On a hot November evening, tourists go out to see the dramatic view and enjoy the weather. It was getting dark , so the exposure time was 8 seconds and the people moved a lot during that period. It was a beautiful evening.
A late September layer of low fog brings an end to a heat wave.
I noticed that a combination of a very low tide, a clearing storm, and a December sun angle pointing towards the Marin headlands could put on a rare show, so I headed out to see if it would happen. Just 20 minutes before I made the photograph, the sky was heavy and dark. But finally a hole opened up in the clouds to the west and the sun came through for about 5 minutes. It was quite a show!
Fog never fails to create lots of atmosphere and mood. The Golden Gate is both a passageway for people as well as for lots of ocean fog to cool off the inland areas. A long exposure shows the way the fog flowed through the gate. The last light of the sun and the lights of the bridge in equal amounts illuminated the fog. This even light lasts for only a few minutes, so in the course of one evening, only one or two chances for a long exposure such as this are possible. Since there is no time to take light readings, a good guess for the camera settings based on experience is the best way to go or you will miss the shot. Even though it was getting dark, the sky was still much brighter than the sea, so I used an ND grad filter to even out that contrast. It worked just the same as during the day. It took me three years to capture this moment and I have never seen it happen again. Nobody was down here. There were dozens of tripods set up on the well-worn hillside to the right of the frame, but they were pointing in the wrong direction to see this reflected light on the water and how it moved through the fog and clouds.
The sun way very bright as it rose over the city, but then it hid behind that thin ribbon of cloud, allowing the light to spread across the landscape and even between the city buildings. 1 minute later and the light show was over!
I've made a couple other similar compositions in this spot, but not at sunrise with a brilliant red sunset illuminating the entire scene. So here it is! A 2- minute long exposure with a very dark uncolored filter made this possible. It is super sharp from front (3 ft from the lens) to back.
The thick fog surrounding the bridge alternated from being a thick soup to a emerging as a golden veil as it swirled around on this morning. Fog often can produce some excellent atmospheric effects, though it does not always cooperate. Three foghorns echoed against the hills as ships passed by. The fog allowed parts of the bridge to be hidden so others could be emphasized. It is usually necessary to wait quite a long while in order for the most interesting parts to be visible, as if a painter were composing the image. The wait often pays off but even if it doesn
It is often a unique set of weather conditions and geography that make an image of the bridge special and set it apart from the millions of pictures shot here annually. Often, when you drive over the bridge, you go from warm and dry weather directly into thick cool fog as you head into the city. It is this extreme temperature difference that creates the fog and the moody atmosphere. On this evening a mist shrouded crescent moon helped the bridge lights illuminate the scene after sunset. Even though the moon was just a crescent, the dark side of the moon was visible and still quite bright. The entire moon is intentionally overexposed here in order to show how it lit up the evening sky. This atmosphere lasted for only a few minutes before the moon
disappeared into the fog. A long exposure shows the movement in the fog and the moon. Even a few star trails are visible in bigger prints. On an exposure of this length, a lot of guesswork is involved because there is little time to go about taking light meter measurements. I try to remember settings I have used in the past so that I can immediately set things up and not miss a memorable moment.