"Above the Fog" The Golden Gate Bridge in Fog and the San Francisco Cityscape from the Marin Headlands

"Above the Fog" I love shots of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge but never had gotten the perfect shot with the Golden Gate Bridge poking through the fog. I saw the weather report at 11:30pm the evening before saying "your commute will be slow in the morning with low lying fog across the Golden Gate Bridge" I thought PERFECT! I'll head up in a few hours! I set out in the dark for the drive up to San Francisco to shoot from the Marin Headlands.

The hike up the hill in the dark and the fog with too much camera gear (30 pounds!) gave me a great early morning workout!  I arrived just as the sky was starting to have an amazing glow and the fog was swirling beneath the bridge. I decided to go for a longer exposure to capture the lights of the cars heading to the Golden Gate Bridge. On the right side of the photo you can see some cars heading along Conzelman Road.  I just love the curves and swirling fog together with the bumps in the hillside.   There were quite a few other photographers there including +Jim Patterson +Aaron Meyers +Joe Azure +Alan Chan +jared ropelato +Andrew Gilbert as well and I had an awesome time shooting and bonding while shooting!  It only took me a month to process my image :-)

The glow of the San Francisco lights, Car lights and Golden Gate Bridge and colors in the sky balanced with the greens of the hill and fog are what caught my eye. I went for a 1:2 panorama format for this which will look great above a fireplace, couch or in an executive boardroom printed 30" x 60" or larger!

This a single shot from the Nikon D800, Nikon 28-70mm f/2.8 lens (28mm), 30 seconds, f/13 and ISO 200.  This is processed in Lightroom 4 and post processing in Adobe Photoshop CS6.  I did not bring my Singh-ray neutral density filters on this trip but used the awesome digital ND filters in LR4 - my favorite feature of LR4! 

It is always a crap shoot as it can be clear in the Southbay down in Sunnyvale where I live and how the fog is in San Francisco.  Sometimes the fog is higher up and obscures everything and never clears!   I actually met +Jim Goldstein   the first time years ago hoping for a Golden Gate Bridge fog picture and we waited for hours enveloped in fog!!  Both of us were just waiting and waiting while his dog was hanging out.  That is part of the joy, frustration and chase of great photographs  - the weather and lighting will NEVER be the same!!!  (but meeting cool people when you are out is another great benefit!)

I'll be showing this print at my open house coming up May 11th and 12th in Sunnyvale.  Contact me for more information!!    Copyright John Harrison Photography  www.jharrisonphoto.com  +John Harrison  You can also find me over on Facebook here:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Yosemite-and-Bay-Area-Nature-Photography-by-John-Harrison/190152125697



#sunrise #fog #goldengatebridge #sanfrancisco #cityscape #Nikond800 #panorama #longexposure