I was going through my father's old slides and look at what I found!

Many years ago I had a chance to go to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge where I was able to capture photographs from the North Tower. It was an amazing experience, and one that I will never forget. For many years, I thought that I was the first and only one in my family to have this privilege. It turns out that this was not the case!

Here is a photo I took facing San Francisco (although the fog had covered the city in this shot).

I also took photos facing the North side of the bridge, facing towards Marin County.

About a year ago I found all my father's slides in a box and I went through hundreds of photos to see which ones I wanted to have scanned. As I was going through the slides and trying to make out what my dad had captured, I came across something amazing. In one of the boxes there were photos that HE had taken from the same location on top of the bridge!! 

Now, you have to remember that this is not open to the public and I have NO idea how he managed to get access to this spot. It took me many years to get up there. He was a doctor and I am assuming that one of his patients had connections, but I am not sure. My father died more than 30 years ago and I don't think there is anyone alive who would know this information.

This is my father's photo from the same North Tower, and as you can see, there have been some changes in the 50+ years that had gone by.

I also found this long exposure photo that he had taken of the Bay Bridge. I know that he had a Leica camera, and assume that he took all these photos with that camera. Back then, this shot was much harder to take since he was shooting film and could only guess at the right exposure. 

Here is one of my Bay Bridge photos taken from below the bridge, and look how much the San Francisco skyline has changed in all these years!

I know the spot where he took this photo, but this vantage point does not exist any more. I believe that this was taken before the road was built, leading to the fort.  He was low enough that we can not even see Fort Point (which has been there for more than 100 years).

Here is a more recent shot that I took from a similar location. You can see the retaining wall and road where a sandy beach used to be.

Here is an aerial photo that my father took over San Francisco. I am assuming that he took this out of a big airplane while coming into or out of San Francisco Airport.  It is crazy to see how few high-rises existed back then.

And here is an aerial photo that I took a couple of years ago from a small airplane, as we circled the city specifically for me to get photos.

This is a night shot that I took over the city, which would have been almost impossible to take back in my dad's days. I was using a Canon R5 mirrorless camera, pushing my ISO to 6400 and able to check my exposures as I was shooting.

Even though my father was an amateur photo enthusiast, it was really cool to see what he had captured back in his time. The funny thing is...I don't remember him taking many photos and never heard him talk about his camera. But all these years later, it is fascinating that we shared a similar rare and unique experience being at the same location on the Golden Gate Bridge and capturing images from the same vantage point. I love that!

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