Mission Dolores Church, San Francisco, CA

Saturday was a crazy day as I managed to photograph Mission Dolores in the afternoon in-between a brief morning visit to the California Academy of Sciences at Golden Gate Park (way too crowded), then lunch with friends, and before the evening Photowalk at the Seal Rocks. Mission Dolores was the 18th California Mission that I visited which is surprising to me since I used to live in San Francisco.

The one thing that stood out to me about Mission Dolores is that it is one of several missions that got swallowed up by a city. The cemetery outside is just a narrow strip of land that is surrounded by other buildings now. Looking at the historical paintings and models of Mission Dolores from the late 1700’s, it used to be isolated up in the hills just below Twin Peaks on a sprawling lot of land. The modern day lot looks nothing like that. The mission church however is still the original and is the oldest intact building remaining in San Francisco, having been built in 1791.

See more of my California Missions pictures.

Black and White Photo of Seal Rocks, San Francisco, CA at Night

This was the last photo I took during Saturday’s Worldwide Photowalk at the Seal Rocks in San Francisco which was led by Jim Goldstein. It was nearly pitch black outside except for the lights from the Cliff House beaming down from above which illuminated the Seal Rocks and the Pacific Ocean. I decided to go for a “hail mary” type of photo since I couldn’t really see well enough to focus and went for ISO 6400 with a 30 second exposure at f16 while a certain famous landscape photographer was relegated to looking on with his trusty Nikon…

I didn’t take a lot of photos since the weather wasn’t all that good to put it mildly but it was fun catching up with friends and meeting a few new people in the process. I had never attended a photowalk before but this one had about 35 I would guess which was a pretty good number. Of course everyone has their own priorities, of which some photographers seemed purely interested in taking photos for the contest rather than networking or learning but I was mainly there just to hang out since I had been to this location many times in the past.

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Golden Gate Bridge at Dusk from Baker Beach, San Francisco, California

I took this photo of the Golden Gate Bridge in February 2002, which was the same month that I learned what an F-stop was and how to spot meter. This was probably my first scenic landscape photography shoot since learning the basics of photography. Prior to this, I was just a someone who did point and shoot without knowing anything about how to control the camera. Later that year I moved to San Francisco. I’ve visited Baker Beach twice (as a tourist, not a nude sunbather!) in the eight years since taking this photo but this remains my best attempt. Someday I will take another stab at it.

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San Francisco Seal Rocks

I took this photo not long after moving to San Francisco in 2002, which was also the year that I started to take photography seriously. Digital photography wasn’t that advanced back then so I was primarily shooting with Fuji Velvia. I have to admit that I miss the feeling of anticipation while opening a box of slides for the first time. Sometimes I will let a few days or more than a week slip before I review digital images on the computer unless I need them processed in a timely manner but every time I received a box of slides from the lab I would view my photos right after returning home or in the car even if I couldn’t wait. It’s not unlike the excitement that kids get when they Christmas gifts.

Now I will go into what it took to produce this master file of this 35mm Fuji Velvia slide: I was taking a digital printing class during my last semester of grad school toward the end of 2004, and making a good digital file for print from this slide was one of my first class assignments. It took me about 40 hours (no joke!) on this Seal Rocks file from the time I started until the final week of class when we had to produce a portfolio of photography prints from our digital files. I am a self-taught photographer, but I learned so much from this class during the critiques. It was an invaluable experience. I also learned what a pain in the ass it is to make a perfect rendition of your photo from film scans because there is no such thing. It is a 2nd generation reproduction by that point. Of the different types of slides that I scanned, I found that Fuji Velvia and old Kodachrome are the most difficult to get right. No matter how much Photoshop tweaking I would do to this file, there would always be a bit of unwanted magenta in my shadows, not quite the right balance of shadow to highlight detail. My instructor had commented toward the beginning that this was going to be a very difficult image to get right but if I could get this file looking good then I could probably process anything.

With all of that time invested, this is close though the original slide is probably a bit more saturated. For the portfolio, I ended up going with half film scans and half digital captures. Though I didn’t feel that digital was as good as 35mm at the time, digital was convenient, less expensive, and required little processing to look right so I never looked back. I shot one or two more rolls of film after this class ended before closing the book on that era.

