The Golden Gate, Morning. San Francisco, California. December 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of Marin Headlands, north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Bay Bridge.

Icon alert! Yes, that bridge.

I had business in San Francisco later in the day so I decided to start early and spend time north of the bridge and then return through the City in the evening. As I cross the bridge I almost always assess the possibilities for photography, as often as not decided to not stop since, as beautiful as the view of the Bay is it is not always worth photographing. On this morning though the conditions were a bit special and of a type that we usually only see in the winter months. There are mainly two types of fog in the Bay Area. First there is the “streaming into the Golden Gate type of fog” – which was not present this day – that comes in off the ocean. Then there is the winter tule fog which rises from wet ground on cold winter mornings – and the atmosphere on this morning was affected by that condition.

I made several photographs of the Bay, the bridge, and the City – but this one is perhaps a “triple icon” (for better or worse!) shot in that it includes the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Transamerica Pyramid centered in the north tower of the Bridge. I’ve known about the possibility of this shot for quite a while – but until now I managed to resist! Here I gave in and decided to figure out the location. It is almost embarrassingly easy to find and shoot once you figure it out, but you do need a fairly long lens. (In the full resolution original I can clearly see a couple standing on the overlook at bottom left and admiring the view.)

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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