Wow, and we are in August... time flies... but the Golden Gate Bridge continues to enthrall. There are signs posted up along the route that warns of lane and vista point closures nightly till 0500 in the days ahead. They need to shut one or two of the lanes in the North bound direction so they can install an automated "lane creator" (how modern... for this area of tech eh?)... so i might be forced to skip a day or two...
08/01/14 0554 to 0604 Guess who got a late start today? sigh... getting old and decrepit in my old age. The fog... oh the enveloping fog. With the sun coming up within it, it feels like a warm blanket, dulling the edges and sounds of life and the day and the city starting to awake. i like the fog, but because of it... 18mm it is.
08/04/14 0632 Whirlwind weekend. The wedding of Jason and Robin in Santa Rosa (what a well done job Jason and Robin! So happy for both of you!), Frances Sunday and then this morning, Jenn off on the plane. The weather has cooled down. The day's beginning, however, is cloudy, low, grey, and menacing. i should think that it would be helpful for the wild fires burning to have such cloud cover, but i don't know if the cloudy conditions extend that far north. Regardless, Monday begins this week. We shall see what the week will hold...
08/05/14 0551 to 0608 Well, i think i might finally have to break down and get a tripod. My futile attempts at attempting to hold the camera steady over long exposures is going to be even more futile as the sun rise becomes later and later. Frankly, shaky hand photos is just not as en vogue as it used to be i think... sigh... darn the DTs... but a beautiful morning this...
08/06/14 0546 to 0610 A beautiful cloudless morning today. Surprisingly humid and a haze settled into the bay as the sun began to rise (according to Google, sunrise is at 0617). Still don't have a tripod... need to get one soon though... sigh... activation energy is low...
and, because things are a lovely hue of pink, here is an 18mm pano:
08/07/14 0559 to 0607 Woke up... fell asleep again... sigh... late start. Thank god the week is almost out. It has been a surprisingly long week for some reason, enjoyable... but long.
08/08/14 0543 to 0604 Wow... what a breezy and cold morning today! but a beautiful morning to shoot. A Carnival Cruises ship was pulling in and it is in fact the very bright spot in the bay that you can see on the photo! Wow... talk about all lit up!! Happy Friday
08/12/14 0538 to 0600 Back from a weekend in Paso Robles... good to be back to the cooler climes. A beautiful morning to photograph on the bridge, clear and fog free. During the morning's photos, i noticed something black with a streak of white dashing through the vista area. Sure enough, on the morning where a good half dozen folks were milling about and cars pulling in and out, a skunk decided to make a mad dash. Luckily, the air was not perfumed...
And since i missed Monday... here are two in 18mm
08/13/14 0550 to 0607 This morning, aside from this idiot, there was another person photographing in low light sans tripod... he had a rather nice telephoto lens though... not that i was covetous or anything... heh... It is amazing how different every day looks, even though the light, on first glance, does not ever seem that different... a wonder of a world we do live in...
08/14/14 0542 to 0552 The fog returns as the weather is forecasted to warm up in the coming days. Though a cool, if not slightly damp, morning still. Took a few 18mm panos while playing around with focal points and the camera's automatic exposure. You see, when it is fog fog everywhere, there isn't much for me to focus on, so the best i can do is to pick a visible and solid object and focus on that before i begin shooting. The issue is that the camera determines it's exposure and ISO settings based on that initial focus, and, if i don't refocus over the course of the panoramic picture taking, the exposure and ISO settings remains the same. Case and point, in pictures 1 and 2 below. The first picture was taken with my camera setting the focus and exposure/ISO settings while i was focusing on one of the lamps on the bridge. A minute later, a pano that was taken using the focus and exposure/ISO settings from me focusing on the stone wall of the vista point (where the lighting is much much darker).
then... there is this... long exposure with variable zoom... 18mm to 35mm over the course of the exposure... Doc Brown, i think we have ignition...
08/15/14 0552 to 0606 Not as foggy as yesterday morn... but shockingly much darker... and windier. Had a horrid time trying to get a steady shot... further reminder of the need of a tripod. At the end, two Asian boys showed up -- they were prepared, tripod and all -- to take photos of themselves and the bridge. A jovial atmosphere, amongst the sounds of the two boys teasing each other about one's tolerance for fog and cold.
08/18/14 0642ish Foggy morning, and a late start as i had to drop Jenn off at the airport. On this, the day after our 12th wedding anniversary. Today was a strange day at the vista point. A gaggle of photographers of the asian (most probably chinese) extraction were found perched on the wall and the fence posts as i pulled in. Every one of them had a large telephoto lens and most of them had tripods. Together, they formed a formidable wall of lenses in the same way i'd imagine a medieval wall of pike-men would've looked like. You can spy them in the first photo.
08/19/14 0547 to 0504 Alright... i reallly need a tripod... burn through a battery for unusable photos due to my trembling... and then the drizzle started... lol!
08/20/14 0531 to 0600 Beautiful clear morning and motivated by imminent journal club presentation... i think pressure makes photos better... well... it probably doesn't... but what hey...
08/21/14 0558 to 0617 It is one of these mornings where the light is almost perfect... and, as you futz with the camera and try to get the "perfect" shot, the fog and the mist rolls in. Edi is looking in bad shape this morning. Head drooped, eyes sorrowful. Yet i still went to work... the fool that i am. Or is it just me trying to escape the reality of what is going on? There is a dread these days when i go home. One day, i know, i will not see the familiar orange face looking at me, and sorrow will overcome all. Then one day, i will forget. The is the sad truth.
08/22/14 0536 to 0606 alright... one word for this morning... HOLY CRIPES IS IT WINDY... right... more than one word then...
08/25/14 0624 to 0630 Dropped Jenn off at the airport this morning, the first trip now that Edison has passed... The bridge vista point was all but deserted, there was just me and the fellow taking a selfie... but a beautiful morning for a photo or three...
today, because it was lit in such a lovely light, i also tried a series of shots at 18mm... i am not quite happy with how the panorama turned out... especially the Golden Gate Bridge's Northern Span, where it touches down on the Marin Headlands... there is a lack of depth and height and a bit of the drama of the scene seems to be missing for me... but that is just one man's opinion...
08/26/14 0553 to 0618 Last night was the first full night i spent with just Millie and i in the house. She was very vocal and active... parts of me worries that she is looking for Edison... needless to say... i got practically no sleep... i think i drifted off between 11 and midnight, 1 and 2, and 3 and 4 in the morning... then my alarm rang and Millie leaped off the bed... However, a beautiful morning at the North Vista Point... bleary eyed or no... i did spy something white and plump scampering about the rock walls and pillars but was too slow and sleepy to figure out what it was...
08/27/14 0543 to 0609 Another beautiful morning... in a largely deserted vista point... a few folks did arrive near the end and provided some company... but otherwise, it was a very zen experience... beautiful dawn... quite a fine way to start a day...
08/28/14 0554 to 0616 Later start to the day today... perhaps i felt that i can gift myself a few minutes time with the little cat, it being my birthday and all... Heh... nonetheless, made it to the vista point and reveled in the light fog of the morning!
08/29/14 0532 to 0609 Last post for August i guess... and one where the fog came in for a visit towards the end of the time spent... thus, the 18mm panos (2 of) at the end of the update...
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