I’d probably shoot some more film for fun if I wasn’t concerned about selling my work and sharing the photos with you but I have no desire to work on anymore film scans. Besides, the 5D Mark II is the most amazing tool that I have ever used in photography.

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Foggy Evening, Pacifica, California

As with the Point Reyes National Seashore post, I’m going to be posting some older images in the coming days. I didn’t have a blog back then so it should be fun to take a trip down memory lane. Anyway…

This photo was taken up the street from my apartment. I had lived at this location for over a year by this point but never realized that just a few blocks up the street was this amazing view of the San Mateo coastline. Living close to the Pacific Ocean in Northern California is an awesome experience, but also very aggravating in some ways. Every morning for instance, my windows would be covered in a layer of fog and would be difficult to keep clear because it was usually cold, windy and moist outside at all hours of the day. As you can imagine, the car starts to get dirty at some point and then I’d have to take it to the car wash. The problem was that it would get back dirty again by the next day. If I had the luxury of parking the car in a garage then perhaps it might not have been so bad but I think most others probably had similar issues.

The positives far outweighed the negatives though. Within a few miles of driving, one could easily escape the urban life and do serious nature photography. Wilderness areas in the Bay Area aren’t thrashed like they are in Southern California. Most trees don’t have carvings in there, you don’t see a lot of graffiti outside of man-made structures and there aren’t beer cans and potato chip wrappers lining every river bed. Also, San Francisco was so easy to get to. I was just a 15 minute BART ride away from downtown, or an equally as short drive provided that there were parking spaces available.

Bay Area residents have the best of both worlds in my opinion.

See more of my SF Bay Area pictures.

This photo was taken from one of the most popular tourist stops in San Francisco. Despite the popularity of this place, I actually sold a picture of Postcard Row from my last trip to San Francisco so it made sense to try photographing it again. This time I decided to use a telephoto lens to compress the scene whereas last time I just used a wide angle lens.

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Despite having lived in San Francisco for three years, I had never been up to Twin Peaks before this trip. Man, I totally missed out!

This nearly 180 degree panorama of the city took 10 separate images to stitch together with AutoPano software. To show the incredible amount of detail here, I cropped out a single building from the larger panoramic: The iconic, Transamerica Pyramid. Due to fading light and the wind, I had to turn up the ISO slightly hence the grain.

Large Panoramic Photo Crop of Transamerica Pyramid, San Francisco, California

Here are more of my panoramic photos.

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Believe it or not, last week was only the 2nd time that I had photographed the San Francisco skyline. It is such a picturesque scene that I wasn’t going to pass up another opportunity to photograph it. My best friend used to live on Treasure Island and I was over there frequently, but I never tried shooting this because I was too insecure back then about shooting “postcard rack” pictures. Nowadays I’m all about enjoying the moment.

My favorite image from the photo shoot was a 180 degree panoramic spanning from Treasure Island over to Alcatraz. It took 13 photos to create the panoramic. There’s no way of adequately displaying it on the web without it getting ripped off unfortunately.

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This scene reminded me of how far society (in California at least) has come when it comes to race relations. I won’t elaborate, but it was pretty bad even when I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s.

In the next frame, (not shown here) the other lady reached out to take the flier from the Chinese woman but it wasn’t visible in the frame from this position unfortunately. I think that would have been a dream picture of mine to have gotten that.

17-35mm @ 17mm, f9, 1/320 sec, ISO 200, handheld

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At Portsmouth Square, you can find men and women playing Mahjong or cards all day long, often for money. Probably due to traditional Chinese customs, the men generally stay on one side of the park while the women congregate on the other.

Initially I walked around trying to ask questions about what card games people were playing, but since I don’t speak Chinese, it was a futile effort because few older people in Chinatown understand English. Either that or they suddenly “forget” how once they see a photographer…

Next time I plan to spend an entire day photographing Chinatown in better light. In order to get more insightful pictures, I would probably need to hire a well-connected translator as well. I understand some Cantonese, but that is of little use when you can’t speak.

