Towers and Tunnels

Yesterday was a boring one at work. No assignments (except for an eight mile bike ride to shoot a home for real estate that Fred was already at) Just sitting at the computer updating the photos-of-the-week galleries that I'd put off for a few weeks. Around 5:30 a call came over the scanner for a bush on fire at one of the junior high's. I figured it'd be out by the time I got there but I was looking for an excuse to get away from the desk. Rode by, no flames, no smoke, no nothing, dinner time. After a healthy three servings of mac-n-cheese I decided to leave the gear at home and ride back to work light weight. As soon as I hit the road I looked up and saw the wispy high clouds starting to light up from sunset. Back inside, cheap tripod, grad filter, backpack, thinking of what foreground to give these clouds.

Ever since the old, scraggly oak tree on the covell village property fell I've been looking for another defining landmark near town to compose my sunrise/sunset shots with. Just beyond where the old oak stood, at the old hunt wesson plant, the developers left one old tank standing when they tore down the cannery. Could that be my new landmark? I took a chance and headed that way, hoping the homeless in town had cut a hole in the fence to set up a camp in there. Cutting past the little league fields my luck was even better, the gates there were wide open. The tower wasn't as great as I'd hoped, a little too bulky for close-ups and too close to the tree line for middle distance shots.



Looking to find an altenative foreground I backed up into more of the deconstruction debris. Unfortunately the cheap tripod and no remote switch made for shaky pictures of an otherwise nice composition.



The way back to the office lead past the bike tunnel on H St. I'd been meaning to see what the tunnel would look like in photos and since I had the gear with me...

Rodeo Beach, Take 3

Determined to get a better shot of those three large rocks at Rodeo Beach I've made three trips back there in the past month.

My excuse for the first trip was an alignment of the north tower of the golden gate with the transamerica building and the full moon. While I had plotted my position and timing correctly the moonrise was too early to get that nice glow of the harvest moon. I'm not sure if it's worth trying again anyway.



Before I headed over to the bridge I did some hiking around tennessee cove, muir beach, and kirby cove. I only brought the pocket cam with me on the hikes but after seeing kirby cove it's now on the official 'I will return with a real camera' list.

Sea anemone at muir beach


day time at kirby cove


Down at Rodeo Beach the tide was rolling in which made it hard to keep the tripod from shifting in the waves. It also made it hard to keep my shoes and pants dry.





A week later Mir had a meeting for new volunteers at the marine mammal center near Rodeo Beach. And while I would've tagged along to giver her company anyways it was another good excuse to visit the three amigos. After dropping her off I headed to the Kirby Cove trailhead to visit one of the abandoned battery points that was now covered in graffiti. I really like this doorway.



Down at the beach the tide was out but the fog was in. I tried another angle to play with the fog, giving the rocks an old time look.



Last friday Sue was on vacation so I filled in her morning shift for her. Having that evening free and Mir heading down for another night at the center meant another night for Wayne at Rodeo Beach. After a brisk, lung opening hike up to Slacker's Ridge for the sunset I headed back down to the beach.

The view from Slacker's made it look like the beach was fogged over but once to the three amigos the sky was clear and colorful. Can't decide which I like best.




While I don't remember the sky being as vivid as it is in the last photo that's what the auto white balance captured it as. The light was mostly gone by 9:30 but with Mir working til 11:00 I had some time to kill. Since there was no moon in the sky that night I chewed up that hour and a half five minutes at a time. It's amazing how many stars are visible just a few miles away from such a major metropolis.