The Golden Gate, Morning

Posted on 19 December 2009

Black and white photograph of Marin Headlands, north tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Bay Bridge.

Icon alert! Yes, that bridge.

I had business in San Francisco later in the day so I decided to start early and spend time north of the bridge and then return through the City in the evening. As I cross the bridge I almost always assess the possibilities for photography, as often as not decided to not stop since, as beautiful as the view of the Bay is it is not always worth photographing. On this morning though the conditions were a bit special and of a type that we usually only see in the winter months. There are mainly two types of fog in the Bay Area. First there is the “streaming into the Golden Gate type of fog” – which was not present this day – that comes in off the ocean. Then there is the winter tule fog which rises from wet ground on cold winter mornings – and the atmosphere on this morning was affected by that condition.

I made several photographs of the Bay, the bridge, and the City – but this one is perhaps a “triple icon” (for better or worse!) shot in that it includes the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, and the Transamerica Pyramid centered in the north tower of the Bridge. I’ve known about the possibility of this shot for quite a while – but until now I managed to resist! Here I gave in and decided to figure out the location. It is almost embarrassingly easy to find and shoot once you figure it out, but you do need a fairly long lens. (In the full resolution original I can clearly see a couple standing on the overlook at bottom left and admiring the view.)

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

keywords: california, usa, travel, scenic, san francisco, bay, area, golden, gate, national, recreation, area, park, stock, bridge, bay, oakland, waterfront, road, marin, headlands, battery, haze, cloud, morning, light, fog, north, tower, people, couple, water, east, bay, hills, oakland, transamerica, buliding, urgan, silhouette, cable, stock

Category: Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: People, Photographs: San Francisco
Tags: area, battery, bay, bridge, buliding, cable, california, Cloud, couple, east, fog, gate, golden, haze, headlands, hills, light, marin, morning, national, north, oakland, park, people, photo, photography, recreation, road, san francisco, scenic, silhouette, stock, tower, transamerica, travel, urgan, usa, water, waterfront

5 comments to The Golden Gate, Morning

Dave Miller

says:

December 19, 2009 at 9:12 am

Beautiful Shot Dan. I love the way you captured the Bay Bridge in the background. That drew my attention before seeing the Transamerica Building.

Thanks for sharing!

Rajan P. Parrikar

says:

December 19, 2009 at 12:35 pm

A beaut!

Justin Nguyen

says:

December 19, 2009 at 1:11 pm

Awesome shot, as to be expected. Superb framing & depth, the background is just as notable as the foreground.

p.s. Hi Professor Mitchell!

Regards from a former student,
Justin

G Dan Mitchell

says:

December 19, 2009 at 7:15 pm

Thanks, Justin – hope you are enjoying winter break!

cynthialeeder

says:

December 20, 2009 at 11:27 am

Great shot Dan! I’m glad you decided to give into temptation and photograph with wild abandon. :-) Otherwise you wouldn’t have this shot. And have you ever taken a shot, almost as an after thought, not sure it was even going to be worth bothering with, and then find out later that it was one of your best shots of the day? It’s fun when that happens.

And in the meantime, I am hoping to get out with the camera again, maybe to Bishop for some snowy shots in the eastern Sierra. I’d like some clouds in the mix though and I don’t know that I’ll bother if its going to be boringly sunny. So in hoping for some lousy weather, I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season and Happy New Year full of your best photography yet!