17-35mm @ 17mm, f6.3, 1/160 sec, ISO 200, handheld / no flash

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When the Chinese first started immigrating to California during the Gold Rush, most did not speak English. This made it difficult for them to assimilate into society. Combined with the racial discrimination of the time, immigrants needed to form family associations in order for protection. This eventually became The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, more commonly known as the Chinese Six Companies. Individually, the Chinese were weak, but as a group the associations were quite powerful politically.

Fast-forward 150 years later, family associations still exist to help immigrants out when they come to the U.S., and are typically a place where the older generation of Chinese socializes. San Francisco’s Chinatown has many family associations, as well as the Los Angeles Chinatown. I would like to have posted a picture of the Wong family association, but I didn’t know where it was.

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Four or five years ago I met this guy while walking past a gated side alley. He told me that he was a martial artist and asked if I was interested in photographing him practicing. It was dusk and the light was fading fast, so I tried my best with pop-up flash since I didn’t have a compatible flash at the time. I thought it was a rather unusual encounter, but that is what makes street photography interesting.

So I figured there might be something interesting this time around too if I walked the alleys. Walking past this half-opened doorway, I see dingy, factory-like conditions so I popped my head in there out of curiosity. The lady said I could come in so I asked if I could take pictures. 50 cents. I had just stumbled into the fortune cookie factory!

I was quite surprised by how hot and humid it was in there. To be honest, I thought it would be some glamorous, touristy looking shop just like most things in San Francisco. Fortunately that was not the case.

Unfortunately, this picture isn’t sharp even shot wide open at ISO 800. The lady was moving and I wasn’t comfortable using the flash in her face. It probably would have helped me get a faster shutter speed though by under-exposing the ambient light and let the flash handle the rest. Bounce flash would have worked better than a diffuser as well because a diffuser tends to create hard shadows if the subject is close to a wall or other objects.

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Photo: Photographer Jim Goldstein Photographing the Sunset at Seal Rocks, San Francisco, California

Seal Rocks is a location that I had been to many times before when I lived in San Francisco. I enjoyed exploring the trails around Lands End in particular. This spot I had never photographed from however, though it is the most obvious spot to shoot from.

Picture: Seal Rock, San Francisco, California

It was a fun day of shooting. The three of us went for a late dinner afterwards near the Golden Gate Park and I didn’t get to Redwood City until almost midnight. Pretty cool way to start the trip.

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When there is an image that has a strong center of attention, I find that it can be beneficial to add some vignetting around the edges to help draw the eyes toward that subject instead of drifting off to the corners of the frame. In this particular image, I have a foggy sky that isn’t as interesting as the main subject matter so in order to de-emphasize the sky, I added a bit of vignetting. I used the PTLens software to accomplish this but I’m sure there are other simple ways of accomplishing this effect as well.

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I still was vacillating between where to shoot next but knew that I wanted to photograph San Francisco. I decided that the San Francisco Zoo would be the best bet for overcast conditions. The reason why I wanted to go there was to see the new Grizzly Gulch exhibit. Most zoos still can’t quite seem to get away from using obvious fences, but this exhibit was nice nevertheless. There was a waterfall and several ponds for the two grizzly bears. I wanted to get a bear portrait but it proved to be very difficult because the glass is angled in such a way that you cannot press the lens straight against the glass hence making it difficult to avoid reflections. The glass was extremely thick too so getting a sharp photo was a hit or miss endeavor. Feeling that getting a portrait was probably a futile effort, I tried to motion blur the grizzlies. It didn’t quite work out because they walked too slow. When I first got there though one of them was running around. Unfortunately I hadn’t thought of motion blurring the bear while it was running. Though I think I have some good bird photos, I’m a mediocre wildlife mammal photographer. That is a genre of nature photography that I’ll have to improve on in the future.

Upon not seeing much potential for improving upon my grizzly pictures, I looked at a few other exhibits then left the zoo to get lunch downtown. I contemplated whether or not I wanted to photograph the Yerba Buena Gardens since I was on New Montgomery Street getting lunch, but after seeing the prices at the SFMOMA parking garage, I decided to go to Alamo Square instead. Since it was the weekday I had a feeling that I wouldn’t have to parallel-park this time. I was right.

