Golden Gate Bridge – Slow Shutter Speed

Posted on February 12, 2023 by Anne Sandler · 35 Comments

Lens Artists Challenge #236: East Meets West

I think I may have taken this challenge from Amy too literally. When I saw the challenge title, I immediately thought of our cross country trip taken 10 years ago for our 50th wedding anniversary. I’ve tried to think of other ways to do this post, but I keep coming back to the trip across the United States and back. I’m sure I’ve posted some of these images before, but not in this context. So let’s start.

My dream trip has always been to take our trailer and tow it across the country. I didn’t want to go overseas; I wanted to see my country. Richard finally relented and we took my dream trip in 2013. I had just bought my first camera, a Nikon D3100, and was totally new at photography. In fact, that is when I started this blog as sort of a journal of the trip. I’ve picked out just a few images to share. My memories of this trip don’t need a visual.

The U.S. is big (We took three months and didn’t see it all.) and each state has its own culture and beauty. I was amazed at how flat middle America is, that we have more National Parks in the West than in the East, and the abundance of our National history is on the East Coast. But no matter how different the culture, jargon and lifestyle is, everyone we met were gracious and kind.

I have 10 pictures to share (Yes, it was tough!) and I’ll caption them.

**We’ll start with the Golden Gate (not from this trip)**

So, that’s my brief look at my cross country trip of the U. S. — from “Sea to Shining Sea.”

When you post your response to this challenge, please remember to link to Amy’s post and use the Lens Artists tag. I hope you enjoyed preparing your reflections and shadows last week as much as I did looking at them. Next week Bren of Brashley Photography will be challenging us with using clarity to create softness in your photos. Look for her post.

If you would like to participate weekly in our Lens-Artists Challenge, click here for more info.

Posted on July 16, 2022 by Anne Sandler · 38 Comments

Lens-Artists Challenge #208: Summer Vibes

Summer Vibes? For the last three years here in California we’ve been locked in because of Covid or the extreme heat! No yearly visits to the sunflower visits and long day trips to the ocean. So when Andre of Solander asked us to show him our summer vibes, I went back to 2016 when outings were plentiful and Covid was unknown. Remember those times?

Here are my 2016 summer vibes. Each year we would visit the sunflower fields and the Mezger Family Zinnia Patch and 2016 was no exception. I love how the sunflowers smile cheerfully and attract the bees. The zinnia garden is planted each year by the Mezger family who encourage visitors to cut the flowers, put them in vases that are provided and give this gift to someone who needs encouragement in their life. What a wonderful gesture.

2016 was also the year that my friend Linda and I spent three days in San Francisco. We stayed at the hostel at Ft. Mason near Fisherman’s Wharf. Have you ever stayed in a hostel? It is fun. We had a private bedroom and shared a kitchen and bathroom with a young family from England. Neither of us used the kitchen! I found it a wonderful experience, giving us the ability to meet many people. The Palace Of Fine Arts was a great place to visit at night. It is lit up and it’s reflection is beautiful in the water that surrounds it. Of course, everyone must take a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge.

I did mention road trips, and the following images are from one my photo buddies and I took. I truly don’t know where we ended up. This must be the trip where I feel asleep, woke up and asked where we were. Nobody knew! I do miss those trips, but with gas prices the way they are, they are somewhat impractical. What I like most about road trips is the variety of pictures you can take.

I’ve enjoyed reviewing my summer vibes of 2018. Thank you Andre! When you post your challenge please remember to link to his blog post and tag Lens-Artists. And thank you Jez for a great reflective challenge last week. We have more July guest hosts: Tracy at Reflections of an Untidy Mind, and Sarah of Travel with Me. The Lens-Artists team will be back in August with me hosting the challenge.

If you would like to invite a friend to join us in our weekly challenges, it’s easy just click here to find out how.

Take care everyone and stay safe!

Posted on June 25, 2017June 25, 2017 by Anne Sandler · 12 Comments

24 hours: San Francisco

The California Academy of Sciences, in Golden Gate Park, is more than a museum. It’s a planetarium, a rain forest, and aquarium and natural history museum. Yes, it is a museum, and Linda and I wanted to visit. But we knew it would take us all day to get through it, so we decided to stay overnight at the Ft. Mason Hostel (Once again in a private bedroom.).

Our plan for this adventure was to leave early in the morning, visit some sights, get to the Hostel in the evening and go to the Academy the next morning. That first day our road trip took us to Tiburon, where we had lunch and enjoyed the small town; Sausalito where we shot the Golden Gate Bridge; and to the Sutro Baths in San Francisco.

Given that itinerary, I think this will be a two part post. Remembering that we are seniors, me more than Linda, we packed a lot in. However, we were tired at night and didn’t venture out for night photography.

