City’s Pillow

City's Pillow

Normally I photograph low fog at the Golden Gate Bridge during sunrise but this evening was the first time photographing it during sunset. A failed attempt at shooting the coast (thanks to the fog) meant I ended up at Hawk Hill ready to photograph the Bridge. Prior to sunset the fog had stayed away from the bridge and was hugging the ocean, not quite making it into the city. Willie and I had wandered away from the bridge and were photographing some amazing fog formations on the Pacific Ocean as the sun dipped below the horizon. Every few minutes Willie or I would run over to the GGB and see if the fog had started to move in.

About 10 minutes after the sun had set, and in the middle of photographing a neat sand dune of fog, Willie came racing over screaming PACK UP NOW. WERE GOING OVER TO THE BRIDGE And off we raced. I think all the photographers around us thought we were crazy: who are these guys running like theres a bear chasing them We wanted to get into position before Blue Hour kicked in.

Our running paid off and we arrived at our favorite Hawk Hill spot a few minutes before blue hour started. We spent the next 45 minutes or so enjoying the wonderful blue hour sunset fog. The fog glowed as the deck of the bridge was mostly exposed, and even a layer of fog started to light up as it crept into the city. Both of us spent some time taking panoramas for higher resolution but I also snapped some single exposures of the scene as well. The fog continued to creep in and it turned out that I liked this single exposure photo much better than the higher resolution stitched panoramas. What do you think of sunset fog

Nikon D800 w/Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S:
42mm, f/14, 30 sec, ISO 320

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Aaron M Written by:

Aaron Meyers is a landscape and wedding photographer living in Silicon Valley, CA. His love of the outdoors makes for frequent forays into the Californian wilds, where he delights in the stunning vistas of Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, Big Sur, and the Pacific Coast.