Tour Helicopter Flying UNDER the Golden Gate Bridge!

One day while out and about during my past routines while still on the West Coast, I happened to sight a lone SF tour helo flying near the bridge. To my amazement, it flew UNDER the bridge!! It was incredible to think that an aircraft would and could and DID exactly that!

Is that crazy or what? Then the SF FAA Safety office says "well, they have to make a living too". So that justifies breaking the rules and allowing an unsafe flight under the bridge? 

What is happening to the "civilized world" when stuff like that is not only allowed, but turning the eyes in the other direction to basically allow that?

Crazy!!

 

It's COLD outside!!

It's been a busy few days as I have been attempting to devote time to archiving of my image files – not too successful – and still continue capturing what goes on in my life. All the while, I still have to think of packing for my upcoming trip to my apartment in Rota, and that will be a welcome "break". Of course I will be working like a slave, buying furniture and working on the apartment, which isn't in the best shape after being gone for so long. My neighbors who are watching my apartment had fallen on hard times also, and lost contact with them for months. I have been noticing that the temperatures there and weather has been seemingly a "normal" winter with lots of rain, but I know once I arrive in my apartment on the 9th, it'll warm up as it always does when I am there! Hahahahaaa

The weather just a week ago allowed me to get over to the Marina district where I stopped for a rare night shot of the Palace of Fine Arts... not often do I get the opportunity to be out at night with tripod and camera, and these past few days the Bay Area has been really frigid due to a big Pacific storm blanketing my old home of Eugene with snow while here I had to battle frigid gusting winds to get pixs of a gorgeous golden sunset last Friday and Saturday. Even in this weather, I managed to get out into the cold with bare hands to snap night scenes of the bay and the bridge from the Marin County headlands. I expected the road to the Pt Bonita lighthouse to be open due to the full moon, but it wasn't so to make the drive across the bridge worthwhile I stopped to snap pixs, though the blasting headlands winds made it very difficult to get a good steady tripod image. A photographer who later appeared next to me on the dark uneven headlands ground had his camera while mounted on a tripod fall over, when a gust of wind blew it over! OuCh!! This morning in North Beach was apparent scenes of frozen standing water... ice was everywhere - not a normal sight in the City but the weather climate is changing and it's leaving evidence everywhere!

ice on a car windshield is a sign of the
frigid weather in North Beach this morning

This isn't the coldest weather I've been through… while in the military I remember being out in the rain and snow in many places in "warm" clothing all night long standing guard duty {oftentimes all soaked through to the skin and bones}, and in Nebraska I patrolled outside a building in – 4f blizzard conditions. Of course, Germany must be the most recent time I went out willingly to photograph various female clients nude in the snow… them, not me…. And though it was cold, they enjoyed their experiences very much. When we returned to warmer places, we found out the weather outside was about –20c, which reads about –4f….. brrrrrrrr so, this change in the weather isn't the worst but still: any cold shock to the system leaves an impression on the mind and body… that it happens during my photography just gives that image more meaning.

I have another weekend road trip coming up…. Then comes New Year's when I expect to be out again in an attempt to capture the fireworks, and then jes DAYs before I leave for Spain!!! I cannot wait!!!

Please remember – if you'd like to donate to help me with my spending money to fix up my apartment in Spain, please buy a print!! Just want to donate outright? I'll send you a print of your choice/theme if you tell me what you like… remember, there's a LOT of gorgeous spanish sunsets to be seen while I am in Rota, and they will be posted as always on my photo website. As always, there are more images posted in my photo website also, and many more that are unseen by other eyes!!! Your donation will serve as a voucher for your future visit in my apartment!! :-)

Stay warm everyone and have a safe and quiet holidays!!!

I even had a chance recently to photograph
a very nice car!! yaaay!

busy day in the City

The morning started early with my files... During the previous day I had tried to copy/move my milllion image files to the newer hard drive... it took hours so I would leave and go shooting on the streets of San Francisco... when I returned, the operation aborted for some unknown reason and now I'd have to compare both folders on the source and destination locations, and copy the files not moved.... what a pain. So, I decided to just back-up all of the files. It'd just be a slight duration of a few days!

That operation in progress, I started by climbing the hills again to Telegraph Hill. Today Coit Tower was celebrating its long existence and was offering free elevator rides to the top; something I've never experienced in my life though I faintly remember a school field trip as a very young child. The view was amazing from the top, and it was well worth the trip up those hills and the stairs! Plus there were old fire engines and a display of period callsic old cars, and the Mayor would be speaking later that day - I didn't stick around but did get pixs of the engines and cars.
Last night I had heard online that a zeppelin would be flying over the city! So, I drove to Crissy Field then walked toward Fort Point at the base of the southern tower of the Golden Gate bridge..... stopping enroute to snap away at birds and more.
By time I reached a halfway point, lo and behold there was a huge white airship coming toward the bridge from the south... I started taking pixs with both a 170-500 and the wide-angle, finishing up with my standard 28-300. Many sunning at the beach were looking up at the airship, and there was a fireboat throwing up streams of water in celebration; this is the first time since the 1940s that an airship has flown over the City!!

