Bridge – Page 9 – Decaseconds

Port, Bridge, and City

2012-May-25 adohertyh1 Comment

Whenever Photomatix releases an update, I like to go back and see what I can do with old RAW files and new software. This shot is a little bit older now, but I fell in love with the way it captures so much of the Bay Area in a single image: the Port of Oakland on the left, bits of Berkeley on the bottom-right, the Bay Bridge and Yerba Buena in the center, and San Francisco itself on the right. For so much of the year, the sky is absolutely clear until the marine layer blankets the bay in fog. The fog was just sliding over the hills as I took this shot; in a few minutes, the city had disappeared.

Golden Grid

2012-May-18 adohertyhLeave a comment

Here’s the exciting secret of photographing the Golden Gate Bridge: because of the cruel nature of geography, there is exactly one bluff from which to get reasonable pictures of the bridge. Greater than 80% of all Golden Gate Bridge photographs in existence are from the same place (with another 10% coming from the city side.) On any given evening, you’ll see dozens of photographers clustered in the Marin Headlands, set apart only by small differences in compositional preference.

The most interesting thing I discovered in taking pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, however, was that there is an enormous fence corralling the area. Just as most pictures use a similar angle to incorporate most of the bridge, most pictures also carefully crop away this fence. There are also myriad holes in the fence where rebellious souls have cut spots to poke their lenses through. I was most interested by the interplay of the curving fence links with the solid, glowing form of the bridge. In a way, I think today’s shot paints a truer picture of the sometimes compromised (but always gorgeous) experience of photographing the Golden Gate Bridge.

The Walk to Work

2012-Apr-282013-Aug-16 adohertyh2 Comments

Though, like anyone else, some days at work turn out to be excellent while others are slogs to the finish, my morning walk to work is always a high point. I cross this little bridge over Strawberry Creek and stare up at the redwoods and inhale those great pine-y smells–much better than any cup of coffee!

Guarding the Gate

2012-Apr-19 adohertyhLeave a comment

I previously posted a narrower shot of this heavily-graffitied gun battery in the Marin Headlands. It really is incredible how much time and effort have gone into layering art on top of a concrete structure that began as so monolithic and practical. Adding in the encroaching pine needles makes for one Hell of a juxtaposition.

San Fortress

2012-Mar-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

When the weather turns cold and blustery and rainy, a warm place (e.g. library, cafe, bed) feels like a fortress. On this particular day in the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, it was definitely cold, blustery, and rainy, but without a warm place to retreat to while shooting, I made do with a literal fortress, instead.

Two Bridges

2012-Feb-202012-Feb-16 emceehammr1 Comment

One more shot of this iconic structure, I found this shot compelling because you can see not only the Golden Gate bridge but also its cousin, the Bay Bridge as well as the SF skyline in the background there. If the shot were only a bit wider you’d be able to see Alcatraz and you’d be close to fitting almost all of the Bay Area’s most famous landmarks in one shot.

Miniature Marin

2012-Feb-18 adohertyhLeave a comment

Continuing the Marin Headlands bombardment, today’s photograph shows the northern approach to the Golden Gate Bridge with Angel Island in the background. This was also my first attempt at post-processing to simulate the use of a tilt-shift lens, which produces the illusion of a miniature reality. I think it works quite nicely here to give the bridge a feeling of being part of a model railroad set.

Transpacific

2012-Feb-162012-Feb-16 adohertyhLeave a comment

On Monday, Brendan showed you his view of the Golden Gate Bridge; today, it’s my turn. I was lucky enough to capture the moment an enormous container ship passed under the bridge on its way into the Pacific Ocean. The scale of both the bridge, and these behemoths of the ocean, shocked me when I first thought of it. I had been watching this ship for almost an hour as it maneuvered its way through the bay from the Port of Oakland, and as it passed Alcatraz, I realized that the island and the ship were nearly the same length! To then see the ship pass trivially under the Golden Gate was astonishing.

By this point in the evening it had started to rain, and keeping the lens clear was becoming increasingly difficult. I didn’t dare risk missing the moment the ship passed under the bridge, so I dried the lens, put the cover on, and waited patiently for just the right moment.

The Span

2012-Feb-022012-Feb-02 adohertyh3 Comments

The Bay Bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco is actually a pair of bridges, resting for a moment on the island of Yerba Buena. Attached to Yerba Buena is the ironically-named Treasure Island, a man-made island composed entirely of fill. From there, photographing either the East Bay or San Francisco itself works out quite nicely. Today’s shot of the western span of the bridge has a bit of the unlit Yerba Buena outcropping on the left and the hyperintense lights of AT&T Park (home of the SF Giants) under the bridge. On this particularly clear night, I was thrilled to be able to capture it all without a thick slathering of fog.

Sunset Over San Francisco, Round I

2011-Dec-222016-Jul-15 adohertyh1 Comment

Grizzly Peak, in the hills above Berkeley, is a great spot to get photos of San Francisco–if the weather cooperates. Though it was a bit foggy on this particular day, it afforded a great chance to see some interesting shadows. San Francisco itself is just visible beneath the sun.

This is also a great instance of just how useful HDR can be, as a technique; sunset images without tone mapping typically require the foreground to be completely silhouetted.