The 7th Wonder

stephenoachs

Hello Everyone -- this is my first experience and post here on Digital Grin. Looking forward to checking out this community! Oh quick history of the title...In 1955, the American Society of Civil Engineers declared the Bay Bridge the Seventh Wonder of the World.

So to the shot...I took this back in December 2009 and finally got around to processing it just recently. This is a stitch of 5 images, 21 mega-pixels each, of the San Francisco Bay Bridge from the Embarcadero.

We held an Aperture Academy Night owls Workshop last night and we took the group to this location and that reminded me that sitting somewhere on my hard drive was my shoot from December!

I first photographed this location a few years ago and at that time I shot it with a Canon 17-40mm...a lens that allowed me to capture the entire span of the bridge in the view finder.

While the composition turned out as I had envisioned there was always something about that shot that bothered me...the dark foreground due to the railing and the barrel distortion from the lens effecting the vertical-ness of the Bay Bridge towers.

So, last December, Scott Davis and I (aka Buttermilk) headed to the city for some night shooting. High on my list was a re-shoot of the Bay Bridge and I had decided that I wanted to shoot it as a panoramic so that I could increase the amount of data in the image for printing. I've got a 36x48 print of the original version in the gallery but I want to go BIGGER.

We arrived and I setup my pano gear (aka Nodal bar, etc) got all leveled out but due to the railing along the Embarcado there was just no way to get the rotation needed to get a full 5 frames.

Scott looks over the rail and says "how about down there..."

I look over...down about 7-8 feet is a small ledge, a few feet above the waterline.

"You think?" I said.

So the next thing you know I'm climbing over the railing...now standing on a 1 foot ledge down about 8 feet...

"Looks good actually!" I yelled up.

So Scott hands me down my tripod and camera...two legs folded up...one leg folded back through the railing...Scott standing on the leg to keep things from falling over into the water.

I proceeded to level off, set the nodal point and pan through the scene...

"YES!" I proclaimed "this is perfect, I can get the entire scene and the foreground darkness is out of the way!"

I'm giddy. I start shooting.

Scott runs the timer, I mark the panning degree's and two minutes, by two minute exposures I shoot the scene.

I get about half way through and "airplane", sure enough...damn it! So I start over.

I get to the 3rd frame and a lady approaches down the pathway...she thinks I'm trying to commit suicide or something and Scott is talking me out of it...Scott assures her I'm just a crazy photographer and then she wants to take my picture.

FLASH!

"Lady!" I explain frustated..."please no flash, I'm exposing!!" :huh

So we start again.

Third times' the charm, I get through the entire pan, all 5 frames at 2 minutes each.

DONE.

I climb back up and thank Scott for his assistance with the captures and on into the rest of our night shooting we go.

Awais Yaqub

Welcome to the dgrin !
Beautiful photo and thanks for sharing detailed info, you are a brave guy !

Looking forward for more photos !

Awais Yaqub

Just saw your link and virtual tour of your gallery, great job. Will love to visit your gallery some day.

Eclipsed

Wow, this is a stunning photo with a great story. You've got some awesome stuff on your gallery too

And... Welcome to Dgrin

BoardroomPhoto

Great Pic
Seems you and scott had wonderful experience capturing this 7th Wonder at San Francisco. Thoroughly interesting dictation of your experience.
Thank you for sharing.

Tango

great story, awesome shot...(btw, what lens did you decide to pano with? 35mm or around that to keep distortion under control?)

shniks

Excellent Stephen. You have a great gallery btw. Very nice shots.



Cheers,

schmoo

I don't have anything really creative to add that hasn't already been said. Great story and what a wonderful variety of shots you have in your portfolios! I also love that you're local - maybe this means I can hit up a workshop in the near future.

Alpha_Plus

Seventh wonder indeed! Brilliant photography, and love the story with it.

Top Shot Stephen!!

dlplumer

Great story and a great shot

Tharhawk

Like the others, enjoyed the story and the photo.

Sam

Hi Stephen,

When I opened this post my very first thought was "Some clown is trying to pass off Stephen Oachs work as his own!"

Of course when I began reading I saw it was indeed you and your own work.:D

With your experience, technical knowledge, creative skills and business acumen, you are a most welcome addition.

Sam

dadwtwins

Great shot. You did the Bay Bridge some serious justice. Too many times it is over shadowed by the "other" famous SF bridge.

Thank you for your great story and sharing this wonderful Picture

stephenoachs

Many thanks everyone...and Sam, no worries...it is me but I'm glad you've got my back if some did try to use my work for their gain. It's happened before...sadly.

Ifocus4u

Stunning shot!..and thanks for the info. I am pretty new here too and am finding this to be a very friendly forum full of talent.

WillCAD

Beautiful shot, Steve. Just enough blue in the sky to set off the bridge nicely, but dark enough for all of the lights to show up perfectly. And some interesting pilings in the foreground, too; some photogs would be tempted to Photochop them out.

stephenoachs wrote:

"Lady!" I explain frustated..."please no flash, I'm exposing!!"

Makes me think of a line from Ghostbusters II:
"And you don't want us - exposing ourselves!"

pathfinder

Welcome Stephen. What a gorgeous image.

Readers should take the time to look at the OP's home gallery as well.

I look forward to you sharing more of your experiences here!

Snowgirl

pathfinder wrote:

Welcome Stephen. What a gorgeous image.

Readers should take the time to look at the OP's home gallery as well.

I look forward to you sharing more of your experiences here!

I just spent (far too much ) time perusing Stephen's gallery and his Aperture Academy articles. Beautiful images and well written "how to" articles. Thanks for sharing.

angevin1

Sweet photo...GREAT Story!!

invisible

WillCAD wrote:

And some interesting pilings in the foreground, too; some photogs would be tempted to Photochop them out.

I actually think that the pilings MAKE the photo, as uninteresting foreground pilings might be on paper. Stephen, did you do anything special to light them, or it was just ambient light?

Gorgeous shot, by the way.

d7freestyler

Great work.

stephenoachs

@invisible -- no, there is very little post processing in this shot. I choose a 3200K white balance to cool the scene down and took 6 images at 85mm in 15 degree increments. I ended up cropping on the left and the right so it's now the equivalent of 5 images (overlapped) and a total of 84MP.

The pylons are naturally lit by the streetlights from the San Francisco Embarcadero.

The Stig

Hey Stephan

Great shot, I have just been surfing around your web site and a couple of hours later i have come away amazed, great work and excellent tutorials on basic understanding

Regards

Chris