San Francisco

(_6300230-2) OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

San Francisco celebrates the Giants in the World Series. 12 images using a 400mm lens on a 5D mk2. Taken from twin peaks. This image is 2.6G of data. 24 inches by 72 inches at 300 DPI. I printed one and it looks amazing!

Nikon D810 + AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm @ 24mm F/16, 30 sec, ISO-100. pano blended with 3 horizontal shots. (taken on 05-14-2016)

• Muhammad Ali.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

San Francisco and New York have some of the most expensive hotel room rates which we have ever encountered in our travels. Thankfully due to our extended family and old college friends, we don’t ever have to look for hotels in these two towns. But staying with family and friends makes it difficult to go on photography endeavors on these trips. Usually, my wife gives me a stern talking to before the trip about how I should relax with the camera.

We lived in San Francisco for a short while after our marriage but never really spend any time exploring the city, and after being LA residents for five years, we finally decided to take a short weekend trip to explore the photographic possibilities of this beautiful city. I spend some time researching the landmarks of the city and the perfect positions for the shot. The problem was that we were there for only three days, and the best time for the city shots is usually during the blue hour, which happens after sunset. But we only had two evenings, and I had a ton of locations, we decided to dedicate the sunset towards the slacker hill hike and the treasure Island vistas, but that meant that the pier 14 shot that I had in mind would not be possible in the best light.

I knew that there was a blue hour in the morning as well, just before the sunrise and I decided to wake my wife up at 4 am and see if we could get a good shot. The day was unusually cold, and my wife agreed that she would stay in the car to guard it against the ever vigilant parking wardens. The blue hour was beautiful; the only problem was that it was way shorter than the evening version also it was much brighter due to the sun coming up rapidly. The brightness stole some of the contrast out of the city lights, but I liked having the opportunity to shoot at such a busy location with no one around me.

• Confucius.

| facebook | 500px | [ferpectshotz](http://ferp ectshotz.com/) |

So this is the shot that I wanted from Pier 14. I took this shot at morning blue hour instead of the evening one. On second thoughts, I think I should have stuck with a post sunset shot as the buildings would have more lights and would have made the exposure a bit brighter. One cool thing about making this shot was the moon that started to rise and gave some interesting sky conditions.

Shortly after this shot was taken a thick layer of morning fog descended and pretty much greyed out the sky. I had hoped to take a shot of the Lombard Street but that plan went out the window when we realized, we couldn’t even recognize the iconic street from the viewpoint due to the fog. Anyways hope you all like it.

View from Battery Godfrey, San Francisco, CA.

Warmest greetings for everyone and best wishes for happiness in the new year 2019!

• Voltaire.

| facebook | 500px | [ferpectshotz](http://ferp ectshotz.com/) |

This shot was taken from the Pacific coast trail/Slackers hill trail on our way back after taking the shot that I posted earlier. By the time we reached the viewpoint, the blue hour was almost ending and we could see the sky turning way darker than it was before. I also wanted to get a nice streak of light trails to use as leading line to the bridge. For some reason traffic was unusually light at this time of the day and we had to try many more shots than normal to the trails that I liked.

I think this was the best one of the bunch when also considering the fact that how many airplanes and helicopters are also present in these skies. Personally, I would have preferred to take this shot a bit earlier but I like the way it turned out.

View from Crissy Field, San Francisco

View from Seal Point, San Mateo, Northern California

According to Google Map’s calculation, from my photo location to downtown San Francisco, the distance is about 18.8 miles. Of course, if viewed from above the San Francisco Bay directly, it would be shorter than that. On a cloudy day afternoon, this harmony of the seas scenery is a touching sense of sight for me.

Thanks a lot for your visit, wishing you a great and joyful weekend!

_DSC7302

Happy Holidays to all my Flickr friends !

From Spencer Battery at Dawn

From Hawk Hill at Dusk

In 1937, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge opened to the public. It's built of steel and has a length of 2.7 km. It has it's name after the Golden Gate Strait which is the entrance to the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean.

View from Marshall’s Beach in San Francisco.

• Sam Levenson.

| facebook | 500px | ferpectshotz |

My wife and I lived in the Bay Area for about 6 months immediately after our marriage before finally settling in SoCal. During the six months stay we never ventured or explored any of San Francisco’s beautiful sights. We did Trips to wine country, San Diego, and Yosemite but no trips were made to explore the city where we lived.

We always thought we will be living in the bay area so there was no real urgency in the plans, but we got jobs in LA. So last Thursday was my birthday and we decided to head to San Francisco and give the new D850 some workout. This view is of the San Francisco skyline as seen from the Treasure Island view point. The wind was pummeling us during the shoot and I had to hold down my gitzo traveler lightweight tripod to get a steady shot.

• Helen Keller.

| facebook | 500px | [ferpectshotz](http://ferp ectshotz.com/) |

To say this was a challenging shot would be to take the efforts behind the creation of this image too lightly. I had this shot in mind since my Google street view stalking showed me this vista. The problem with setting up a shot in San Francisco is the ever-present threat of fog. Especially when shooting an expansive cityscape like this one. Our only choice was to get the shot before summer since some unforeseen family functions forced our hand, there was an impromptu trip to India and thankfully we managed to plan a trip to the Bay Area before April.

