunset. Thanks to Escaype, the prediction was spot on and the sky lit up beautifully. We arrived right as the sunflower fields were at their "peak", meaning the flowers were still blooming beautifully, their heads weren't drooping, and the petals are nice and fresh. A week or so later and the heads would be dipping down and the leaves withering. I looked for a set of flowers that filled the screen and found that here. In previous years I had taken vertical sunflower photos so I was on the hunt for a landscape orientation scene that filled the frame. These reminded me of the 3 amigos, smiling up at us. D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 15mm, f/10, 1/60 sec, ISO 640

Arrest that Sunrise
Sunrise over Oak Trees Silicon Valley, California If I’m going to get up for sunrise while at home, it usually means I’m heading up to San Francisco to photograph the city. After several years of waking up super early and driving an hour to San Francisco, it was time to start exploring for photographs a little closer to home. Luckily Willie had done all the work and had found a number of trees in Silicon Valley that would be prime for sunrise photography. After rolling out of bed and meeting Willie at the parking lot, we hiked up the hill to this spot where several stunning Oak Trees greeted us. The pre-sunrise glow was *strong* and Willie walked (ran) at a pace that my short little legs could barely keep up with. There were times I had to run just to catch up. He was excited! Sure enough, once the sun did come up, the sky lit up with beautiful pink and orange colors. I love what winter does to these trees - without the leaves you see the amazing (and gnarly) shapes of the Oak Trees. They sweep through the scene and draw your eye in various patterns around this photo. A little bit of rolling hills helps frame the scene and add slight movement. Behind us a rainbow stretched across the entire sky. And of course I was so busy taking photos that I missed my chance to book Yosemite campgrounds, which went on sale just as the sunrise was exploding! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 1/8 sec, ISO 200

Perched on Top
Sunrise over Oak Tree and Hills Silicon Valley, California If I’m getting up for sunrise while at home in the Bay Area it’s usually to go visit the Golden Gate Bridge or some other iconic spot in San Francisco. The Bay Area has some other beautiful locations though: tons and tons of rolling hills with beautiful oak trees dotting all over. They become especially pretty in the winter and spring, when all the winter rain turns our golden hills into stunning green hills. On this particular morning we met just before sunrise and looked around, wondering where the clouds were. There was 1 small patch of clouds that might light up, but the rest of the sky was devoid of anything that would catch color. Fortunately for us, that one small cloud happened to plop itself right behind the tree we wanted to photograph! I loved how this scene has criss-crossing hills, that suck the eye in, and then the Oak Tree cements your eye. A bird perched itself on top of the tree, which itself is perched on top of the hill. Big thanks to Willie for hunting for this tree and finding it! Nikon D700 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 56mm, f/11, 1/40 sec, ISO 200

The Behind-You Tree
Sunrise over the Bay Area Silicon Valley, CA As I explore more and more of the beautiful hikes in the Bay Area I keep coming across a number of beautiful rolling hills with oak trees peppered all over them. Most of the time there’s other trees, shrubs, houses, more hills, or other distracting things next to them. But every once in a while you stroll across a lone pine that’s just asking to be photographed. Willie and I met up at the parking lot and hiked up to this area. You can see the trail crossing through the photo. We had actually planned on photographing a different tree, which we thought had more character and faced more easterly, the direction of sunrise. The tree we were planning on photographing had some clouds behind it, but for whatever reason not all of the clouds caught the beautiful sunrise color. At one point I happened to turn around and look behind us. The entire sky was glowing orange and virga in the sky was catching the sunrise colors. I suggested to Willie: “dude, I think we should photograph the other tree.” We hesitated a little: it wasn’t as interesting but we knew we had to follow the sky. I’m glad we did turn around because this amazing color in the sky didn’t last long but boy is it awesome. I turned out loving this scene much more than the one we had originally intended to photograph! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 24mm, f/13, 0.5 sec, ISO 100

Sutrolicious
Sunset at Sutro Baths San Francisco, California Willie has wanted to photograph this small cove at Sutro Baths for quite some time now. In November the conditions finally lined up: the location of the sun, the surf and tide, and the clouds! Escaype was predicting a beautiful sunset in San Francisco so we left work early and drove up to the city. Traffic was much lighter than we expected and we arrived at Sutro well before sunset. As we waited we watched the clouds start to thin. It meant that we’d have to go a bit tighter on the compositions since the clouds no longer covered the full extent of the sky. When the sun finally did set, the remaining clouds lit up beautifully. I loved watch the waves as they crashed against the rocks and created various patterns and lines in the water. I experimented with various shutter speeds, trying to capture the moving water as it broke against the rocks and then back out to sea. Quite a sunset! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 14mm, f/11, 1/6 sec, ISO 100

