Pre-Dawn Golden Gate Passage

As I was hunting around for objects to rest my camera on in lieu of the tripod I'd forgotten to pack, (See previous post) I noticed a container ship heading into the bay. I knew that it would be hard to capture in the early morning light. I finally found a wooden recycling box on the edge of the lookout area that had a decent vantage point. Meanwhile, the area was really starting to fill up with photographers eager to catch the sunrise over the bay. Some had vintage cameras or an assortment of fancy gear. All had tripods and I was envious... But, with the camera resting on the box and steadied by my hand, I clicked away several "brackets" of shots to merge using HDR techniques. Here is the final compsition.

 

Golden Rays Through the Gate

We took a trip down to the San Francisco bay area for Christmas this year. We stayed North of the City in the small but charming town of Petaluma. The last full day of the trip, we got up very early and decided to take the 30-45 minute drive down to a lookout area on the Northwest side of the Golden Gate bridge for sunrise. I somehow managed to forget to pack my tripod for this trip which I seriously regret. It didn't stop me from taking photos, but did limit what I was able to do. I had to find solid objects I could rest and stabilize the camera on for longer exposures. Even then, it was a challenge. I did come away with two shots I really like. The first one, posted here, is a little after sunrise. We had started back down the hill after shooting some wider shots from higher up. I noticed the way the sun's rays were shining through the North tower of the bridge and we stopped to snap a few more pictures. I believe I was resting the camera on a park bench for this shot. I'll post the second photo later this week!