In the Steps of Millions

On Thursday we did a spur of the moment trip to San Francisco. Both Annika and Jay were home and it was a beautiful day. We were deciding what to do and Jay suggested going to the city. We all agreed and surprisingly managed to leave within an hour. I grabbed my camera and one lens to keep my gear simple. It was a beautiful California day with puffy white clouds in the sky and the hills have already turned a golden brown. We drove south down highway 101. We stopped for coffee in Cloverdale and a had burgers in Petaluma. Just before the Golden Gate Bridge we pulled off and drove up to the overlook of the bridge in the Marin Headlands. It was fun to play tourist. There were people all over with cell phones, selfie sticks and cameras all taking pictures of the bridge and we joined them. It's hard to fathom how many millions perhaps billions of images have been made of this iconic bridge. We have a few images that my Grandfather took during its construction. We ended up staying there for over an hour before we headed into the city. Here are some images of the bridge. My favorite image is the last one of the container ship heading into the bay under the bridge. God's blessings upon your weekend, chris All images creted with a handheld Canon 7D and a Canon EFS 17-85mm lens

San Francisco Skyline

It's been a long while since I have made any blog posts. A few weeks ago I headed off on a trip to my nephew's wedding in Denver, Colorado. The closest major airport that I can fly out of to get there is in San Francisco.The night before my flight out of SFO I drove out to Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay and photographed the stunning views of the city. I tried to get to my favorite spot above the Bay Bridge but I couldn't find access to that point anymore. It was a beautiful evening with a lot of subjects to photograph. God bless, chris

Playing Tourist or This Has Been Done Millions of Times Before

On Thursday I went down to the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to photograph the U.S. Navy's Flight Exhibition Team the Blue Angels. Naturally while I was there I couldn't resist photographing the iconic Golden Gate Bridge. It has literally been photographed by millions of tourists and photographers since its completion in April of 1937. The bridge's main suspension span is 4,200 feet long and the overall length of the bridge from abutment to abutment is 8,981 feet long. Approximately 110,000 vehicles use it on a daily basis. That is a lot of cars and trucks. So here are some images of the Golden Gate Bridge. God bless, chris

Blue Angels

Yesterday I went down to the Golden Gate Bridge to watch the Blue Angel's practice for their air show today. The Blue angels are the United States Navy's flight demonstration squadron.They were formed in 1946. The name Blue Angels comes from a bar in New York City that a group of the squadrons pilots visited. The squadron flies six F/A 18 Hornet aircraft with a seventh as a spare though my favorite is actually their logistics and supply plane a Marine Corps C-130T Hercules, nicknamed "Fat Albert". My favorite images of the day were Fat Albert framed by the Golden Gate Bridge. Conditions for photography for the most part were pretty poor with moments of great light thrown in. There was a lot of haze in the air and the fog was almost always overhead. Still it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. God's precious love to all, chris

Under the Bridge

I felt a little gritty today. A container ship coming in under the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco Bay this afternoon. God's blessings, chris

Golden Gate Bridge 75th Anniversary

This weekend marks the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco. In honor of that I am posting an image from my own family's heritage.It is a photograph from my Grandfather's collection taken of my mother and her sister in front of the Golden Gate Bridge during its construction. William Schwerin was quite the accomplished photographer and his photography spans the decades from the 1920s through the 1970s. Pictured are my mother Betty Schwerin and her sister Maryanne Schwerin. God's love and blessings to all, chris

Iconic Photography

First off thanks to Stacey Patton for giving me this idea. She recently photographed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Obviously a photographic icon! I liked her image because she went looking for a location from where the bridge isn't often photographed from. She basically gave it more of her own style by seeking a little something different that gave it a bit of her own twist. I decided to photograph the Willits Arch over highway 101. A much ,much less photographed icon where I live. The other choice could have been a redwood tree.




So this morning dawned wet and foggy and I picked a location and a time in which the average tourist driving through probably wouldn't photograph it. I really like the result as it has my own twist on a local icon. Please let me know you have dropped by for a visit by leaving me a comment or two.

God's blessings to all,

chris
Here is a link to Stacey's blog http://photosbypatton.blogspot.com/2010/10/golden-gate-bridge.html?spref=fb

Celebrating Earth Day Without Knowing It

Today was a glorious sunny day and I celebrated "Earth Day" without even knowing it. Well that's not quite true. For a good part of it anyway. My niece called and told me that she would like to meet us in the City for lunch as she had a job interview there today.I readily agreed as I enjoy an outing to San FRancisco to see the sights and play tourist once in awhile. So when I checked Google Maps to see where she wanted to meet us I noticed that the restaurant was located in the ferry building. Hmnn... I thought to myself. Why not just drive down and take the ferry and avoid the hassles of driving in the city and trying to find parking.

So that's what we did. In chatting away to a woman on the ferry she commented that she was honoring "Earth Day " today by taking the ferry. Oh, that's right I remembered. Today is Earth Day and that's what I'm doing too! Though I hadn't put a heck of a lot of thought into it. Duh!

In any case the day was beautiful and the bay was flat. We saw all kinds of boats. When we arrived at the ferry building we had plenty of time to walk around and look at all the shops and produce being sold at the Ferry Building. We even saw a cellist being filmed by a film crew for what I'm not sure. Let me know if it's someone famous.

Lunch with my niece was wonderful and we caught up with what is going on in her life. Then we caught the return ferry with the afternoon commuters and headed home. It was the end to a wonderful day.

Sincerely and God bless,

chris