The Bay Bridge connects San Francisco and Oakland. While it doesn’t have the same international reputation as the Golden Gate Bridge, the Bay Bridge is nonetheless remarkably beautiful, especially at night when both the older western and new eastern spans are brightly illuminated. From this vantage point, 101 carries traffic up to Downtown San Francisco before 80 takes them across the Bay Bridge. The building on the bottom right is the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. The cathedral is already quite beautiful at night. However, when the rose window is illuminated, it adds an extra sparkle to this gem on Nob Hill.
Located above Telegraph Hill, Coit Tower offers panoramic views of San Francisco. Built during the Great Depression, the tower features frescoes commissioned by the Public Works of Art Project.
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.
During the late afternoon, I took a peek outside and spotted some high clouds. That usually means a colorful sunset. I didn’t realize how hazy the skies were at the time. San Francisco was pretty well hidden from the smoke coming from the Northern California wildfires.
Grabbed the relatively lightweight Nikkor 28-300mm lens for an evening hike. I learned my lesson last time when I hauled a backpack and tripod. Just cannot move quickly with that much gear. Anyways, the leisurely walk turned into a biathlon once the sunset colors revealed themself. Run and shoot. Run and shoot.
Clear Outside predicted a few hours of clear weather, but I could already see the clouds filling the skies. When I tried to confirm polar alignment before this set, Polaris was already obscured. However, ASIAir Pro was still able to plate solve despite the clouds. The final photo came from stacking 30 images taken at 30s each with the TPO UltraWide 180 f/4.5.
The Len Turner Memorial Vista Point offers a view of San Francisco, running from Candlestick to the Bay Bridge. When I previously had difficulty focusing on San Francisco at night, I suspected my lens and teleconverter combination may have been the culprit. After switching to the TPO UltraWide 180, I realized that the problem was the fog. Even the portions of the City which were not obscured by fog, the moisture and strong wind rendered all the city lights into bloated dots. So, this cityscape needs to be reshot on a clear evening.
The Len Turner Memorial Vista Point is located on Ralston Avenue in Belmont, CA. Apple Maps had the wrong address for the location and sent me down Belmont Canyon Road.
While waiting for the July 4th fireworks to begin at the Huntington Beach pier, an even more spectacular display erupted in the adjoining neighborhood. I was surprised to see so many aerial fireworks. I remembered running around with sparklers as a child. No one was launching pyrotechnics to rival the pros. Seriously, this was more entertaining than the official fireworks show. However, after some research, the aerial fireworks may not have been safe and sane.
When most photos are captured in fractions of a second, spending an hour or more to take a photo feels like madness. That’s the reason why I never attempted to photograph star trails before. However, once I headed down the path of astrophotography, the calculation changed. Since I’m waiting for the camera most of the time, I could be twice as productive by setting up an older camera to take star trails. Since this was my third attempt, I was only willing to commit 30 minutes to the process. Also, I wasn’t sure what factor the 62% waxing gibbous would play in the final image. The end result turned out better than expected.
