A Golden View

There are few places in the world more iconic than the Golden Gate Bridge. And even though I was born and raised in Northern California it took almost 31 years for me to really stop and appreciate what a gorgeous icon it is. I'd come close a few times. Like in my first year of college when we tried to walk the bridge at night with some cute German exchange students and had the after hours security kindly tell us to leave the area immediately. There was also the camping trip I took in Boy Scouts to the Presidio when we sat on a hillside and talked about how the bridge bent under the weight of tens of thousands of people who gathered to mark its 50th anniversary. But on my trips down to the Bay Area it just seemed a touristy thing and not as exhilarating as a good hike up Mt Tam or as interesting as people watching around China Town.

It wasn't until a little over five years ago that I finally had an excuse to get to know that amazing Golden Gate. I'd taken a day off work to do some hiking around Muir Woods before going to watch the Giants' opening night fireworks over the Bay Bridge. After the hike I did some exploring and I pulled off at the last exit before the bridge. The first vista point there was Battery Spencer. It was one of the most amazing views I'd seen. The north tower stood huge nearby while views of the bay, Alcatraz, and the city skyline filled the span of the bridge. It was such a sight that after hiking around the headlands I stopped again at sunset. The golden glow of the bridge and city lights was even more amazing. After that night I made a habit of always leaving the city by going across the Golden Gate, partly because I didn't want to pay toll in Vallejo but mostly because there's nothing like driving across that beautiful bridge.

A few months ago when I found out about 75th anniversary celebration I knew it was something I had to see. There would be hundreds or thousands of other photographers around the bridge and I wanted to find a spot to make my photos stand out from the crowd. I thought about all the great views I'd found since that first trip like Hawk Hill, Slackers' Ridge, Kirby Cove, Ft Baker, or all the way back in Tiburon on the Marin side. Maybe Marshall Beach, the Legion of Honor, Crissy Field, or even Treasure Island on the SF side. I'd pretty much decided on hiking down to Kirby Cove when it dawned on me that this was a once in a lifetime event. It was not a time to be different, it was a time to be the best. And there was no better view of the Golden Gate and SF than Battery Spencer. I just needed to find a way to own it like nobody else.

I started planning how much gear I'd bring to shoot with and how many different views I could get from one general area. But the idea of leaving cameras spread out in a crowd seemed a little dangerous. So maybe I'd keep the cameras together but with wide and tight views. Then I remembered playing around with 3D anaglyphs about ten years ago. The results were pretty crappy since I was trying to make a stereo view with only one camera and people would move between pictures. But if I had matching cameras and lenses side-by-side, shooting in sync it could work. So every morning I'd check EBay in search of a good deal on a duplicate Canon 5DII camera and Nikon 14-24 lens. A little over two weeks before the show great deals on each popped up within minutes of each other. I ordered both and set about planning for a 3D shoot.

After two weeks of waiting I found out the lens was just a scam. I was pretty bummed but had already bought the camera and a special rail to mount two cameras on so I decided to try some 3D anyway. The day before the celebration I had to shoot a UCD baseball game for work. Needing some 3D practice and being the overkill type I took the Enterprise's old 400mm 2.8 lens and my nice 400 2.8 IS and set them up down the third base line. Usually one of these lenses is enough to draw stares but two together was just ridiculous. My lens sat just a fraction of a cm higher than the old one but with a little maneuvering in photoshop the shots turned out pretty cool.
Tom Briner pitching:

Brett Morgan batting:

That night the Rivercats had their fireworks over the Tower Bridge. I toned it down and used two medium sized 70-200mm zoom lenses instead of the monster telephotos from baseball. Unfortunately I  changed the settings on one camera which made matching the colors from the two cameras difficult. I almost never adjust the white balance but for some reason I'd set it to 'shade' and shot in jpg instead of the RAW files I usually do. Thankfully the Cats do this several times a season so I will have a chance to try again.

The next morning Miranda asked if she could meet up with some friends for drinks in the afternoon. I had wanted to leave early to be sure to get parking but decided to be nice to my lovely wife and let her go. She took that to mean I wasn't going at all. After a frantic phone call almost 5 hours later to get her back home with Abby I was on my way. On the drive I started to question if a stupid photo expedition was worth the fight with Miranda. About 15 minutes in, though, a ladybug crawled up the inside pillar of my windshield and calmed me down to where I knew I would still have a good night. I got down to the headlands with a little under two hours til showtime. But the road up to Battery Spencer was closed and the parking down at Fort Baker had long since filled up. I swung back on the freeway and down into Sausalito. Lots of other late comers were doing the same thing and I luckily found a parking spot in a neighborhood uphill from town to join the crowds trekking down to Ft Baker. Assuming there'd be no clear spots left for me wherever I managed to shoot from I pulled my 9 ft tall tripod out of the trunk to hopefully shoot above the crowds I figured to be stuck behind. So with ~25 pounds of gear in my backpack and that 18 pound tripod over my shoulder I set out to see how close I could get to the show.

I was in surprisingly better shape than I thought and made it to the base of the bridge just as twilight was setting in. One final push up the hill got me to the overlook with about 15 minutes to spare. Even though I'd practiced 3D the day before I hadn't yet tried the cameras without big lenses to the stereo rail. The screws on the rail were just a little too long for mounting directly to the cameras so they wouldn't sit tightly. Exhausted, I almost gave up. But having already overcome two setbacks I wasn't going to admit defeat yet. Folding over the cloth I'd covered the rail in for hiking I slid it under the cameras and tightened the screws. The cameras weren't perfectly level with each other but they were at least steady and it was the best I could do in the dark on short time. With wireless controllers on both cameras the tripod went up over the long line of photographers who had been waiting for hours to save their spots. I grabbed my smaller tripod and the extra camera and moved back to a higher vantage point where could still trigger the remotes.

Within minutes the show began with a beautiful curtain of fire sparkles dropping from the bridge to the water. It was an awesome sight to see but with the lights on the bridge off it was almost impossible to capture photographically. Then the real show began. You can see my tall tripod and twin cameras in the bottom right of this photo.

 

When I first put the cameras up I set them to the same settings I'd used for Rivercats fireworks. But a quick test exposure before the show looked really dark so I upped the ISO to brighten the photos. You can blame it on the long drive and hike or the short time for set up but really it was just one of my stupid brain farts. Using a test exposure in the dark instead of assuming for the light of the fireworks was just stupid. So most of the shots from the cameras I spent so much time on were just of big balls of bright light instead of beautiful streams of firework blooms that I'd hoped for. Still I got a few shots that were salvageable enough to try some 3D. 

Although I'd gotten the focal length and aperture fairly close on each lens there is still a huge difference in color and distortion between the superb Nikon 14-24 and my old workhorse Canon 17-35 lenses. It took a long time just to get it to look this crappy. Maybe when I've done a few more of these I can go back and try to clean it up some more. 

After the show the cameras were packed up without looking to see what I'd got. I figured I screwed up the exposure and didn't want to think about how bad it was on the 3.5 mile hike back to the car. Here's the exact route I took:

I'd been wanting a good hike for a while now and the cold evening air was perfect. And as I slipped past the long lines of cars waiting to get out of the one exit open at Ft Baker I felt the walk was almost a blessing. Although nothing seemed to go as I planned I'm happy to have experienced it and am definitely looking forward to the Golden Gate's 100th.