Posts Tagged "Bay Bridge"

This post should have been posted a long time ago, but life made it hard. In early April 2016, I booked a photographic helicopter tour over San Francisco. I was waiting for the right condition to go fly, and when I could not book the time I wanted on a short notice (the helicopter was already booked), I made a bet and booked September 26th. My thinking was that September is the warmest month in the area, if I can hit a nice day it would be awesome. That was a lucky bet, because September 26th was one of the warmest day and evening of the entire year. We were twice lucky when the small helicopter I had booked was not available, I got upgraded to the bigger one (Robinson 66), which made possible for my wife to tag along for a small price increase.  It was so...

Angel Island is a California State Park in the middle of the San Francisco Bay. It has incredible views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San Francisco and Alcatraz. In a previous post, I made a day trip there but this post is about spending the night on Angel Island. Depending on the season, the last ferry leaves the island between 3:30 and 5:20pm (make sure to check the schedule online) and unless you have your own boat that’s your deadline. But for a few hard core planners, it’s possible to secure a camping spot on Angel Island. In that case you will be sharing the island with at most 40 persons (including the park rangers, the kayak groups, and the large camping group). After the departure of the last ferry (which was 3:30pm in our case), the...

I was rooting for the Artemis team today! Not that I don’t like the Luna Rossa team, it was just that I really wanted the swedish team to win. I didn’t want the italian team to win with a clean sweep. I didn’t get my wish, Luna Rossa sailed a perfect race and they deserved to win, but Team Artemis made several mistakes including two unecessary out-of-bound penalties. It’s also sad for the Artemis team. A win today would have been so right. Congratulation to Luna Rossa for winning the semi-final. They will race against Team New Zealand next Saturday. Like Max Sirena said: “We hope that our design changes can make us more competitive than last time we meet Team New Zealand”. Let’s hope so, otherwise it will be again a...

It’s really hard to find images of San Francisco you have not seen before. A few months ago, I met with a helicopter pilot (a photographer himself) and he was complaining that no one thinks of using helicopters for taking pictures. First it’s expensive, second it’s dangerous (strapped on the side of helicopter), third you need a very clear day to make it worth it. Then the stars aligned and I booked a 60-min open door helicopter ride with him. The day was very clear and I’m pretty pleased with the results. After the first flight I was hooked, I love aerial images. Especially for San Francisco where the nice views are over the bay. So when last summer, the America’s cup AC45 races were in San Francisco,  I had the chance to get...

For the New Year, San Francisco always has fireworks at midnight on December 31st. The fireworks are launched from barges located 1,000 feet out in the bay just South of the Ferry Building near Pier 14 (Mission Street and The Embarcadero). One of the best places to take pictures of these fireworks is Yerba Buena Island. Yerba Buena is a natural island (versus the connected Treasure Island which is man-made). You will not be alone, this is a very popular spot but if you come early, it’s fine. The place I like is a private residence, so as always be aware of any noise you could make, where you park and try not to disturb the neighbors. It only takes one problem to get this area closed off for everybody. View New Year Fireworks photo location in a larger map...