Yes, I am biased

dadwtwins

The only problem with taking pictures of your home city is you are completely biased. Here is a pic I took yesterday. I love my cities skyline so much, i am unable to give myself any criticism. Please feel free to fire away:D

tsk1979

the Skyline does not say SFO until you catch the Bridge. You need to alter your location so that the scene screams SFO.
Not too difficult, after all SFO is a unique city!

gus

Perfect ! That pointy building + just a little bit of the bridge screams SF to me BUT.. not in the way 10's of millions of other photos of the city do though, its very individual.

schmoo

I have to say I'm with Gus here. I do think it is obviously SF, but it might not be for those who have not been there. I love it. Unique, powerful, and minimal.

Icebear

Well, I'm from Virginia, but I knew it was SF because of the TransAmerica spire, but quite frankly it looks more like an Eastern skyline to me. The silhouette treatment robs the image of (what I think is) the essential characteristic of SF - the hills.

As a technical matter, I think it's a bit oversharpened. Halos around the birds.

ehughes

I Like it, great job.....

pyry

I think it's great that the comp doesn't immediately throw SFO at you, subtle works
All in all, excellent piccie. I might have put the skyline lower down, to give birds more room to fly in, but maybe that's just me.

dadwtwins

tsk1979 wrote:

the Skyline does not say SFO until you catch the Bridge. You need to alter your location so that the scene screams SFO.
Not too difficult, after all SFO is a unique city!

Thank you for your honest comment. Just to add, i did not want to take a picture that screamed SF since their are sooo many of those already. I wanted to find an angle of the skyline that was more unique and not necessarily recognizable except for the locals.

I always felt more proud and righteous as a local of SF when i recognized a part of the city from pictures or movies that are not as common as say the Golden Gate bridge. You must admit, the city does have its share having ts picture taken.

aktse

I have to echo the sentiments from Gus and Schmoo. Minimal and powerful cityscape with just enough clues to let the viewer know it’s San Francisco (Golden Gate Bridge, Transamerica Building + Fog).

Although standard shots are SF are beautiful, I find that I see (and take) the same ones over and over again.

This one is different. If you have ever visited the city and saw this photo, you immediately know that it’s San Francisco (almost like an inside joke).

I don’t think I have ever seen a composition of SF like this before. Well done!

kitvan

cool shot!
i love the saturated color

tisun

I love the shot. It has every element of SF: the ocean (birds), the bridge, the TransAmerica building, and, especially the fog. It shows a unique perspective of SF. Few people show the Bay Bridge (there is more than one bridge into SF), and I would like to see more of it.

aktse

tisun wrote:

I love the shot. It has every element of SF: the ocean (birds), the bridge, the TransAmerica building, and, especially the fog. It shows a unique perspective of SF. Few people show the Bay Bridge (there is more than one bridge into SF), and I would like to see more of it.

Sigh. You are right! It's the bay bridge!

I have the golden gate on my mind since I did a sunrise shoot the other morning. Oops!

dadwtwins

aktse wrote:

Sigh. You are right! It's the bay bridge!

I have the golden gate on my mind since I did a sunrise shoot the other morning. Oops!

No problem April, we know what you meant. I cannot get enough pictures of the bridges of the bay area . I am still trying to figure out how to make the dumbarton bridge look exciting in a picture. But I will get there.

Icebear

dadwtwins wrote:

i did not want to take a picture that screamed SF since their are sooo many of those already. I wanted to find an angle of the skyline that was more unique and not necessarily recognizable except for the locals.

That's interesting. As someone from the East Coast, I guess I wanted the shot to say SAN FRANCISCO, but you, as a local, wanted San Francisco. Here I was trying to tell YOU what the "essential characteristic" of SF was. Mea culpa.

dadwtwins

Icebear wrote:

That's interesting. As someone from the East Coast, I guess I wanted the shot to say SAN FRANCISCO, but you, as a local, wanted San Francisco. Here I was trying to tell YOU what the "essential characteristic" of SF was. Mea culpa.

Hey Icebear, i agree with your comment about the Halos. My bad for not paying close enough attention. As for your comments about what SF should look like is great feedback, since i wanted locals to recognize it right away where as a non local would probably be annoyed with it not looking stereotypic.

Thank you for your comments

hschlessphoto

thats an amazing shot. what kind of filter did you use?

coscorrosa

Great silhouette!

dadwtwins

hschlessphoto wrote:

thats an amazing shot. what kind of filter did you use?

No filters needed when the sky is full of Smog. Smog may look nasty during the day but at night the sky looks like it is on fire

tsk1979

hmm, if subtlety was the idea, then this pic cuts it nicely.
As for smog, I thought SFO had fog and not smog. Smog is actually a very bad and dangerous thing, but the SFO fog is so nice.
I have never seen a more foggy place. The way clouds roll in on the bridge is amazing. I am sure nowhere else in the world you will find such a unique weather system as the Bay area!

dadwtwins

tsk1979 wrote:

hmm, if subtlety was the idea, then this pic cuts it nicely.
As for smog, I thought SFO had fog and not smog. Smog is actually a very bad and dangerous thing, but the SFO fog is so nice.
I have never seen a more foggy place. The way clouds roll in on the bridge is amazing. I am sure nowhere else in the world you will find such a unique weather system as the Bay area!

Smog in the bay area is just fog saturated with pollution:(:

If we have a strong breeze, the pollution blows into the valley. If the wind is stagnant like it was the last few days, the fog mixes with the pollution and creates a nasty brown color in the day and a beautiful orangery red during sunset.

Here is an example of smoke from a big fire down near L.A. mixing with the fog to create an awesome color sky during the sunset hours. The fires were very sad and caused considerable amount of damage but as for us photographers, it makes a great sky shot at dusk.