Wish upon a star *: The Red Bridge

One Sat evening, 2 photograph enthusiast get together and drive all the way to San Francisco to snap a few photos of the Golden Gate Bridge, at the same time to watch the sunset.

Taking off from hotel at 3.45pm, we were expecting to arrive at the scenic spot at 4.30pm, which should be around the sunset hour. Unfortunately, there's a traffic jam along the way making us late by half and hour.

Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge at 5pm

We reach the scenic spot at 5.03pm, the sun was about to set by then. The scenic spot is on top of a hill to the North of the bridge, also known as Marin Headlands.

A bit too late

It was very windy up on the hill, I have to cover myself up in 3 layers to keep warm. We're on this high cliff almost level with the bridge tower.

Hill, bay and bridge. San Francisco in the background

The picture above was taken from the higher spot. It wasn't the best spot because part of the bridge's tower were hidden behind the hill. So I walked downhill towards the other side (the hill in the photo above).

Human figures were silhouetted against the setting sun

There were many people on the hill. Some were just standing there with their partners watching sunset together (ah, how romantic!), some were busy taking pictures with each other, a few serious photographers with their tripod waiting, waiting for the perfect moment to capture something wonderful.

Whole bridge from a nearer hill, taken with a semi-auto (pre-programmed mode) camera setting
(click to enlarge)

Prior to this, I've been reading up on aperture and shutter speed setting. This would be the chance for a practical training to apply what I've read. Standing there in the freezing temperature, I played with the manual settings. Fingers are not functioning well because they are half frozen, worse still, my camera is fully metal on the outside making the camera as cold as ice cube.

Here's a picture of the bridge using the manual setting...

Reflections of the bridge in the water looks clearer, car headlights no longer in dot
(click to enlarge)

Maybe a bit over expose, but I was so happy with what my Sony N1 can produce with a little bit of manual adjustment. I adjusted the shutter speed to be slower so that light from cars on the bridge would look like a line instead of dot. And then make the aperture value higher to compensate the to the slower shutter.

We leave the scenic spot at 6pm back to SJ. So, is it worth the time to travel 45mins to San Francisco just for the one hour photography session? I would definitely said "Yes, it is worth the time!"