Night – Page 20 – 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.

Broad Tree

2012-May-14 adohertyh1 Comment

Berkeley really does have some truly gorgeous vignettes, both on- and off-campus. This shot of a tree on Hearst Ave. last fall is so conveniently lit to accentuate the broad reach of its branches and their solidity relative to the leaves in the stiff breeze.

Watcher Orange

2012-Mar-20 adohertyhLeave a comment

Today’s image is a shot up a telephone pole on a quiet night. I love the way the lens flare massively amplifies the oranges of the sodium-based streetlight in contrast with the blue-purple hues of the sky. This smeared palette looks particularly interesting against the pattern of cables and wires.

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 San Francisco Waterfront and Skyline

2012-Feb-082012-Feb-06 emceehammrLeave a comment

Here again we have a shot of the San Francisco skyline, this time from Treasure Island including the interesting Transamerica Pyramid.

The Bay Bridge

2012-Feb-062012-Feb-06 emceehammrLeave a comment

Here we’ve got a shot of the construction on the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge as shot from Treasure Island with the port of Oakland in the background.

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.

Oxford Research

2012-Jan-28 adohertyhLeave a comment

Today, I’m posting another photograph of UC Berkeley’s greenhouses at their Oxford Research station. This area has a bizarre mix of well-maintained, modern facilities along with others that look as though they haven’t been touched since the 1960’s. The vibe reminds me a bit of certain levels in Portal 2. More than anything, it’s amazing that I was able to stand around in the parking lot of this fascinating place for 20 minutes taking photos.

The Neighbors

2012-Jan-262012-Jan-26 adohertyhLeave a comment

I’ve always loved the little details of a gorgeous house–the tiny trim pieces, or the leaded glass windows. This particular shot reminded me of playing in the yard as a child. In the winter time, the sun set before dinner, so when the time came to head in, the house had this unearthly blue glow that made the warm light from inside so much more inviting.

The Glowing Greenhouse

2012-Jan-172016-Jul-15 adohertyhLeave a comment

UC Berkeley has an enormous number of greenhouses just to the west of their main campus. The glow from inside them at night fit nicely with the streetlights reflecting off the low cloud cover on this particular night.

Stanley Hall at Night

2012-Jan-09 emceehammrLeave a comment

This is another shot from the same night as the previously referenced environmental calamity (read: massive diesel spill) this time of ground zero. The iridescent facade looks interesting in the low light.

Trellis Shelter

2012-Jan-072016-Jul-15 adohertyhLeave a comment

These little alcoves on Berkeley’s campus are apparently great places to study. At night, in particular, their lighting makes for some fairly spectacular effects. This is the same area where Brendan found that great shot of the chessboard yesterday, and I thought it might be nice to show a broader view, too.

Chess Board at Night

2012-Jan-06 emceehammrLeave a comment

My favorite part of this shot has got to be the contrast between the stone wall in the background and the brightly illuminated foliage just behind the table, providing an interesting backdrop for the aging wooden chairs and table.

Rear Window

2012-Jan-052016-Jul-15 adohertyhLeave a comment

Different types of lighting (e.g. incandescent, fluorescent, sodium vapor, mercury vapor…) produce light of different colors. Though that’s pretty common knowledge, mixing lighting types in one picture can have striking effects and add color to scenes that might be drab in daylight. I say, “scene,” because this picture strikes me as a bit cinematographic–or perhaps even like the set of a play. I can just imagine Sharks and Jets preparing to rumble around the corner…