That done, I went walking back to the Crissy Field marsh and photographed the birds there...
it's a "clean" marsh but getting filthier every week... but still... getting close and tight one can see the water and not the cups, plastic and filth... though it's still there!!

That done, I drove home, parked the car and walked toward Chinatown to see a friend who was participating in the San Francisco ARTwalk... I wanted to participate too but didn't have the money for printing the pictures, storing them in some protective sleeves, etc. It's not cheap nor easy to sell or even display images!! This morning I was starving as I hadn't eaten anything all day and had already walked a few miles, plus now will be walking up some steep North Beach hills, so I stopped at my previously favorite dim-dum place for a few snacks. They had depleted their supply of shrimp dumplings, so I took what remained - two - then grabbed some pork thingies that I liked too... the taste of the shrimp dumpling wasn't what I was used to... much has changed in the few months since I'd stopped there before. I went and found my photographer friend on Mason Street in front of the Cable Car Museum and stopped and chatted for an hour... she has an uncanny eye for flora details, and I love her work!!

After that I walked up and down those same steep hills again and drove my sister to a birthday party for her grandson and her brother-in-law.... I dropped her off to finish with the backing up of my files, plus to download the images of the morning and the zeppelin, etc.

I now went to the birthday party and spent over 3 hours there and finally returned to discover the backup operation continuing and now only two days and quite a few hours remaining!!

the view from the span....

well, I finally did it... though it didn't feel like the last time!

When I was but a wee lad, I used to bike and walk across the Golden Gate Bridge. I must have been over that bridge at least ten times before I left the City in 1972. Perhaps the last time I walked across that bridge would have been in 1970 or earlier.

Since my return to the City, I've been wanting to repeat the experience... and I can now say I did it. With some friends, I hiked last Saturday from Baker's Beach to the toll plaza, across the breezy and crowded bridge where I made at least 20 stops for fotos then had to run to catch up with my (quickly) departing friends, then down the highway to Sausalito. As that walk-aholic lad, I used to go to the end of the boardwalk where I ate fish and chips at an Arthur Treacher's fish and chips shop; I hear that place is now no longer. Then I would either return to the City by the same route, or if biking, continue to Stinson Beach via Mt Tam.

oooooh, those were the days!!

Sunday I went to photograph the pelicans and sailing boats from the Hyde Street pier.

Concerning the eye surgery: I now have almost all of the required items in preparation of my surgery Wednesday. In just two and a half days my biggest question will be: Will I see or not? Will I lose my better eyesight or ....? How long will it take to fully recover, or at least see well enough to drive and to continue capturing the little details of this passing life?

Enjoy the fotos!!

those sunbeams last night

It's been sometime since I have gone with camera in hand to capture a sunset ~ any sunset ~ in the Bay Area. As most of the haze hanging in the air as a result of smoke from the remaining forest fires isn't as evident as it was months ago, the sunrises and sets are not as smoky red as before, but oftentimes, this area has such natural color that it's not necessary for fire smoke to "enhance" a sunset sometimes......

Tonight I decided to snap some sunset pixs from the curved pier at the foot of Hyde Street Park... I haven't been there in some time. I've actually wanted to snap some for the past weeks, but for one reason or another haven't gone on my personal mission.... till last night. This pier is always a (very) breezy place... people were there crabbing and fishing, kids playing and running all around. Of course the seagulls were out in full force gliding, flying and landing. I could see pelicans occasionally flying by, the flock gliding in perfect formation of a single line just inches over the wind-blown white-caps of the bay, and tourists were everywhere snapping away at the glorious scene before our eyes.

Someone or thing attracted my attention, and as I looked to the right, all at once being blinded but also amazed to see the last seconds of the sun disappearing behind the Marin County headlands, but the sun was spiking, being positioned exactly just behind the north tower of the bridge...

It was simply amazing and one that I've never seen ever!
There was a slight fog over those hills, which made the sunbeams stand out quite well, and it was a incredible sight...... I stood there transfixed and at the same time snapping away... hoping to get what my eyes were blinded though amazed by the light....

Minutes later I discovered myself ~ quite by an intentional accident ~ near Alamo Park and in the quickly fading soft sunset light, decided to double-park illegally, run up the hill (oh my hurting knees!) and snap a few more pics......

Did you see the sunset where you live? Were you amazed by what you saw: the end to yet another day but yet another day in your life?