Departing Freighter. San Francisco, California. March 14, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
A freighter heads out of the Golden Gate and into the Pacific Ocean on a winter morning
I was on my way to a location north of the Golden Gate Bridge, having left home while it was still dark and crossing the bridge as the sky just begin to lighten. As I often do when I pass by here, I left the main highway for a short time and went up a ways into the Marin Headlands to see what sort of early morning light might appear over the San Francisco Bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. The lights of the City were still on at this early hour, so I first photographed in that direction.
There was a variety of types of clouds around the Bay—fog to the south and east, high clouds above, and a bit of general haze everywhere. As the sun came up behind the East Bay clouds and fog there was a bit of color, though the effect was subtle. A bit later this very large freighter approached the bridge as it prepared to leave the bay. It was one of the largest that I have seen pass beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. I went back to shooting other subjects, but my attention periodically went back to this ship as it moved farther off shore. Eventually a bit of muted sunlight hit the boat and some light came to the higher clouds as it headed on toward an off-shore fog bank and then, I imagine, a much longer voyage across the Pacific.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.