Bay bridge

What: I've been driving around and took so many pictures of Golden Gate. This time, I decided to beat Bay bridge to death :) Last time I had some good shots but it was too dark.

When: It was another "partly cloudy" Saturday (05/15), which always end up as a really cloudy day. I'd definitely come back mid summer for a clear shot. So we left SJ about 5:30pm for the 8pm sunset. It's a short drive to Treasure Island... or at least to South SF. Then the traffic started to look really bad... yes on Sat afternoon.

Where/How:

We got to Treasure Island and had that "oh sh!t" feeling looking at the clouds all over SF. It was not what I had in mind before we left.

So I did a lot of hw before I go out to shoot for a location. It's all started from a place I heard, browsing in bay area group in flickriver. Then search and read some more about it, how to get there, what to bring...

This time I have a clear picture in mind of what I wanted, something similar to the pier 7 shot. But I guess it was not the day.

So we decided to to park down the hill in Treasure Island and hike up. Luckily for me this round ;) our friend who is driver volunteer to drop us off at the location. Then we started to hike down the some-what trail. It's not the hardest hike but it's a loose gravel trail. So we got down to the location and it's no where close to sunset. It was so cloudy and I know I wouldn't be able to get any color out of sunset. Any flat cloudy day would turn the picture to pretty much B&W. So I just started taking some knowing it's gonna be B&W for now. And this is what I got

Shutter Speed: 1/50sec
Aperture: F/15.6
Focal: 16mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: -2

So we waited and waited until the bridge started to lid up as well as SF. Still, SF was covered with clouds. Moving around a little and I got some more:

Shutter Speed: 6sec
Aperture: F/5
Focal: 42mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Shutter Speed: 3sec
Aperture: F/5
Focal: 18mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Staying there for awhile, we decided to head back to SF side of Bay bridge and get some more angle and finish this bridge. I started to get my first shot of Bay bridge from my "to go" list

Shutter Speed: 8sec
Aperture: F/16
Focal: 38mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Then here

Shutter Speed: 30sec
Aperture: F/9
Focal: 11mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Last location:

Shutter Speed: 3sec
Aperture: F/4
Focal: 14mm
ISO: 200
Exp compensation: 0

Lesson learned: Some local news website would have camcorder in popular location. I would check that first next time I go out to save gas and time. This time I remember to do some pano shots. I almost come to the basic number of shots at each location: A mode to close down to where I wanted depend on location. Add ND filter. Do bracket for HDR. Repeat for portrait frame after landscape is done. Do some under auto. Then some all around for pano.