Pacific Coast Highway - Sonoma County

You've read about the first part of our trip in Sonoma where I did more wine tasting than photography. Here is the continuation of this trip. Once I freed my hand from the wine glass, I was able to manipulate the camera a little more.

Chapter A, Part II: Driving PCH to San Francisco

We woke up from a good night sleep in our Sonoma mansion and we headed west for the coast. Bound by time constraints, we drove straight from Santa Rosa to San Francisco, stopping only for a quick picnic at Duncan's Cove and a few oysters later down the road. I was hoping to get sunset pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge so we had to make sure we arrived there around 6pm.

Duncan's Cove

After eating leftovers at Duncan's Cove, I walked around to take a few shots. It was a bright yet gloomy day so I used a 10-stop ND filter to slow the exposure down to 30 seconds. This smoothen the waves as they are licking the beach. The grey colors in the sky didn't add anything to the pictures so I changed them all to black and white, much like many pictures during my Los Angeles Stroll. Before we headed out, I ran down to the water to make some of those rocky cloudy looking pictures.

Duncan's Cove water clouds

The method for this picture is very similar to the one used previously. The main difference was that I had to set my tripod atop a big rock. When you set your tripod in the sand, the legs aren't as stable. This is especially true when the water comes all the way to your tripod and makes the legs sink in the sand as your picture is being taken. The other advantage of the large rock was that it gave me a higher view point. With this particular shot, being too low wouldn't have shown the rocks and water as well.

After messing around for a bit, it was time to continue our drive south. We stopped in Tomales Bay for Jenna to eat a few oysters at The Marshall Store and once again in the charming city of Bolinas for delicious smoothies at Bobolicious (I sense a pattern).

We finally arrived at the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge where I had hoped for epic sunset shots. And lo and behold, the bridge welcomed us with its usual greatness: freezing cold winds and dense fog.

I see some sun hitting the bridge!

The weather didn't seem like it would budge. I decided against losing my fingers to frostbite so we headed in town for some (more) food: late night Kingdom of Dumpling. We highly recommend this hole in the wall place that has excellent dumplings and much variety. Don't be fooled by the pictures on their menu page (seriously, they are all the same picture...).

Of course on the way to the restaurant, we got stuck in Golden traffic.

Different Golden Gate perspective

I was able to snap this picture of a different perspective. Always look for different angles of what you are shooting. I wasn't necessarily planning this shot but I did have my camera ready and I'm happy I did.

The sunset might not have been what I was hoping for, but I didn't abandon the idea of a good Golden Gate picture nonetheless. That same night I decided to do a little more homework and figure out how to maximize my chances of getting good shots of the bridge at sunrise.

The next: much more photo info, including better pictures, in Chapter A, Part III of the birthday weekend extravaganza.