A beautiful day (and night) in San Francisco

Last week I played tour guide in San Francisco and visited many of my favorite places in the city. It was fun to share the views and the photo opps with everyone. And the weather was absolutely spectacular, which made for some really nice day and night photos.

Among our many stops, I had to take everyone to Fort Point, which I believe offers the best view of the Golden Gate Bridge. We were watching the crashing waves, to keep from getting soaked, but these two kids were slightly unaware of what was coming. 

We went over to Pier 39 to walk through the touristy area. I am not a huge fan of the shops, but love visiting the sea lions who have taken over the pier. This view is better during during the morning hours, but we still had fun capturing photos of the marine wildlife.

The clear day gave us a nice view of Alcatraz. Better than a just a photo of the old prison, I waited for the passing birds to add some more interest to the photo. 

The Canon R6 does an amazing job of tracking birds in flight, so I zoomed in with the Canon 100-500mm lens to isolate this bird which was passing by right in front of me. 

I zoomed back out and waited for one of the passing birds to fly in front of Alcatraz. I shot this at f/5.6 so that the bird would be in focus and the old prison would be slightly out of focus. This makes the bird my main subject and the buildings on the island my supporting subjects. I call this shot "Escape from Alcatraz".

Towards the end of the afternoon, I drove us up to Twin Peaks, which offers a beautiful view of San Francisco. We arrived about 20 minutes before sunset, and I was hoping that we would get some golden glow on the SalesForce Tower.

We even had a rare clear view of the Golden Gate Bridge from many miles away.

While waiting for the sun to set, I used the reach of the Canon 100-500mm lens to isolate different buildings from the mountain top. 

I was happy to see that the sun was hitting the tower and reflecting the golden light.

Even after the sun was low in the sky, the tower still lit up beautifully. Just what I was hoping for!

This photo was zoomed in to include the tower and the older span of the Bay Bridge.

I also zoomed in and captured photos with the tower to the right, including the lit building just off of Market Street. I think this is my favorite photo from this evening.

This photo was a medium zoom which included both the lit building and the bridge.

As the ambient light continued to fade away, I saw that City Hall was lit in red, so I took a wide photo to include it all. I grew up in San Francisco, but never get tired of photographing this amazing city. 

I hope you enjoyed these photos. And yes, I am looking at setting up a photo tour of San Francisco. If you are interested, email me and I will put you on my list to contact when that happens.

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