California - Golden Gate Bridge

It is often a unique set of weather conditions and geography that make an image of the bridge special and set it apart from the millions of pictures shot here annually. Often, when you drive over the bridge, you go from warm and dry weather directly into thick cool fog as you head into the city. It is this extreme temperature difference that creates the fog and the moody atmosphere. On this evening a mist shrouded crescent moon helped the bridge lights illuminate the scene after sunset. Even though the moon was just a crescent, the dark side of the moon was visible and still quite bright. The entire moon is intentionally overexposed here in order to show how it lit up the evening sky. This atmosphere lasted for only a few minutes before the moon disappeared into the fog. A long exposure shows the movement in the fog and the moon. Even a few star trails are visible in bigger prints. On an exposure of this length, a lot of guesswork is involved because there is little time to go about taking light meter measurements. I try to remember settings I have used in the past so that I can immediately set things up and not miss a memorable moment.

Fog never fails to create lots of atmosphere and mood. The Golden Gate is both a passageway for people as well as for lots of ocean fog to cool off the inland areas. A long exposure shows the way the fog flowed through the gate. The last light of the sun and the lights of the bridge in equal amounts illuminated the fog. This even light lasts for only a few minutes, so in the course of one evening, only one or two chances for a long exposure such as this are possible. Since there is no time to take light readings, a good guess for the camera settings based on experience is the best way to go or you will miss the shot. Even though it was getting dark, the sky was still much brighter than the sea, so I used an ND grad filter to even out that contrast. It worked just the same as during the day. It took me three years to capture this moment and I have never seen it happen again. Nobody was down here. There were dozens of tripods set up on the well-worn hillside to the right of the frame, but they were pointing in the wrong direction to see this reflected light on the water and how it moved through the fog and clouds.

A late September layer of low fog brings an end to a heat wave.

So, how do you hide the bottom 300 feet of the far tower of the Golden Gate Bridge? With a very large wave! How big? Well, you can see that the smaller part of the wave is much bigger than the cars and vans in the parking lot. After I took each shot, I hid in my car just to the left of the tripod. These waves hit with such force that my car was shaken violently each time. Then I could wipe off the grad filter and get ready for the next attempt. It took about 10 tries to get it right. I wanted the iron post to not block the horizon and for the composition to be perfect. But that is difficult to do when you only get a few seconds to jump out of the car, take the shot, and dive back in. Finally I got the shot just as the park rangers ordered me to leave because people have been killed on this very spot!The amazing thing is that this is on the bay-side of the bridge, the Pacific Ocean is on the other side of the bridge to the left. Only during strong westerly winds following a big storm with a high tide do these conditions exist. There were surfers out there and they were ordered back to shore too!

I noticed that a combination of a very low tide, a clearing storm, and a December sun angle pointing towards the Marin headlands could put on a rare show, so I headed out to see if it would happen. Just 20 minutes before I made the photograph, the sky was heavy and dark. But finally a hole opened up in the clouds to the west and the sun came through for about 5 minutes. It was quite a show!

The thick fog surrounding the bridge alternated from being a thick soup to a emerging as a golden veil as it swirled around on this morning. Fog often can produce some excellent atmospheric effects, though it does not always cooperate. Three foghorns echoed against the hills as ships passed by. The fog allowed parts of the bridge to be hidden so others could be emphasized. It is usually necessary to wait quite a long while in order for the most interesting parts to be visible, as if a painter were composing the image. The wait often pays off but even if it doesn’t, this is a great place to be. I pay close attention to the local weather conditions before I go here, but it is rare that I see conditions align themselves in a way that can produce a really good photograph.

The fog was low and patchy on this day, so I decided to create a landscape image where the bridge was just part of the scenery. While at least 15 other photographers with tripods were down in the fog on the road below where the path drops out of sight, I hiked up the crumbly and unstable path to this point. The air was warm on this spot, while everybody was shivering in the fog just a few hundred feet away.

A climb down a crumbly hillside in the dark allowed me to see this view at sunrise. I felt privileged to be here at this time! A long exposure time allowed the clouds to move a considerable distance during the exposure.

The sun way very bright as it rose over the city, but then it hid behind that thin ribbon of cloud, allowing the light to spread across the landscape and even between the city buildings. 1 minute later and the light show was over!

A low tide at sunset, combined with this sort of atmosphere happens only perhaps 2-3 times per year. Fortunately I was showing a photographer friend around town and the coincidence was too much to ignore. So we headed down here and were treated to this scene. The low tide allowed the rocks to be exposed for a nice bit of foreground that you normally don't get in this spot.

After I made "Low Tide at the Golden Gate" (above), I waited to the sun to set so I could get a long-exposure for the smooth and minimal look. I'm glad the colors stayed around and the blues even intensified. I actually had to slightly de-saturate the sky to get back the detail. The color was too strong otherwise. Only at low tide are those rocks in front visible.

A small fishing boat moved slowly with the tide during this 2-minute exposure just after the sun set. I had to climb down a steep hillside to get low enough to show the city skyline entirely under the bridge. You will rarely see a photo from this location. Do not attempt this if you have vertigo!

A storm was moving in off the Pacific Ocean, so I headed down the hill in the dark to get here in time for the sunrise. I actually had to de-saturate this image because the colors were too intense. 5 minutes later, the sun came out of the cloud deck and this light was gone for the day.

This is two landscape oriented images stitched together using the Canon 5D Mk II, a Canon 500L lens with a 1.4 II extender. They were 13-second exposures at F20 (to keep it all sharp) ISO 200 (to keep the exposure time down a bit to show motion but not too much motion. You can see each rivet and the ladders in the full-sized version, which is nearly 6,000 pixels in each dimension. Print as a square, so 30x30 at 200DPI for example.