Free parking and no parallel parking is my idea of a pleasant destination. I ate lunch at Alamo Square, facing the “Postcard Row” Victorian homes. I’d seen a lot of postcards from that view but couldn’t quite figure out how to shoot it effectively. All I know is that what I managed to shoot at Postcard Row was not quite what I had envisioned before going there. I think what happened was that I was using my wide angle lens from a closer perspective than the postcards. I think most people use a medium zoom lens and go further up the hill so they can compress the distance of the Victorians to the downtown San Francisco skyline.

Picture: San Francisco Sightseeing Tour Bus at Postcard Row / Alamo Square, San Francisco, California

Regardless of the photography, the view is incredible at Alamo Square. It wasn’t quite as amazing as standing face to face with the Golden Gate Bridge, but it is definitely a classic view that is worth visiting at least once.

Right behind me was the cloud layer. It was already early afternoon so I decided that I was going to try getting some photos of the Conservatory of Flowers at Golden Gate Park. The clouds never really cleared up so I tried to get photos when there was just a bit of blue breaks in the sky. If the sun was out, I would have photographed the Japanese Garden as well in addition to the windmill. I ended up just walking around the windmill and sitting on the bench listening to some live music there before walking to the Cliff House. I was curious as to what they did to the Cliff House since I last lived up north. It was under re-construction when I last saw it. The new version doesn’t seem tourist friendly because all it is now is a façade for a fancy restaurant and a little postcard gift shop.

I decided that I wasn’t going to squander my last day in the Bay Area so I went back to the hotel for a break then went to the Palo Alto Baylands Preserve for sunset. It is almost always sunny in Silicon Valley so I knew I would for surely get a sunset there. It turned out to be a good idea because you could clearly see the thick San Francisco fog from the Baylands.

Picture: Canadian Geese, Palo Alto Baylands Preserve, California

After experiencing fog during four out of five days in San Francisco, that was enough for me. Originally I wanted to go further up north to the Redwood Coast but decided that was just too ambitious for one trip since I’d have to drive over 700 miles to get back home. Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox will have to wait until next year I guess.

The next blog post will feature me doing a classic drive down the Pacific Coast Highway.

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I sat in the parking lot trying to pick up a wi-fi signal on my laptop and did the whole morning email routine before deciding to drive over the coastal mountains on Highway 92 to the James Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach. Since I’ve almost exclusively photographed coastal subjects this year, I figured I might as well stick to the plan on this trip and thus ended up on the San Mateo Coast. That direction looked clear from Redwood City so I figured that I’d go to the reserve then perhaps head down to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk afterwards.

Picture: Foggy Monterey Cypress Trees at James Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, Moss Beach, California

I should have known better because as soon as I arrived in Half Moon Bay it was overcast. It was somewhat foggy but cloudy more than anything else. The ranger had told me on the phone the night before that it would be overcast and that in summer the fog often doesn’t lift for two or three months straight. I hadn’t taken him seriously so my mood instantly dropped. I held my hopes up initially because I’d photographed bush lupine there in July of 2004 under clear weather. What I did find interesting at the reserve however was a colony of sea lions on the beach. I’d been to the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve several times and had only seen sea lions frolicking in the water off-shore. Plus, I’d only gone to the reserve during minus tides previously. Given that this is the California Coast, the beach was roped off way too far out of reach for my lens.

I got bored of the reserve pretty quick after taking some photos from the bluffs so I took a leisurely drive up to Pacifica. When I lived there, I used to either go to Rockaway Beach or the other parts of the coastline in town at least once or twice a week. Sometimes I brought my camera while others times I didn’t. Usually the weather was pretty bad but I have a high tolerance for cold weather given that I’m dressed accordingly. The reason why I prefer cold weather and moist coastal areas is because I generally do not have allergies in that type of environment. I have severe nasal and eye allergies in most other types of conditions.

Naturally it was overcast in Pacifica as well. The main beach was crowded with weekend warriors and surfers. It took about five minutes to find parking at the Taco Bell lot. Not seeing anything photogenic, I went over to Rockaway Beach to take a short walk thru the wetlands. I was surprised to see how the place has evolved since two years ago. Previously the tall grasses were short and you could see all sorts of birds in the creek. Now the tall grass is tall and it’s difficult to spot wildlife in there though you can hear the birds. I took the trail up to a higher bluff and got a good view of the foggy wetlands. I left the camera in the car for some reason so I didn’t get any photos from that perspective. I took a few shots from the parking lot then sort of just drove around San Francisco aimlessly for a while.

