Tag Archives: tower

Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Morning

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North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Morning
North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Morning

North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay, Morning. San Francisco, California. February 5, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, with San Francisco Bay, the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, a departing ship, and the East Bay hills beyond in morning fog and haze.

I’ve been working on the color version of this photograph, which proved to be a bit more tricky than I would have expected. My recollection of the light on this morning was that it was very bright – with the backlit haze/fog – and quite blue. But, as often happens, the coloration in the camera was dissonant with my memory, and I had to think a bit about where I wanted to go with the photography in post. In particular, the sky had an odd pink cast that can often become more obvious when using a long lens and only keeping a bit of the sky right above the horizon.

The background on this photograph (and several others in the same series) is that it was made on an early February morning shortly after sunrise from a point high in the Marin Headlands of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. For the most part it was actually a brilliantly sunny and clear morning, but an inversion layer was creating a thin blanket of fog/haze that was almost too bright to look at and which muted the details of the landscape. (It was also tremendously windy – making it a challenge to shoot with a long lens!) After making a few initial exposures from a more obvious location – and one that was slightly out of the wind – I decided to wander a bit and look for juxtapositions of various landscape elements with the shape of the north tower of the bridge. After a short walk I found this spot where the tower was centered between the two towers of the more distant western span of the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge, and where the view included a bit of the San Francisco waterfront along the right margin and the fog-covered flatlands below the East Bay hills.

As I worked I noticed a freighter leaving the Port of Oakland beyond the further bridge. I’ve watched enough of these ships heading across the bay that I have a pretty good idea of the path they follow, and I knew that this one would cross beneath the Bay Bridge and then turn to cross the frame towards the left – so I waited for it to reach the position just barely to the left of the closer bridge tower before making this exposure.

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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.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

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North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge
North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge

North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge. San Francisco, California. February 5, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge silhouetted against San Francisco Bay morning haze and the San Francisco Oakland Bay Bridge.

A week ago I posted a few other photographs from this early morning winter visit to the upper reaches of the Marin Headlands, from which I photographed the bridges of the San Francisco Bay, backlit by early sun and partially obscured by a low layer of fog and haze. Since I am not fond of adding poetic (or pseudo-poetic) titles to my photographs, preferring to let them say whatever they have to say on their own, I have resisted the temptation to call this one “The Three Towers.” ;-)

The dark shape in the foreground that dominates the frame is, of course, the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge. Shooting it in this light is trickier than it might seem like it should be. The light coming from beyond, reflected and amplified by water and haze, is very bright – almost hard to look at directly. So the west side of the bridge is deeply shadowed. I like the dark and stark shape of the tower here – as opposed to the more familiar photographs front or side lit by late afternoon or evening light – but the trick is to keep just a bit of detail in that nearly black tower.

The scene posed another technical issue, though it probably isn’t visible in this small version. As the sun comes up and heats the atmosphere, and as wind blows (and it was windy on this morning!) there is a lot of atmospheric turbulence. Normally you wouldn’t notice this at all, but when you shoot with a long lens and enlarge the image you quickly see that sharp edges and fine lines take on an almost “painterly” quality as the atmosphere shimmers, much in the manner of a mirage.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
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: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze

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Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze
Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze

Golden Gate and Bay Bridges, Morning Haze. San Francisco Bay, California. February 5, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photograph of Golden Gate Bridge north tower, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, and the East Bay Hills in morning haze.

I sometimes enjoy playing the juxtaposition game, going up into the Marin Headlands and using a long lens to juxtapose elements of the Golden Gate Bridge with other elements of the landscape, human and natural, of San Francisco Bay. One of the most iconic examples of such photographs is the one that many have shot (including me!) that centers the tip of the Transamerica building within a frame formed by the north tower of the bridge. But there are many other possibilities that might be at least as interesting, and which may depend more on the changing and often very interesting conditions of atmosphere and light over the bay.

This photograph was made from a point very close to that from which the Transamerica building photograph can be made, but a bit higher on the road up into the headlands. When I arrived just before dawn in the general area there were quite a few other photographers who I presume were there to photograph the dawn scene. (This is a difficult task, as it requires you to shoot essentially directly into the sun if you want San Francisco in your shot.) I was surprised when essentially all of the other photographers packed up and left a few minutes after the sun came up! (In their defense, it was windy up there – so windy that it made shooting with a long lens quite a challenge!) The sunrise wasn’t all that amazing, at least not if you know this area pretty well. But the low haze/fog over the east bay hills and some overhead clouds filtering the light a bit created the potential for some interesting and moody light – at least if I used a long lens to isolate small sections of the scene.

I’m almost a bit embarrassed to admit that I picked my first shooting location not based on the scene but rather on trying to avoid the wind! I went up the road to a spot where I could shoot in the lee of a hill side. After getting that out of my system, I went the other way and entered a very windy area along the road below the parking lot. I eventually found a spot that lined up the two great bridges of San Francisco Bay – the north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge in the foreground and two towers and a central span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the distance, both backed by that low fog and haze and beyond the East Bay Hills.

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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.

Photographs: Nature, Photographs: Northern California

Central Valley Sky, Winter

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Central Valley Sky, Winter
Central Valley Sky, Winter

Central Valley Sky, Winter. Great Central Valley, California. January 23, 2011. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Thin winter clouds drift above farmland, Central Valley, California.

Photographing these beautiful winter clouds above the California Central Valley near the Cosumnes River between Stockton and Sacramento involved a certain amount of luck. For the most part it had been an extremely foggy morning – so foggy that at a few points early in the day I simply couldn’t find anything to shoot. Eventually the light began to filter down through the tule fog and I had some good luck shooting further up the valley at the Cosumnes River Wildlife Preserve.

At a certain point as the fog begins to thin it goes through a phase that is not so photographically compelling. The very thick fog can be quite interesting, and the light can be very special just as the sun starts to force its way through the fog as it starts to clear. But they there is a period when it is sort of sunny and sort of foggy, and but perhaps lacks the best aspects of each of the two conditions. That is how it was at about the time I left the Preserve and started back down the valley on my drive home.

Much earlier in the morning I had visited this side road near a bend in the Cosumnes River, so I decided to try it again since it was only slightly out of my way on the return drive. I drove slowly all the way to the end of the side road – to where it runs into the levee at the river – and then turned around to start back. I saw lots and lots of waterfowl, including impressive sandhill cranes and beautiful white egrets, but they were all too far from the road or in areas that didn’t provide the right kind of background. Near these flooded fields I stopped to consider trying to photograph some of the birds, changed my mind, and instead decided to see what I could do with these buildings, the flooded fields, and the sky. It was my luck that this final stop coincided with the near clearing of the fog and the appearance overhead of these wonderful clouds.

G Dan Mitchell Photography | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Email
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.