Weekly Photo Challenge: Early Bird

Posted on by Stacy P. Fischer

Golden Gate Bridge sunrise silhouette from Kirby Cove in SausalitoKirby Cove, Sausalito, CA 

Just west of the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, Kirby Cove beckons campers and photographers to enjoy the sandy beach and the stunning panorama of San Francisco.  Doc Miles, my wonderful San Francisco photography tour guide, picked me up when it was still dark to make sure we had time to hike the mile-long path to reach our destination so I could capture this early sunrise scene.

I was fortunate that Doc had a wide angle lens for me to try, and while there wasn’t anything on the beach in the foreground to anchor the shot, it was a delight to be able to capture the entire bridge and the shoreline.

It was an amazing experience, one that taught me the benefits of shooting early in the morning! The only tough part was the hike back up the very steep path. Doc assured me he had not yet lost a photographer on any of his tours; glad not to have tarnished his record!

Visit my San Francisco gallery to see more photos from my whirlwind photo tour.

 

65 thoughts on “Weekly Photo Challenge: Early Bird”

  6. Great image, Stacy! I too have started to realize the benefits of early morning photos. I have yet to trek an hour before the shoot, though. So far, I’ve only gone from the parking lot to the beach. 😛

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  8. Very nice image. I have been using a Canon M2. Great little camera. Has some limitations like any other system. I do like the fact I can interchange the lenses with my DSLR. The Fuji 100x seems to be awesome too

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    • Luis, I don’t know anything about Canon cameras, but this 100T is just fantastic! I’ve been out with it on three separate shoots since Thursday and I love the optical and electronic view finders, the built-in 3 stop NDF, and that the sensor is the same size as my D7100. There is so much more for me to delve into, but I’m really impressed!

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    • And that was after getting back to the hotel at midnight the previous night after shooting “night” shots 🙂 A two-coffee morning most definitely!. But an experience I will always remember!

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    • Thanks, Chris, and absolutely 🙂 I think I’m finally coming around. Even said to my husband today that a number of the monuments in DC really require morning sun to capture them at their best. I see an outing in my future 😉

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  22. I’m so impressed Stacy! That’s a magnificent view and you’ve captured it at the perfect time. I also like where the waters edge is when you took this one. I sure don’t have the equipment for these kind of shots but I’d really like to get a tripod for night shots.

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    • You should have seen me trying to operate that tripod, Boomdee 😂 My first go-round with it; shortening and lengthening the legs, figuring out which of three dials did what … I’m surprised the darn thing didn’t fall over by the time I had set it up 😉 But I’m much more comfortable with it now and, in fact, put it through its paces this weekend back in DC. I spent 5 hours on Saturday and Sunday afternoons/evenings at the monuments and had a marvelous time. Felt like a pro 😉. I even took it with me on Thursday for a daytime shoot – really made a difference. Definitely look into getting one!

      As for the water’s edge, thanks so much for noticing! I did my best to time the incoming water since there wasn’t anything else of interest on the beach. With a timed shot, it was a bit of a crossing fingers. In the end, I just shot a bunch of shots, figuring I’d get it somehow!

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      • I’m sure it’d take some practice, I miss shots just figuring out my camera settings, ha. Hey? I’m curious, how do you store all your images? I’ve thought how awful it’d be to loose all my photo’s. I hardly print anything these days. There’s so many choices, all of them involve getting organized and I’ve been really lame about it :/ Bad Boomdee

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        • Hey, Boomdee! Can’t believe I am so behind on replying to comments 😦 How I store my images is an ongoing interesting topic, as I’m always reading articles on how I could do it better. But for now, I store them on my hard drive on my laptop because it’s quicker to import them and access them in Lightroom. Then, I have two 1 TB portable external hard drives attached to my laptop that automatically backup selected files (really anything that is in my documents and pictures folders and what’s on my desktop, plus a few other things). This means I have three copies of everything I don’t want to lose. I do have a Dropbox account that I could also use to store just my RAW files, but I haven’t done that yet. Anyway, I hope this helps. I know that “professional” photographers have much more robust backup systems than what I use, but this works for my purposes (at least I’m hoping it all works in the event I need to use a backup!)

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        • Behind? That seems to be a common thread right now, so welcome to the club, HA! Thanks for sharing your plan of attach on the whole back up thing. I like the idea of an external Hard drive automatically Backing up critical files….That’s doable for me. Shazam! I think I have a plan of action. Cheers my dear.

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    • Thanks, Kaz! And, no, not yet 🙂 I actually am now deciding whether to use the money earmarked for a wide angle lens to purchase a mirrorless camera instead! I’ve rented a Fuji 100XT for 10days to see if I like it. It has a fixed 35mm lens. If I like it, then I’m going to rent the X-1 model that has interchangeable lenses. I’m looking forward to playing around with the systems 🙂

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Any thoughts?