Tag Archives: bridge

A Brief Note About Upcoming Posts

Posting a new photograph here every day isn’t easy! I usually try to work ahead so that I have a number of photographs queued up in advance. (No, I’m not really up at 4:00 a.m. Pacific every day finishing up and posting a new photo… ;-)

About a month ago I found myself in the difficult position of having no new photograph ready for the next day’s post on more than one occasion. Fortunately, this happened at about the time of my annual ritual of reviewing all of my photographs from the previous year. This year that amounted to more than 10,000 frames. Not surprisingly, I found a few interesting photographs that I had forgotten or which didn’t make sense to me originally.

During the past few weeks I’ve had more opportunities to get out and shoot. In fact, right now I have nearly two weeks of photographs queued up for posting here. I had the opportunity to spend a rainy afternoon at the Getty Center in Los Angeles at the end of December, and a series of photographs from that adventure will appear soon. I also had the chance to make a quick visit to the Big Sur coast yesterday and I have a few new photographs from that trip that will appear soon – including a new shot of the Rocky Creek Bridge area that I think I like a lot.

Stay tuned!

Fall Morning, San Francisco and the Golden Gate

Fall Morning, San Francisco and the Golden Gate
Fall Morning, San Francisco and the Golden Gate

Fall Morning, San Francisco and the Golden Gate. Marin Headlands, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The view from the Marin Headlands across the Golden Gate and San Francisco to the East Bay and the hills beyond.

This is probably another familiar scene – the panoramic view of the Golden Gate and its famous bridge with San Francisco and its famous bay beyond. This vantage point high in the Marin Headlands provides a spectacular perspective on San Francisco and a good portion of the Bay. Treasure Island and Yerba Buena Island are visible above the north (left) tower of the Golden Gate bridge and the inland hills of the Diablo Range (a.k.a. as the “east bay hills”) are seen in the far distance.

This scene is often presented in a more panoramic perspective – in other words a wider and shorter composition. I played around with that idea here, but I ended up liking the sense of depth provided by the bit of Marin Headlands bluff at the bottom and I like this late autumn sky – though it felt more like early winter!

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: california, usa, travel, scenic, san francisco, bay, area, golden, gate, national, recreation, area, park, stock, east, bridge, marin, county, headlands, panorama, landscape, city, silhouette, oakland, hills, clouds, sky, trees, surf, water, morning, light, haze, fog, span, suspension, yerba buena, treasure, island, shadow, cable, bluff, blue

San Francisco Skyline, Winter Fog and Haze

San Francisco Skyline, Winter Fog and Haze
San Francisco Skyline, Winter Fog and Haze

San Francisco Skyline, Winter Fog and Haze. San Francisco, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright 2009 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Fog and haze obscure the winter skyline of downtown San Francisco, California.

Almost obscured by morning haze and fog, the San Francisco skyline is silhouetted against the backdrop of the morning light coming over east bay hills. This photograph was made from a vantage point in the Marin Headlands across the Golden Gate from the City. A number of downtown landmarks are visible including the Transamerica Pyramid, and beyond the downtown area a bit of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge is barely visible.

The atmosphere above the Bay varies in astonishing ways throughout the year, and it never seems to be quite the same twice. While the summer often brings the familiar banks of ocean fog, winter brings the effects of fog from the other direction in the form of tule fog forming over the inland valleys. It can be completely clear – and, for the season, warm on the coast – yet a few miles inland the lower valleys may be filled with cold, wet, ground fog.

During these conditions, the moist air can move towards San Francisco and the Bay by way of the delta. That is more or less what was happening on this morning when the very most and hazy air from inland had created this soft atmosphere and light above The City, even as higher winter clouds in clear air moved far overhead, catching the morning sun light.

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.

Golden Gate Bridge Tower, Transamerica Building, San Francisco Skyline

Golden Gate Bridge Tower, Transamerica Building, San Francisco Skyline
Golden Gate Bridge Tower, Transamerica Building, San Francisco Skyline

Golden Gate Bridge Tower, Transamerica Building, San Francisco Skyline. San Francisco, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The Transamerica Pyramid above the downtown San Francisco skyline and centered in the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge on a hazy winter morning.

This is, again, from the iconic location high in the Marin Headlands where the Transamerica Pyramid lines up precisely in the center of the upper portion of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. While this is certainly not an original view of San Francisco skyline, the effect of the thin winter fog is perhaps a bit different from what is usually seen from here. (This fog is related to the tule fog that forms on very cold mornings in the valleys of California. On this morning it was very thick further inland in the Central Valley and delta and some of that moisture was probably responsible for the conditions seen here over San Francisco.)

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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