Tag Archives: port

Pier, San Francisco Bay, Morning

June 30, 2012 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

An old pier along the Embarcadero, San Francisco Bay, with structures of the Port of Oakland, California across the water.

I wonder how long it will take for me to feel that I have exhausted the possibilities of this walk along San Francisco’s Embarcadero? Here is (yet another!) morning photograph made it this area, once again with what is perhaps my favorite light in this location – the early morning glow of backlit fog/haze over the waters of the Bay.

I made this photograph on a very calm summer morning when there waters of the Bay were almost completely smooth, at least until a bit of boat traffic began to come by and a breeze came up. Interjecting itself into the left side of the frame is one of the old piers along this section of the waterfront. In the far distance, all the way on the other side of the bay and muted by the morning haze, are giant cranes used at the Port of Oakland.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Construction Site, Cyclone Fence

May 17, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A of new building under construction in the Mission Bay are of San Francisco, as seen through a cyclone fence.

Just across McCovey Cove from San Francisco’s AT&T Park is an area where a lot of construction is currently occurring. The area is visually interesting right now partly because of the juxtapositions of really old and run-down stuff, some of the typical empty urban areas filled with parking lots and other temporary facilities, and a lot of change as new buildings go up. On this morning I walked into an area that not all that long ago had an abandoned feeling during the morning hours – and how it was buzzing with activity. Huge steel pilings stretch toward the sky, construction zones are fenced off, and hundreds of workers and lots of heavy equipment are busily at work. Yet even this is only a temporary state that will lead before long to yet another change once the buildings are complete, the construction workers go away, and new businesses and residents move in.

At this site I had first photographed the towering steel pilings. They created a feeling of a sort of odd, abstract monument as they pointed toward the sky. (A photograph of that will appear, or may already have appeared, here at the blog.) Then I walked up next to the fence surrounding the construction site and was impressed by the organized (I presume!) confusion and complexity of what was going on at ground level. Every inch of the site seemed to be occupied by something – rebar ready for concrete pouring, workers operating various pieces of large and small machinery, engineers and planners inspecting the work, the beginnings of towers and walls rising here and there. If anything in the urban landscape comes close to the level of complexity that may be found in the natural landscape, it just might be a place like this!

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.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

May 6, 2012 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Shoreline fences along the edge of the San Francisco Bay with moored boats and, in the distance, the Oakland shoreline and East Bay hills.

This photograph was made from a spot that many San Francisco Giants fans know rather well – the Third Street Bridge that is right next to AT&T Park. There were few Giants fans around when I made this photograph though, since it was quite early in he morning on a weekday. The camera is pointing almost but not quite directly into the early morning sun, which shines through a luminous morning haze over the bay on a very still morning.

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Treasure Island Harbor and Bay Bridge, Dawn

October 29, 2009 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Sunrise light on the new and old spans of the Bay Bridge at Treasure Island with foreground of boats moored at the Treasure Island harbor.

(It occurred to me yesterday that posting this right now might make sense given that the big news story here in the SF Bay Area is the structural failure of a part of the bridge and the subsequent bridge closure… and area-wide traffic meltdown.)

I had originally planned to be in Yosemite Valley today shooting fall color, but life intervened and there simply wasn’t enough time for a trip to the Valley. Instead I decided to take most of the day and head up towards Muir Woods to do a bit of shooting in the redwoods, hoping for some fall color there. Since I was on the road very early, I had time for a detour out to Treasure Island as I passed through San Francisco so I decided to go out there and try some stitched panoramas of dawn light on San Francisco over the water of the Bay.

I arrived there a good 10-15 minutes before sunrise and made a series of panorama exposures of that iconic scene – perhaps nothing astonishing, but worth the trip half way across the bridge. As I finished shooting this scene I looked back across the road toward the Bay Bridge and Oakland, a scene I’ve photographed before, and was struck by the forms of the backlit towers of the old and new spans of the Bay Bridge, the latter currently under construction. I quickly moved across the road to find a better vantage point and decided to come up with a composition that included the boats moored in the harbor in front of the view of the bridge.

A technical note about what you are seeing. A new, replacement eastern bridge span is under construction next to the old bridge. The structures in crossing the photograph include the old bridge, portions of the new bridge, temporary structures supporting the installation, and cranes. If you look closely (easier to do in a large version than in this small jpg) you can see the cranes at the port of Oakland in the distance beyond the bridge.

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

keywords: treasure, island, san, francisco, oakland, bay, bridge, construction, new, boat, moor, anchor, crane, morning, light, dawn, sunrise, reflection, california, usa, structure, urban, construction, equipment, port, harbor, mast, haze, mist, landscape, stock, eastern, span, new

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Tag Archives: port

Pier, San Francisco Bay, Morning

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Construction Site, Cyclone Fence

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Shoreline Fences, San Francisco Bay

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Treasure Island Harbor and Bay Bridge, Dawn

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Photographer and visual opportunist. Daily photos since 2005, plus articles, reviews, news, and ideas.