What I did next is kind of hazy to me now because I was bored, but I recall heading over to Alamo Square in the late afternoon to try photographing “Postcard Row” in warm light. There were no open parking spots on the streets so I drove in circles probably four or five times around the neighborhood. I found a spot on a steep downward hill that required parallel parking. Well I tried my best. Some old curmudgeonly guy across the street was cussing at me for being incompetent while simulaneously I was cussing at the concept of having to parallel park. After five or six attempts, I gave up and skipped Postcard Row on Sunday afternoon in warm light.

Feeling so dejected from the parallel parking incident and gloomy weather, I vacillated between thinking I was a hack photographer or a competent one merely having a bad day. Then I started questioning if the trip was a waste of money. Finally, I started to mentally calculate the Economic Law of Diminishing Returns as it related to my California Coast photography trip. That was a sign that it was time to call it quits for the day.

For some reason I felt compelled to go to Rodeo Beach despite the bad weather. So I went and waited to see if there would be a sunset. It was quite foggy up in Marin when I got there but it burned off by the time the sun set. The problem though was that it was extremely windy and water vapor was flying everywhere on the beach. I coudln’t get good photos of the sea stacks because my lenses and filters all fogged up and were soaked by vapor. I saw the sunset and couldn’t do anything about it. That was my real sign to call it quits for the day.

See more of my San Mateo Coast photos.

Our other stop was at the pet cemetery. There were some very nice, colorful flowers blooming. I think I got a shot or two that I am happy with.

Photo: Presidio Pet Cemetery, San Francisco, California

After lunch, I decided to go up to Mission San Rafael because Jim and his wife suggested it would be the only place on my to-do list that wasn’t foggy. They were right. It was about 85 degrees there. The Bay Area is very unusual in that you can drive a mile or two and have a thirty degree change in weather.

Mission San Rafael Arcangel is a 20th century replica of the original at the approximate location. Probably because the chapel is only about 60-70 years old, it didn’t have the ambience that most of the other missions have. Though it was a replica, it looked like a newer church. A baptism was about to start in the chapel when I got there. I had never seen one before so I guess that was enlightening. The new mission church next door was having a wedding so I took a few pictures there before leaving for nearby China Camp State Park.

In the 1870’s, the San Francisco Bay had a large group of Chinese shrimp fishermen that were very efficient at what they did. Discrimination and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 eventually killed off the Chinese fishing industry in the bay. All of their fishing camps disappeared with the exception of the China Camp village.

Picture: China Camp State Park Shrimp Fishing Village, San Rafael, California

The village was dilapitated but it had some interesting displays in the visitor center. The buildings there were very worn but looked very authentic still. I didn’t talk to anyone there but awhile back I read that a chinese family descended from the original group run the cafe and oversee the village. I found that to be interesting because those original chinese fishermen came from the same Guangdong province in China that my ancestors did. Not many people in America nowadays speak my family dialect but almost all of the older generation of Chinese-Americans did. I’ll likely return to China Camp in the future to photograph during better lighting conditions. I’ll be sure to do my research beforehand so I could ask some questions of the people there. The last thing I want to do is be under-informed and sound stupid while asking questions. Plus I’m not exactly the most articulate person in the world.

The fog was still hanging around the SF Peninsula so I decided to give the Marin Headlands one last try at sunset. I’d been up there four previous times during the trip at sunset but it was either clear or the fog was too thick to see anything. Getting a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge shrouded in fog is something that I’d wanted to photograph for the past five years. I’d gone up to the Headlands several times when I was living up north but was fogged out each time. The one time it did look nice was during the middle of the day when the bridge is not very golden.

Photo: Golden Gate Bridge Summer Fog, Marin Headlands, California

These 15 hour days of summer are brutal. To wake up at 4:30 a.m. in order to drive somewhere to get a sunrise shot, shoot five or six locations during the day, then have dinner at 10 or 11 p.m. is very exhausting. Those who think that travel photography is easy aren’t trying hard enough.

