Posts Tagged "Golden Gate Bridge"

Last night, it was going to be full and to rise above the North tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. After looking at the moon position, I did conclude that the moon would be aligned with the top of the tower with the Transamerica tower in the middle of the opening. The image above shows what my vision was. A very unusual hot weather is in effect in San Francisco right now, which meant that it was still in 70s at 9pm last night and there was no chance of fog and clouds to block the view of the moon. The combination of those factors had attracted a large number of photographers on the Marin Headlands, literally I was waiting for moonrise with 12 other photographers. Taking pictures of the moon is a bit tricky. First the moon moves quickly in the sky. Second there is a...

Angel Island is a California State Park in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. It has incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San Francisco and Alcatraz. In a previous post, I made a day trip there but this post is about spending the night on Angel Island. Depending on the season, the last ferry leaves the island between 3:30 and 5:20pm (make sure to check the schedule online) and unless you have your own boat that’s your deadline. But for a few hard core planners, it’s possible to secure a camping spot on Angel Island. In that case you will be sharing the island with at most 40 persons (including the park rangers, the kayak groups, and the large camping group). After the departure of the last ferry (which was 3:30pm in our case), the...

The full moon this month was going to rise right above Alcatraz and then set above the south tower of the Golden Gate bridge. It meant waking up before 5am to catch the moon setting and then later that day going back to San Francisco to photograph the moon rising above Alcatraz around sunset time. The moon is exactly aligned with the top of the tower only for a very quick instant. I did my best to “guestimate” where I should be (which means a bit of running with a 400mm lens, a heavy tripod and camera). While I was doing my “guestimation”, clouds were blocking the moon on and off. At the last minute, literally, the clouds opened up, I took three shots and the moon was gone for ever behind clouds. Here are two of those shots: That same...

The Golden Gate Bridge is like  few monuments in the world (Eiffel tower in Paris, the statue of liberty in New York, the opera house in Sydney, the burj khalifa in Dubai), it’s an iconic symbol that almost everyone recognizes instantly. It’s also extremely photographed and making a unique image of the Golden Gate Bridge is almost impossible. I have a strong attraction for this bridge and the map below that shows the GPS point of where I took my images reflects that fact. I have shot the Golden Gate Bridge at night, at sunrise, at sunset, from a boat, from a helicopter, from a car and there are still images in my head I want to make that have not happened yet. View San Francisco Photo Spot series: The Golden Gate Bridge in a larger map The...

Another installment of my San Francisco Photo spot series; this time it is about Treasure Island. I love Treasure Island because it has one of the nicest views of the Financial District. That’s from where I get some of my favorite images of the city at night. Especially at this time of the year where all of the Embarcadero buildings are illuminated for the Holidays. In addition on Treasure Island (TI), there is the gigantesque statue Bliss Dance made of lights and also the spot called forbidden access. Now, I personally like taking photographs where you can see the city lights. But for your camera to see these lights (and the sky), the city lights need to be at least as bright as the sky. In order to get those images, timing is crucial. First, where is...