Had fun exploring the city and taking this photo of San Francisco. I like this perspective because it juxtaposes this quaint residential neighborhood with the massive skyscrapers downtown.

The classic view of Stanford University is from Palm Drive. From this behind-the-scenes angle, you can see the Stanford campus from a different perspective. The iconic Hoover Tower stands out and above all the surrounding buildings. The back of Memorial Church is also visible. Just follow Palm Drive, which is the vertical line on the left, down to the Quad. The Stanford Dish is not visible, but you can find the illuminated smaller dish.

The full moon in November is called the Beaver Moon or the Frost Moon. I’ve been searching for a location to observe the moon rise over Lick Observatory on Mount Hamilton. From Foothills Park, the moon rose over Sunnyvale. I tried again from Mount Umunhum, but the moon was far to the south. This time, I came the closest. For the first time, I was happy enough to capture the moon and Lick Observatory in the same frame. Next time, I’ll try to adjust the location to get an even better alignment.

Mont Saint-Michel was an unbelievable experience. Once the tourists emptied out, the town quieted down for the night. This was a 15 second exposure that was timed around the shuttle bus that travels back-and-forth along (and vibrates) the bridge.

The Moon (99% waxing gibbous), accompanied by Saturn and Jupiter, rises above Memorial Church at Stanford University. In terms of lining up the moon with a building, visit Photo Ephemeris, which is pretty accurate. In retrospect, I should have consulted it beforehand. Instead, I used the augmented reality feature in PhotoPills, which was not as precise.

One of the cooler buildings on the Stanford campus, the Clark Center is home to Bio-X, a multi-disciplinary lab that pulls from researchers from the departments of biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and medicine.

ICI REPOSE UN SOLDAT FRANCAIS MORT POUR LA PATRIE

At the Arc de Triomphe, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier honors a soldier who died for his country during World War I. I visited during Bastille Day when the tomb was adorned with ribbons and flowers.

Fans of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, the novel and the musical, should recognize this name on the Arc de Triomphe: Lamarque. The Paris riots that followed the funeral of General Jean Maximilien Lamarque is central to Les Misérables in that it provided Valjean the opportunity to save Javert and Marius Pontmercy.

These buildings are located just to the right of the San Mateo-Hayward bridge. In the minutes before sunrise, the illumination from the building lights pair well with the emerging sunrise and the reflection in the waters of the San Francisco Bay.

I had to look up these buildings on Google Maps and they appear to be part of the Gilead Sciences campus in Foster City, California.