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First light turned to out to be rather flat when it hit the Golden Gate. The East Bay was partially obscured by clouds so I got more diffused light than anything else. It made for a nice Alcatraz shot however.

Picture: Alcatraz Island, San Francisco, California

After Fort Point, I wanted to get some warm lighting on the Palace of Fine Arts which was just down the street in the Marina District. I managed about ten shots in warm light before the light started to wash out. Since this was during the weekday, I wanted to get over to Pier 39 to take advantage of the “Early Bird” parking rate at this garage that I used to park at when I worked at the aquarium. I paid something like $7 for the day pass. The other lot that I used to use frequently had the shocking price of $25 at 7:30 a.m. Apparently they don’t cut you any slack these days. Traveling is a little easier especially when you know San Francisco like the back of your palm. It can be a stressful place to get around if you don’t know it well.

Even at the early hour, I could tell that this was going to be a hot day. The temperature wasn’t that high, but San Francisco has a higher humidity than Southern California so it doesn’t take much to feel uncomfortable. I walked over Pier 45 hoping to catch some fisherman unloading the day’s fresh catch but didn’t see anything going on. I took some photos of the Fisherman’s Wharf sign then walked up to Lombard Street. Well more like climbed. I had only been to Lombard Street by car so I didn’t know how to get there from the wharf. I did know that Lombard ran from east to west and that Columbus would pass by it at some point. What I didn’t expect was having to walk up two blocks at a 40 degree angle to get there though! When I used to hike in the Bay Area it probably wouldn’t have been as bad, but I’ve been a flatlander for two years now.

I was pretty much burned out physically after Lombard Street so I half-heartedly made it to Chinatown and took a few snapshots. Nothing was open yet at that hour and I was already tired by 9 a.m. so I went over to Lori’s Diner on Powell and Sutter for breakfast. My roommate and I used to there for breakfast when we lived in Nob Hill so that was kinda cool to go back there. There’s a few others in Union Square too but I think the diner on Powell and Sutter tastes the best.

After breakfast I did my usual routine of checking out the magazine rack at Borders. Life has a nice picture book this month of America’s “must-see” places. The only thing I’d change about the issue is to replace some of those images with my own.

A photographer’s will to get great photos is sort of like your sex drive. It goes up and down depending on your mood. I had all these plans to get great shots downtown and of cable cars but after Lombard Street and the several mile uphill walk to Union Square, I really didn’t care about quality photography anymore. I had already sweated it out by 9 a.m. so I got a some shots of the cable car turnaround at Market Street then took a Muni F line ride back Pier 39. It was lunchtime by then for the tourists so I wanted to get some crab shack vendor photos. It was quite crowded there and not a whole lot of action going on but I was reasonably pleased with the photos that I did get.

Photo: Crab Vendor at Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco, California

Musee Mechanique wasn’t as photogenic as I hoped it would be. The problem is that the lighting in the Pier 45 hangar causes a lot reflections on the glass. Perhaps if I had my tripod, I could have eliminated some of the reflection with a polarizer but tripods are not practical for San Francisco tourist traps during the summer time. I’ll have to consider a monopod for next time.

The sea lions weren’t at Pier 39 either. They have this sign up now saying that sea lions go further south during the summer season. I found that interesting because when I worked up there for an entire year, not one day went by when the sea lions were not there. Very disappointing. I secretly have a reason why I was disappointed and for wanting to shoot the most popular tourist locations but I will not reveal that here.

I can’t recall what I did after Pier 39, but the fog started rolling in at the point and it never cleared up again. In the evening hours I went over to Lands End and wanted to walk my favorite trails. I used wander off-trail there all the time but I was disappointed to find all of the thick vegetation missing and the areas beyond the trail cordoned off. I went off-trail anyway but didn’t get far because there was nothing to explore! The official excuse is that they want to re-grow the place and do something with the trails. I don’t buy that because it looked perfectly fine two years ago. Plus it seems like half of the wind-gnarled trees are gone too.

My mood on this particular evening.

