Bay Bridge

• Marc Chagall.

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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.

• Oscar Wilde.

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One of the shots I had in mind during our trip to San Francisco was this shot of the Bay Bridge from Treasure Island. I have seen pics from this location before and in my mind, this was taken from a viewpoint right off of a highway. So, I planned an evening shot from the viewpoint with the view of San Francisco skyline and thought of this location after sunset.

Once we reached the spot, I realized how hard this shot is gonna be. This Spot is on the edge of a narrow two-lane street just before the highway entrance. And to make it more difficult, there is a fence that has quite small links and it was ruining my shots with the 24-70mm. Also, cars whizzing past you at night while you were taking shots didn’t allow time to think. Thankfully I checked the live view screen and noticed that I was shooting at 50mm anyway and had a 50mm f1.8 prime in my bag, so I ran to my car and quickly changed lens and got back taking the shot at f1.8 aperture. The razor-thin DoF didn’t work for a landscape shot so I had to manually adjust focus and this image here is a composite of about 4-5 images stacked for deeper depth of field. I later remembered that the D850 had autofocus stacking feature, but I didn’t know how to set it up at that time. Hopefully next time.

• Helen Keller.

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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.

I always love looking at the San Francisco skyline. Thereâs 2 beautiful bridges, a nice arrangement of short and tall buildings, a baseball park, the...

From a couple weeks back before the state started burning. Taken from above Berkeley looking across the bay at San Francisco.

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• Philip Sidney.

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One of my friends once mentioned to me about Pier 14 in San Francisco and the outstanding view of the san Francisco skyline from the edge of the pier. I never got chance to check the view out while we lived in the Bay Area. But during our last trip I woke a very sleepy wife at 5 am and drove to the pier to check out the view during morning blue hour. Once there I realized that my friend forgot t mention about the other spectacular sight visible from the pier, the stunning Bay Bridge.

Fortunately, I was there at the best time possible time and the rising sun was making short work of whatever night fog that remained on the surface. I also got some spectacular light show as the sun rose above the horizon while the fantastic lights on the Bay Bridge provided an interesting foreground.

This photo was taken from Treasure Island, San Francisco in June last year, rechecked it recently, I felt it is not so satisfy just because if the Bay Bridge get more close to the skyline, the result will be better. So I came back again and walked up toward south to Yerba Buena Island, expected combine both subjects during the blur hour at dusk on 27th September.

After set up my tripod, suddenly I was pushed and fallen down on the sidewalk, then a robber took all the camera gear jumped into a waiting van behind me, and drove away quickly.

A beautiful city we live in, all the different kind artists try to express her glory from each way. Unfortunately, some robbers have destroyed the great dreams with their dirty hands and minds.

這張照片是去年六月我在舊金山金銀島拍攝的，前些時重新審視它，覺得不太滿意，因為海灣大橋如果可以更貼近城市的天際線，其結果應該會更好。 因此我再次來此，向南走到 Yerba Buena 島，準備在 9/27 黃昏的藍調時刻結合這兩個主題的拍攝。

架好三腳架之後，我突然被推倒在人行道上，一個搶匪將整架相機裝備瞬間搶走，跳進了我身後的一輛等候中的工作休旅車裡，旋即迅速逃逸離去。

我們生活在這樣的一個美麗城市，不同種類的藝術工作者天天不斷試圖用各種方式詮釋這座城市的美麗與榮耀。 很不幸的，有些惡徒輕易地就摧毀了所有藝術家的夢想，這是何等的醜陋以及不堪。

For some strange reason, this reminded me of the flame paint scheme you sometimes see on old hot rods. Cool...

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

• Sam Levenson.

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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.

• Annie Besant.

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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.

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!

As promised earlier, here is the panoramic version of the holiday SF skyline view from Treasure Island.