City on Fire
Sunrise at Ina Coolbrith Park San Francisco, California October in San Francisco is a month when local landscape photographers get very little sleep. This month has the highest chance of our perfect low fog, right at the deck level of the Golden Gate Bridge. When the conditions are right, we set our alarms for 4am and if everything looks good, make the trek up to the city before the sun comes up. On this particular morning there was no fog, but Jeff Lewis was predicted a sunrise to remember. Willie and I met early and drove to the city, arriving to almost clear skies. Jeff assured us that clouds would roll in, and he was right. Boy was he right! We decided to setup at Ina Coolbrith Park, high up on Russian Hill. Here you get a beautiful view of the entire city, the beautiful Bay Bridge lights, and enough room to see the sky explode with color. The Embarcadero Center buildings, lit up in blue, marked the week long "Dreamforce" conference put on by Salesforce. A number of other Escaype customers joined us at the park, but we were all so busy photographing that nobody stopped by to say hello :( Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 24mm, f/11, 1/6 sec, ISO 100

Finally Not a Slacker
Fog Over Golden Gate Bridge Slacker Hill, San Francisco, California I’ve been chasing low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge for several years now but I've never been happy with any of my photos taken from the top of Slacker Hill. Most of my fog mornings have been spent at Hawk Hill, a bit further west from Slacker and much easier to get to (it doesn’t require hiking, like Slacker Hill does). Willie, Zack, Alan, and I met to photograph the fog from a different spot but once we crossed from San Francisco into Marin, we were worried that the fog level might be too high for our original destination, and instead decided we would hike the half mile up to Slacker Hill. We were the first to arrive but several other photographers joined us. My SmugMug co-workers, who I had invited along, stayed back at Hawk Hill. There had been low fog the day before, which was rare in that it happened in July and that it occurred 2 days in a row. On the previous morning the fog was a hundred feet lower, exposing the deck of the bridge. Here the fog rose and fell, covering and revealing the 2nd window of the North Tower. Luckily low fog is popular enough now that cars were driving up Conzelman Road constantly, giving us a chance to capture the car lights in our photos. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 32mm, f/8, 30 sec, ISO 320

Pillow Full of Fire
Colorfull Clouds and Fog at the Golden Gate Bridge Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California I first started chasing low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge in 2011. At first it didn't matter what the sky looked like, as long as the fog was so low that the top of the bridge towers could be seen. Then I started to get pickier: I wanted the fog so low that it was just at the level of the deck of the bridge. And of course, then I wanted the ultimate: low fog *and* beautiful high thin clouds. I've photographed low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge many times. I've also photographed beautiful sunrises there; one thing I had never photographed was both at the same time. For 5 years all of us have watched, waited, and prayed it would happen. I spent Friday evening celebrating 7 years of friendship with Sammi; we went out to dinner, got drinks, and relaxed with a movie. I happened to check my work messages and saw one of my coworkers post that there was log fog at the Golden Gate Bridge. I partially ignored it - I was having a good time and I didn't need to go for yet-another fog day. At 1am, debating if I should stay up playing games, I happened to check my Escaype app and noticed it was a 100% chance of a beautiful sunrise with 0% chance of it being ruined. The perfect conditions! I better get to bed! In my race to get to bed I completely botched my calculation for when I needed to wake up. When I finally woke up at 4:30am I realized my mistake - I was going to miss the conditions I had waited so many years for. Thankfully no cops were waiting to pull me over as I raced along the highway, clearly breaking the speed limit. Looking to my right as I drove, I noticed the pre-sunrise burn had already started. I was missing my conditions! I arrived at Hawk Hill just before the clouds burst into peak color, ran up the hill and started firing away. I had missed the blue hour conditions that I so desperately wanted but did manage to capture this. Oh well - guess I'll just need to wait another 5 years and not sleep through it next time! Pretty much every photographer I knew was there too. It was great seeing you all and reveling its beauty! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 36mm, f/11, 0.5 sec, ISO 100