The fog was low and thick so I wanted to get some moody tree shots but I had a difficult time finding enough trees clustered together to get good shots. I took about three images then called it a day. A few years ago, getting this type of shot would have been no problem. It was kind of disappointing to pre-visualize these shots over the past two years and not be able to capture them now that I was actually there. Things change (especially when man touches it) and not always the way you hope. Just have to roll with the punches I suppose.

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The mission was just as nice. It is surrounded by other historic buildings as part of the San Juan Bautista State Historic Park. The chapel was the most beautiful California Mission chapel that I have been to. Some of the other mission chapels have generic church-looking interiors but Mission SJB is decorated in a very southwestern type of theme. It must truly be a pleasure to attend Mass at the church if you are so inclined. In fact, Mission San Juan Bautista has never ceased being an active parish since its inception in 1797.

Photo: Mission San Juan Bautista Chapel, California

I spent awhile photographing the mission then made my way over to the other part of the state historic park. Some cool looking cowboy stuff in the barn. I didn’t find anything I wanted to photograph in the old home but it is definitely worthwhile to visit as a tourist. Afterward I had a very filling lunch at Dona Esther Mexican Restaurant then proceeded onto Santa Clara Mission.

Santa Clara Mission is located on the campus of Santa Clara University. Nothing exists of the original mission except for an adobe wall across the lawn from the mission church. To be honest, I didn’t find chapel to be very interesting. In my opinion, Santa Clara Mission is the 2nd least interesting of all the 15 or 16 California Missions that I have photographed to date. I took a few shots then walked around campus for a few minutes before leaving for the hotel in Redwood City. I still look reasonably young so I didn’t feel out of place walking through campus. Plus I had my Sierra Club backpack on so I looked like a student at least.

I made a stop at the Palo Alto Baylands Preserve to scout before going to Redwood City. It didn’t look nearly as appealing as my previous visits three years ago but I found some nesting egrets in the palm trees. After making a mental note, I checked into my hotel room then made my way up to Muir Woods National Monument. I hadn’t planned on going to Marin on this particular day but sometimes you’ve got to improvise. I decided on doing a sunset of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands and needed to burn a couple hours so that’s how I ended up at Muir Woods.

The only weather conditions I enjoy Muir Woods in is in the winter and during a storm. Everything is so lush during the winter time in Marin but drab looking during the rest of the year. Plus the smell is so much fresher in winter. Regardless, I made an effort to get some photos. Sometimes you shoot pictures with artistic intentions while other times the goal is to merely make publishable photos. Sounds good to me.

I have a confession to make though. I absolutely hate driving on Mount Tam. The roads are really narrow, a lot of hair-pin turns, steep drop-offs, often completely fogged in, and drivers either go very fast or don’t know how to drive mountain roads (inexperienced mountain drivers rarely use the pull-outs, much to my chagrin.) I have been up that road many times…

The sun was dropping lower to the horizon so I went over to the Marin Headlands to get the classic postcards that I never managed to photograph when I lived in San Francisco. I have tried for the past five years to get a Golden Gate Bridge shot at sunset while half obscured by fog but have never been successful until this trip. (More on that in a few days.) The air quality was great and a few whispy clouds were lingering above the Golden Gate. Some pretty powerful alpenglow was going on this night.

Picture: Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, California

When I was living in San Francisco, I wasn’t yet secure enough in my photography skills to be able to photograph the postcards. I feared being known as a postcard photographer so I generally avoided the general tourist photos unless the light had potential to be spectacular. Now that I am more experienced and have a decent-sized photo collection, I can feel comfortable attacking the classic scenes and make them my own. It can be profitable as well to have these sorts of images in your archive. For example, last month I sold a popular tourist picture twice through my stock agency. 30 million people per year visit that place and probably almost as many have pictures of it. Yet a picture that I took while waiting for dinner at a restaurant, has netted me a few hundred bucks.

Postcard or not, I enjoyed this shoot as much as any other scenic photography I’ve done. The view from the Headlands is stunning regardless if you are alone or are surrounded by 100 tourists. Now that I no longer live in San Francisco, I actually felt embarrassed to not have some of those classic tourist pictures. It’s about time.

See more of my California Mission photos.

See more of my San Francisco pictures.

See more of my Monterey pictures.