Beyond the Golden Gate

aktse

I spent a wonderful morning with Sam and then slowly made our way up the coast to meet up with rest of the dgrin/smugmug group near the golden gate.

Even though I lived in CA all of my life and have seen the bridge countless times, I never have seen the rolling hills of the East Bay from this view point from the Marin headlands. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I was looking diagonally through San Francisco.

People tend to forget San Francisco is really a small peninsula and that it is surrounded by water on three sides. The city itself is only around 49 square miles... And is socked in by fog most of the year. It was an unbelievable calm, clear day in the city.

For shots like this, I’m really glad that that smugmug has SmugMungous.



I still can’t quite figure out what cities are on the base of the hills on the other side of the bay. If I had to guess, I would think it must be San Leandro, or Hayward. The green arrow marks our shooting location... Any ideas? Am I right?

jfriend

aktse wrote:

I still can’t quite figure out what cities are on the base of the hills on the other side of the bay. If I had to guess, I would think it must be San Leandro, or Hayward. The green arrow marks our shooting location... Any ideas? Am I right?

Very nice shot. You clearly hit a very, very clear day.

You've got a pretty big range in your background. On the far left of your photo background, just to the right of the San Francisco skyscrapers, I think you can pick out Alameda in the foreground with San Leandro and Castro Valley behind it when looking from this angle (I looked at your original sized image). Further to the right would be Hayward. Even more to the right would be Union City and Fremont. In a color version of the image, it might be possible to see the San Mateo and/or Dumbarton Bridges which would give you a good reference for which city is where. If you had a good coutour map and knew how to read it, you could probably identify each of the mountain peaks in the background too as reference points.

Nikolai

Nice shot, April!

aktse wrote:

I still can’t quite figure out what cities are on the base of the hills on the other side of the bay..

You can use Google Earth or Visual Earth, fly into the Hawk Hill (your vantage point), recreate the viewing angle based on the GGB/SF and then fly towards your targets and see the map names...

schmoo

WOW what a great pano, April!!

It was so great getting to see you again in a (slight smaller) group than at the annual shootout. You are such a generous, friendly person, a great photographer and an excellent baker!

Did you get any shots from after the lights came on too?

aktse

jfriend wrote:

Very nice shot. You clearly hit a very, very clear day.

Actually, it was a mostly clear day, but not as the other shot makes it seem. And I don't have a color copy since other shot is in IR. I should have stated it in the first post... I find that IR cuts through all of the haze.

This is a simlar shot in color...


It's a different camera, lens and from about the same angle and time, but the background hills are not as well defined and everything else isn't as crisp and sharp.

Staring at the original? It's what I keep finding myself staring at as well. I don't know if it is because the golden gate is a familar subject for me, but I keep focusing on the background hills and I keep wonderng what cities I'm looking at. You don't get the same feeling with a smaller version...

Thanks for looking! And I wished that I met you on Friday night.

aktse

Nikolai wrote:

...
You can use Google Earth or Visual Earth, fly into the Hawk Hill (your vantage point), recreate the viewing angle based on the GGB/SF and then fly towards your targets and see the map names...

Thanks for the wonderful suggestion! I must try this! And it was great seeing you again!

aktse

schmoo wrote:

WOW what a great pano, April!!

It was so great getting to see you again in a (slight smaller) group than at the annual shootout. You are such a generous, friendly person, a great photographer and an excellent baker!

Did you get any shots from after the lights came on too?

Acutally, it's not a pano. It's a cropped from single frame, hand-held near the car.

It was great seeing you again. And you must come back soon (and bring Travis too!); you have so much more to see (and eat!).

Sam and I would have stayed for the lights, but both of his batteries were dead and I didn't want him to wait there just for me...

Nikolai

aktse wrote:

I find that IR cuts through all of the haze.

Interesting... Never thought/heard of that... Extra cool!
Just out of curiosity, you didn't have some extra filter on IR-attached lens?

