San Francisco Skyline, Light Beams

Posted on 21 December 2010

Beams of light from brilliantly lit clouds send beams of light past downtown San Francisco buildings and toward the waterfront.

Anyone who knows San Francisco might be wondering about this light – and I wouldn’t blame them. These were really unusual conditions. Believe it or not, the photograph was made very early in the morning, perhaps a bit less than a half hour after sunrise. Which begs a couple of questions: why is the light coming from the right (west to southwest) at dawn? And, why does the light seem to be coming from such a high angle?

The light beams are not direct sunlight. The sun is actually far to the left of the frame and very low in the sky. Its direct light was blocked by intervening fog clouds. As the clouds moved from left to right, thinner areas in the cloud cover were struck from behind by the very low angle sunlight coming from the left and set aglow. It was the brilliant light from these areas of backlit clouds that cast the light through the mist and between buildings. What you cannot see in the still photograph is that as the clouds moved the beams of light slowly swept from right to left. From moment to moment the light beams would angle from right to left, then straight down, and then left to right.

Another amazing thing was that I appeared to be the only person out making photographs of this…

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.