Lazy days of summer

So it's been pretty quiet the past couple months. I had my now annual use-it-or-lose-it three week summer vacation in June. Mostly just hung out with Abby while Miranda studied for finals and then finished some research internships she had.

May and June did have two big astronomical events that Abby and I got to see together. First was the annular eclipse visible across northern California. I thought about driving two hours north to see the full eclipse but decided to see a pretty close to full one from our yard. Staying here let me share the view with the family and some of the neighborhood kids, too. Here's the peak

and a time lapse put together in photoshop

I used a 13-stop Kodak filter fitted to the front of my medium telephoto lens. It was great for seeing sunspots but probably wasn't needed at the peak. If I had it to do over I would've gone down to the Amtrak station and done a wide angle time lapse there instead. I think I'll only have to wait 5 years for that.

A couple weeks later the filter came in handy again when Venus transited the sun. I took Abby to a viewing party at Explorit and I think she had an idea of what she was looking at.

This won't happen for another 105 years. I'll be long gone but hopefully Abby will still be around and will have a vintage photo of herself to share with great-great-grandkids. After playing with Abby at the park I went out at sunset to try and get the show with something in the foreground. A few sunflowers from seeds of last year's crop had popped up in a wheat field near the house. I tried to incorporate one into the shot but the sun is a pretty bright object that silhouettes everything else. 

The thin ribbons of clouds helped dramatize the photo. A few days before this there were some more prominent clouds around sunset. Miranda had been asking me to get some shots of those sunflowers so I biked on over and snapped a few quick shots using the filter and holder I'd built for the Nikon lens. 

The rest of the vacation we used on family trips including one to Tahoe where I found these cool little butterflies

The iridescent shimmer on their wings looks great printed on metallic paper. We also day tripped to the Sacramento Zoo

and a kids' discovery museum in Sausalito. That museum is down at Ft Baker, just before the Golden Gate. When we came thru the tunnel and I saw the fog across the bridge I told Miranda that I had to stop just for one quick photo.

There is a standard view of the bridge from Battery Spencer that everyone takes. But the way the fog was moving I wanted to show more of the northern traffic lanes and that view is only found by holding the camera out over a chain link fence. The first time I came to this vista point for photos I was so anxious to get a shot I stopped here before getting that great view that you're supposed to get. But after looking at thousands of other photos from this area I only found one other person who thought to take a shot this way (and post it on the internet.) The combination of the fog, wildflowers, and long stretch of bridge leading to the north tower makes this my favorite shot of the Golden Gate. 

With the Golden Gate on my mind I tried planning out a good view for the 4th of July. Last year at Ft Baker we could see the Sausalito fireworks behind us so I wanted to see if I could use them with the Bridge for a unique view. I wanted the bridge head on, with the towers aligned, and mapped out where to go for the shot. One place was at the south edge of the bridge, the other was at Grand View park. On the 2nd I went down to check it out and see if perhaps the Marin Co Fair fireworks would be visible. They weren't, but the view was still grand. 

When the 4th rolled around I checked the live web cams in SF and saw the fog was going to be way too thick to get this shot. So we saved the gas money and driving time and stayed in Davis with some of Mir's friends. But if the fog is clear next year I definitely want to try again. 

I came back down to SF a week later to get Giants fireworks with the Bay Bridge. Not wanting to be stuck in Friday afternoon traffic I left early and did some exploring around the SF side of the Golden Gate. 

The view at Ft Point which should be called Ft. Windiest Place in the World

I then walked on the Golden Gate for the first time. Looking up at the south tower

Looking down on the pelicans.

There were also a bunch of dolphins playing, including a mother and calf, but the great photos I thought I had were all out of focus. Thanks Canon. Back to the land one last shot looking back from a picnic area below the viewing lot. What to do on a gloomy, overcast day? Use a large aperture to set the mood with vignetting and wait for nature to help fill out the frame.  

With the fog getting thicker I debated staying for sunset but the whole point of the trip was to get fireworks and the Bay Bridge. A quick stop at the national cemetery at the Presidio with fog casting the bridge in a ghostly fashion. 

Across town at Treasure Island the clouds had gotten lower and were looking to ruin the view. I set up 3 cameras but none could overcome the overcastness. 

I will go back to this sometime if just for a sunset/blue hour photo without the fireworks (and the clouds.) Just for reference, here's the Giants' fireworks back in April from down at the base of the island

One bridge I never have problems with during fireworks shows is the Tower Bridge in Sacramento. I tried doing 3D here one with telephoto lenses

and again with wide angles

but I think I need to move the cameras farther apart to make the 3D more apparent. And a regular photo from the grass islands along the Capitol Mall. 

One last shot from a couple nights ago. It was 100 degrees, no wind and no moon. Great for star trails. A sunflower field east of town with convenient parking beckoned. 

I shouldn't have waited til dark to set up. Just a half mile from town, maybe a hundred yards from I-80, but pitch black in walking down those rows trying to find a south facing flower. I finally gave up and went with the flowers looking east back into town. Not great but I did catch a pretty bright shooting star. How's about a wish for more great photos in the near future?