It was great seeing you again, too!

jfriend

aktse wrote:

Actually, it was a mostly clear day, but not as the other shot makes it seem. And I don't have a color copy since other shot is in IR. I should have stated it in the first post... I find that IR cuts through all of the haze.

Ahhh, IR made it so clear - very interesting how it cuts through the haze - I've never actually seen that before.

aktse

Nikolai wrote:

... Never thought/heard of that... Extra cool!
Just out of curiosity, you didn't have some extra filter on IR-attached lens?
...

I heard about the clarity of the IR shots before I got the body, but never really experienced it until I shot with it. I know that scientists are using IR photos from Cassini spacecraft to cut through the haze of Saturn to get glimpses of Titian.

No special filters were used on the SF IR shot. It was just my IR mod'ed 350d with my 17-85mm, hand-held from the parking lot. Actually, there was very few keepers (if any) from my standard 20D and the only things that I like are from my IR body from hawk hill. I was planning on putting IR body away to shoot the lights of the bridge, but we left before I got to that point.

And the shot that devbobo, Ian and I took were all done in IR. I don't know if that shot would be possible with standard body, but no one else tried it. I just don't have enough experience to know. Maybe Andy, Nick or Ian would know more...

aktse

jfriend wrote:

Ahhh, IR made it so clear - very interesting how it cuts through the haze - I've never actually seen that before.

I never realized the clarity until I actually shot the same scene using both bodies. From that point on, I make an effort to carry both cameras when I'm shooting outdoors. I find that I'm reaching for the IR body more often these days especially during times of harsh sunlight.

A search provided a a few pages from a book on IR on the subject. I just might have to pick it up...

Sam and I are planning to head up there again in the future (and other parts of the bay area). If we ever meet up, you can try out the IR body.

Just a warning... So far, nearly everyone who has spent a bit of time with it wants one.

Scott_Quier

April, this is an absolutely stunning photo. I love the high contrast you have here! Wow

aktse

Scott_Quier wrote:

April, this is an absolutely stunning photo. I love the high contrast you have here! Wow

Thanks for the compliment! I didn't even expect it to turn out so well and I must admit that the camera did all the work. I just the one who clicked the shutter, cropped and changed it to B&W during post.

I think what surprised me the most was the clarity and the details when I zoom in and looked carefully.

I can see the windows of the buildings!


And I can see that people are in water near the Palace of Fine Arts.



To some, these cropped images are not anything special and actually on the grainy side. The exposure is okay and the focus is passable.

However, the detail and clarity are mind-boggling when you realize that these cropped images were taken from a single frame image, taken hand-held with my 17-85 (not even using L glass), using a 350D (not something like a 1DsMkIII with its monstrous mega-pixels) when I was physically miles away (even across the bay)!!!

To provide perspective, this is the uncropped image (in B&W)




Anyone care for a game of Where's Waldo? Can you find the Palace of Fine Arts? What about Transamerica building (easy one!)

The finished image looks like a pano because of the drama, clarity and detail in the capture, but it’s all due to the IR. I did very little but recognize that IR might work in this situation.

Nikolai

aktse wrote:

Anyone care for a game of Where's Waldo? Can you find the Palace of Fine Arts? What about Transamerica building (easy one!)

April, you gotta be kidding..:-)

aktse

Nikolai wrote:

April, you gotta be kidding..:-)

Well, that was more for people who don't know the area! hehehe You have to admit that if you didn't know the SF, it would be much tougher to find! I admit the Transamerica is a give-a-way. However, the Palace of Fine Arts is much harder when you don't know where it is!

However, you win a cookie or some grey goose when I see you next. :ivar

Nikolai

aktse wrote:

Well, that was more for people who don't know the area! hehehe You have to admit that if you didn't know the SF, it would be much tougher to find! I admit the Transamerica is a give-a-way. However, the Palace of Fine Arts is much harder when you don't know where it is!

However, you win a cookie or some grey goose when I see you next. :ivar

Yay!
And next time add Alkatraz, Colt Tower and Fort Point to your search list:-)