Pastel-icious Bridge-ilicious
Colorfull Clouds and Fog at the Golden Gate Bridge Hawk Hill, San Francisco, California It's not common to get both low fog and high thin clouds at the Golden Gate Bridge. In fact, I had been waiting for these perfect conditions for 5 years, starting in 2011. The perfect conditions happen every few years; I remember seeing a photo from Alan Chan that had both, but I had clearly missed all of these occasions. Thankfully a co-worker happened to post that there was low fog at the bridge at 9:30pm the night before. When I checked the Escaype app and saw a 100% of epic sunrise, I knew I had to go to bed and then wake up for this sunrise. It wasn't to be missed! I botched my wake-up time and ended up missing the perfect blue-hour conditions that I had so desperately wanted. But I did make it there in time to catch the peak burn in the clouds as the sun rose. The gate to Hawk Hill was closed and the area was packed with photographers but I managed to race up, on foot, to the Hill. Along the way I ran into some friends at the "Thread the Needle" spot and I stopped here to catch my breath. I grabbed my long lens and captured this photo of the low fog, the bridge, and the city, before continuing to race on up the hill. I loved the way the orange pastel colors in the sky contrast with the blue colors of the fog, with the red bridge sticking up in between. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8: 135mm, f/13, 2 sec, ISO 100

Blazing Bay
Sunrise along the Embarcadero San Francisco, California I can't count the number of times I've driven to San Francisco, parked along the Embarcadero, and tried to photograph sunrise here at the Bay Bridge. The pylons make for a neat foreground but I've never quite witnessed the sunrise that I've wanted. Willie and I had attempted this photo a few weeks earlier, but the clouds slowed and didn't match the forecasted model. When Escaype predicted another 100% chance of beautiful sunrise, I jumped at the bit! My normal photography buddy, Willie, was on his honeymoon and wasn't in town, so I grabbed one of my co-workers, Alex, and we drove up to the city. It was actually Willie's birthday and I think Mama Nature wanted to torment him for missing this one. It really did "blow up" as we like to call it. Prior to photographing this scene, I stood further back, near "Cupid's Span", a giant Bow and Arrow sculpture, and then raced over to the familiar pylons. I was afraid I might have spent too long at Cupid's Span, so I quickly ran over to the pylons, setup my tripod as quickly as I could, and began snapping. The sunrise this morning really was quite spectacular, as you can see here. The entire sky lit up beautifully in orange and yellow! Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 16mm, f/11, 1/13 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

Christmas Gift
Sunrise on Christmas Morning at the Golden Gate Bridge Marin Headlands, California Zack and I have a Christmas tradition to wake up at the wee hours of the night on Christmas Morning and drive to San Francisco to photograph the sunrise. It started a number of years ago, before I had family obligations, partially because I don't celebrate Christmas and partially because Zack was away from his family. Regardless, we've done this for about 6 years now and it's a fun little tradition (minus being super sleepy). Looking at the weather forecast, I wasn't quite sure where we should head this year. We'd done the Golden Gate Bridge, we'd photographed the Bay Bridge, we'd been to the ferry building ... most of the iconic SF photos had been done. Fortunately, the decision was made very easy when I woke up at 4am and checked Escaype (our favorite sunrise forecasting app) and it said "HEAD TO THE GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE." Despite Zack being a few minutes late, we arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge quite early. Looking at the clouds, I knew we needed to be close to the bridge ... the views from Hawk Hill would have had too much empty sky. Battery Spencer became our go-to spot. Here we ran into another photographer, a visitor to SF, Eddy Lin, who asked to tag alone. We were in for a treat, the sunrise pre-burn was absolutely *stunning*. I find the Golden Gate Bridge looks its best during Blue Hour, when the bridge is still lit up, the lights are on and visible in the city, and the sky is still mostly blue, with a star or two to be found left in the sky. Sure enough, the entire cloud system lit up like an explosion and we snapped away for a good 20 minutes. Once it burned out I packed up my gear and walked back to the car and took a pit-stop at the bathroom. When I walked out the door I realized the sky was on fire again. Grabbing our gear we raced back to the bridge and took a few iPhone snaps, by now the sun was coming up and the real burn was on, but with the city and the bridge lights washed out, I didn't even bother with the real camera. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 14-24mm f/2.8: 20mm, f/11, 20 sec, ISO 125

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

San Christmascisco
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. The last few years the Beacon turned on well after Blue Hour; thankfully this year the Beacon had been turning on at 5pm, right in the middle of our favorite time of the night! 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. After taking a few photos with the traditional bridge line-up, I raced to where Willie and Alan were standing, slightly off center, to get a slightly less traditional view of the city and its Bay Bridge. Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 60mm, f/22, 15 sec, ISO 200

Bay City
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. The last few years the Beacon turned on well after Blue Hour; thankfully this year the Beacon had been turning on at 5pm, right in the middle of our favorite time of the night! 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. We were hoping the clouds would stick around — a cloudless sky hides the light of the Beacon. Unfortunately they moved just a smidge too quick but it still turned out to be a nice evening Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8: 60mm, f/22, 15 sec, ISO 200

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