SF - Golden Gate vantage points for this weekend?

CalfeeRider · June 23, 2006

Hi all, I found this link, of trails for the Golden Gate Ntl Park. I'd thought of trying to get sunrise from the West looking back East at the bridge and the city/bay. If you have any suggestions or photo's of what the best vantage points may be for this weekend might be let me know!

Also, if there's any other spots you like for sunrise/sunsets - not just of the bridge - that'd be great too!

Thanks

photodoug · June 23, 2006

CalfeeRider wrote:

Hi all, I found this link, of trails for the Golden Gate Ntl Park. I'd thought of trying to get sunrise from the West looking back East at the bridge and the city/bay. If you have any suggestions or photo's of what the best vantage points may be for this weekend might be let me know!

Also, if there's any other spots you like for sunrise/sunsets - not just of the bridge - that'd be great too!

Thanks

niiiice map. he meant this link

Nikolai · June 23, 2006

Hey Jack!

CalfeeRider wrote:

Hi all, I found this link, of trails for the Golden Gate Ntl Park. I'd thought of trying to get sunrise from the West looking back East at the bridge and the city/bay. If you have any suggestions or photo's of what the best vantage points may be for this weekend might be let me know!

Also, if there's any other spots you like for sunrise/sunsets - not just of the bridge - that'd be great too!

Thanks

I have only limited experience with GGB (been there only a dozen times or so), but until our more experienced friends pitch in, here's my take on this situation.

Here's the Live map which basically covers all possible GGB sunset shooting points. Problem is - there is only ONE road. ##1 and 2 on this map are the classic vantage points. There are also a few pullouts between them (zoom in the map to see them) that also provide some nice views. #1 is rather low, just above the bridge, #2 is the highest, the pullouts are in-between. It's a very short distance between #1 and #2, you can scout them all in less than 30 min.

If you have time, you can also scout in the vicinity of #3. It's fairly low, pretty far and you'd lose northern part of the bridge, so I'm not sure if this is what you want. But in this case you'd have the setting sun straight behind you...

You need to go wide on #1, mid-tele on #2 and far-tele on #3.

Of course, there is the whole south shore #4, but
1) you'd lose SF skyline, although GGB view can be fantastic.
2) this is a water level beach position, so if any standard evening ocean-to-land breeze picks up it can be pretty drenchy...

As to the other sunrise/sunset locations.. Palace of Fine Arts always looks great, especially when the sun is low. Here it's pictured in the evening, but I'd say, if you go there in the morning and shoot from #1 (or any other location along the same path), you can get a nice reflection of the glowing pillars in a usually very quiet pond.

I'm pretty sure I haven't even scratched the surface of what you can shoot in SF, but hope this gets you started..

HTH

CalfeeRider · June 23, 2006

photodoug wrote:

niiiice map. he meant this link

Doh! Thanks for the fix!

CalfeeRider · June 26, 2006

Nik, thanks for the links! I found the road and spots without incident. The "problem" was the weather though. No sunrise or sunset due to fog. But, we had a great time shooting in China Town, the Palace of the Arts, the Japanese Tea Garden and Fog City Diner. I'll process a few and get some posted.

Take care!

Nikolai · June 26, 2006

Jack,

CalfeeRider wrote:

Nik, thanks for the links! I found the road and spots without incident. The "problem" was the weather though. No sunrise or sunset due to fog. But, we had a great time shooting in China Town, the Palace of the Arts, the Japanese Tea Garden and Fog City Diner. I'll process a few and get some posted.

Take care!

Glad my limited knowledge was helpful. It looks like you hit the "Jack"-pot,

: all those places are top-notch photo-ops
Anxious to see your results!

BTW - do you have any thoughts about acratech UB v2? I'm on a fence..

CalfeeRider · June 27, 2006

Nikolai wrote:

Glad my limited knowledge was helpful. It looks like you hit the "Jack"-pot, : all those places are top-notch photo-ops
Anxious to see your results!

BTW - do you have any thoughts about acratech UB v2? I'm on a fence..

Hey Nik, I hadn't seen the V2 before. Nice design! I can only speak for my Ultimate (V1?), and say I've been VERY pleased with it! Since I also use L-brackets, I'd say if I were buying one today I'd go with the V2. Rotating the clamp down for portrait mode isn't an issue (with the L-bracket), but there are times where on the V1, I have to spin it around 180 degrees depending on how much tilt I want and in what direction. The V2's more traditional ballhead orientation would address this - but so would any other ballhead - although at 1.25 lbs few are that light and can hold 30 lbs of gear.

Let me know what you decide! Or email me if you want my V1 for $225.

Take care!

Nikolai · June 27, 2006

Jack,

CalfeeRider wrote:

Hey Nik, I hadn't seen the V2 before. Nice design! I can only speak for my Ultimate (V1?), and say I've been VERY pleased with it! Since I also use L-brackets, I'd say if I were buying one today I'd go with the V2. Rotating the clamp down for portrait mode isn't an issue (with the L-bracket), but there are times where on the V1, I have to spin it around 180 degrees depending on how much tilt I want and in what direction. The V2's more traditional ballhead orientation would address this - but so would any other ballhead - although at 1.25 lbs few are that light and can hold 30 lbs of gear.

Let me know what you decide! Or email me if you want my V1 for $225.

Take care!

Thank you for the detailed answer.
I might take you upon your offer later, thanks man!
I'm also going to get an L-bracket.
I like the "own weight to supported weight" ratio in UBs.
I'm (mentally) missing the clamp-type release (they have a knob for it, correct?), but I guess it's not gonna be too hard to adjust.

Whare are the SF piccies?

CalfeeRider · June 29, 2006

Nikolai wrote:

Thank you for the detailed answer.
I might take you upon your offer later, thanks man!
I'm also going to get an L-bracket.
I like the "own weight to supported weight" ratio in UBs.
I'm (mentally) missing the clamp-type release (they have a knob for it, correct?), but I guess it's not gonna be too hard to adjust.

Whare are the SF piccies?

If I follow your question about the clamp-release, I'm pretty sure they also have a quick release clamp, but I bought mine with the L-bracket from Really-Right-Stuff. Unless you have a different preference, I'd suggest an Arca compatible bracket system. They work well and are common.

Yeah... the pics... not enough hrs in the day. And I leave tomorrow for a loooong weekend in Monterey. That'll only add to the backlog that started with the Shootout/Post-shootout! :bash

Nikolai · June 29, 2006

Jack,

CalfeeRider wrote:

If I follow your question about the clamp-release, I'm pretty sure they also have a quick release clamp, but I bought mine with the L-bracket from Really-Right-Stuff. Unless you have a different preference, I'd suggest an Arca compatible bracket system. They work well and are common.

Yeah... the pics... not enough hrs in the day. And I leave tomorrow for a loooong weekend in Monterey. That'll only add to the backlog that started with the Shootout/Post-shootout! :bash

Thanks! I'll be looking in that direction!

Have fun in Monterey!

And that backlog.. Tell me about... I still haven't processed my Monterey (as well as many other) pics from my pre-shootout 2005(!) trip

SF - Golden Gate vantage points for this weekend?

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