From my experience the fog is tricky in spring, so we decided to hope for the best and just roll with it. On the day of the shoot, we did experience some fog but the wind was so strong, I was hoping that it will blow away the coastal fog once the sun sets. Eventually, the wind did just that but what happened was the intensity of the wind just kept on rising and I had to hold down my dainty travel tripod to prevent it from tipping over. Anyways after about 4 or 5 trials, I finally managed to get the panorama stitch that I was satisfied with. This shot was made with about 8 images at 135mm in portrait mode. Hope Y'all like it.

En el muelle 39 de la ciudad de San Francisco se instaló hace tiempo una colonia de leones marinos. Han hecho de este lugar su casa y está prohibido molestarles y alimentarles. Aunque resulte chocante, viven en absoluta libertad a pocos metros del asfalto urbano.

Prepared to capture the sunset view with thick clouds at Sutro Baths in San Francisco, meanwhile, one cargo ship was leaving the Port of San Francisco in the distance and a group of pelicans were flying passed the setting sun under the brilliant sky. What could I say? Everything was just so peaceful and voiceless, which let my mind sank down into the associate sense of classical oil painting of the 19th century, likes as the artwork of American West painter Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), and that sensation kept for a long time until the sun fully disappeared on the horizon.

El Jardín Japonés de San Francisco está dentro del Golden Gate Park. Tiene pagodas, estanques y plantas originarias de Japón y China.

Union Square es el centro comercial y neurálgico de la ciudad de San Francisco.

This image was stacked with 20 shots for better result of the light trails, which simply meant it was a very busy sky in every night. Photo spot is located at the hill of Millbrae, near the San Francisco International Airport.

Thank you for taking the time to view this image, sincerely hope you'll like it. Good luck to you and the one you love.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne.

The quintessential Golden Gate shot. I was in the west coast last weekend but didn't had a lot of time in my hands. so I decided to get to the Golden Gate and get the touristy shots. My friend suggested this location as it has the city lights behind to give some interest. I was really hoping for some fog but didn't get lucky. I really wanted to get a shot from the other side though as it would have captured a beautiful sunset behind the bridge.

Early morning on the marin headlands at one of the lower viewpoints. No low fog or other spectacular things happneded that morning but I just had to get my golden Gate shot :-)

• Marc Chagall.

| insta | blog |

My hometown in India is known for an old arch bridge with unique architecture. Growing up, I thought it was one of the most significant bridges in the country, but it was a small bridge that was barely two lanes wide in reality. Maybe this is why I have a fascination for bridges, but every time I pass a bridge, I check out their photographic potential and often return to create images of them. In fact, on my first trip to San Francisco after finishing my work obligations, I drove straight to battery spencer to take pictures of the golden gate bridge before racing to catch my return flight.

I was not aware of the other famous bridge of the town, the Bay Bridge, until we moved to the Bay Area. Then it took me another five years, but I finally got the opportunity to take some photographs at pier14 a fantastic location with a stunning view of the Bay Bridge. I had plans to photograph the city skyline and wanted the foreground to have a minimal number of people, so I decided to leverage the morning blue hour for the shoot. Blue hour is my favorite time to photograph subjects where artificial lighting plays a significant role, like cityscapes and bridges. Usually, at blue hour, the ambient light is so low most of the lights on the buildings stay on. Add to that the nice contrast of the warm city lights against the sky's dark blue, and you have all the ingredients to make a stunning architectural image.

After an overcast day, late afternoon sky started to clear on the west, which resulted in a phenomenal sunset.

View from Sausalito, Marin County, California.

We really had fine weather while in San Francisco back in may. A little bit too good maybe. No deep fog rolling in at the Golden Gate bridge so I looked for other things to shoot. Here's a view from Pier 7. I was fine tuning the compostiion for nearly half an hour till I found the right spot and everything aligned perfectly.

• Annie Besant.

| facebook | 500px | [ferpectshotz](http://ferp ectshotz.com/) |

While we were at the fantastic viewpoint in Treasure Island waiting for the blue hour doe the San Francisco skyline shoot, I noticed that the sunset was creating some interesting colors in the sky. The problem was the retreating fog was making everything soft and the fact that the winds were picking up didn’t help the matter one bit. Thankfully, I had packed my Lee Big Stopper and it seemed like a great place to try it. I have noticed from my previous experiences with the big stopper that due to the incredible amount of motion blur it creates in moving objects like water or clouds, it makes the stationary objects look extra sharp. Now I know it’s an optical illusion and not a real increase in sharpness but since perception is the reality I decided to try it out. The wind had picked up and was battering my tripod and I had to hold it down from getting tipped over. After about 4-5 tries, this shot came out tack sharp.

Also, today's quote comes courtesy of Ms. Annie Besant a total badass who was one of the key inspirations behind India’s independence movement and one of the early presidents of Indian National Congress.

Skyline nocturno de la ciudad californiana con vista parcial del Puente de la Bahía.

This is a free picture released under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic. Feel free to use and share this picture but please give me credit linking my website or my Flickr account. More info about me on www.pixael.com. If you like my pictures please like my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/giuseppemilophoto) or follow me on Twitter (twitter.com/pixael_com) and Instagram (instagram.com/pixael). Thanks!