I had a great time. I was more at ease with my photography than I was during our previous trip. Again, we found fog in San Francisco. I’m still amazed at how fast it moves across the vistas. In less than 5 minutes, you can be shooting in fog, mild fog and no fog.

Let’s begin with Tiburon and end with the Sutro Baths. The next post will have images from the California Academy of Sciences.

Tiburon.

This fountain turns slowly, changing shadows and reflections.

The Bay Bridge and Alcatraz Island.

The shoreline.

Looking across the bay at San Francisco.

A fisherman.

The hillside homes.

A visitor wades in the surf.

I loved the stairs and flowers at this house.

Sausalito and the Golden Gate in fog.

Less fog from this angle.

The remnants of the Sutro Baths.

Another view.

We didn’t walk down into the cave. Maybe next time.

The water crashing the rocks.

The shoreline at the Sutro Baths.

Trees in fog on the way down.

Wildflowers were everywhere on the trail.

Posted on August 7, 2016August 7, 2016 by Anne Sandler · 2 Comments

The road home: Leaving San Francisco

Are you tired of San Francisco? We weren’t tired of San Francisco, just tired of 2 1/2 days shooting the city’s beauty with our cameras.

The morning before we left, we visited the Aquarium Of The Bay on Pier 39. To our credit, we did not walk the pier and shop. We went directly to the aquarium, had coffee (And I had a Krispy Kreme custard filled donut! It had been a long time since I ate one.) and left town. I snapped some pictures while going over the Golden Gate, and we stopped at the viewing site on the other side of the Golden Gate.

I really enjoyed the trip. I had never visited San Francisco as a photographer and found the experience so different than being a tourist. We didn’t get to the zoo. Linda wants to go back, but I’m not quite ready for the wind and fog just yet. Maybe next month. You can never get tired of photographing San Francisco!

In this post, I’m going to show you the backyard of the hostel, the Aquarium and we’ll say good-bye to the Golden Gate.

This road was along side of our hostel.

This is the view we had from the back.

Another shoreline view.

Jelly fish at the aquarium.

Another look at these translucent creatures.

Getting up close and personal with a fish through the glass.

Another fish and star fish.

A fishy reflection.

One of the two tunnels.

Sea plants are beautiful.

Outside on the pier. The birds would share their bounty. I’m not sure if this is a mom and baby or they are just nice to each other.

Driving across the Golden Gate.

Another view of the Golden Gate.

Looking away from the Golden Gate.

A ship coming through the bay.

Good-bye Golden Gate.

Posted on August 4, 2016August 4, 2016 by Anne Sandler · 4 Comments

On the road again: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

After a day of driving and shooting, seeing most of what Linda wanted, we decided to visit Golden Gate Park the following day. I’ve been there many times to museums, but have never walked through the gardens. With 1,017 acres, Golden Gate Park is larger than New York City’s Central Park.

Admission, I lived in New York City for 10 years and never went to Manhattan or Central Park. You can see NYC through the eyes and lens of Sherry Felix, artist and photographer, at www.port4u.net. So I really can’t compare the two urban parks on either side of the country. But, Golden Gate Park rocks with it’s many museums and gardens.

We began with the San Francisco Botanical Gardens, then the Japanese Friendship Garden and then finished up with the Conservatory of Flowers. Admission to each of these were reasonable, and they were beautiful in their own way. I can’t say that I liked one over the others.

We then drove down to the Presidio. Needless to say, we were tired when we got back to the hostel. We had dinner at their cafe, rested and then walked around the hostel grounds. It was beautiful there, being on the water.

The most difficult part of this post is selecting the pictures to show you. The Botanical Gardens represented many countries in its boundaries; the Friendship Garden brought us to a Japanese landscape and the Conservatory showed us formal gardens and different flowers.

So enjoy it through my lens, and make sure you visit Golden Gate Park when you visit San Francisco. My next post will show you some of the Presidio, the Aquarium Of The Bay and a good-bye to the Golden Gate.

Botanical Garden

Friendship Garden

Conservatory of Flowers

Posted on July 31, 2016July 31, 2016 by Anne Sandler

On the road again: San Francisco

I didn’t say yes right away, I thought about it. First, I had never stayed in a hostel, and I’m not fond of driving in San Francisco. But I capitulated, and told photo buddy Linda that I’d go with her–if she drove. Oh yes, I also told her I wouldn’t rent an electric bike to take me places. I won’t say how many years it’s been since I’ve been on a bike, but I was worried about my balance and whatever photography gear I would be carrying.

It ended up being three days of fun and adventure. And, we did okay using Linda’s car. We found free parking wherever we went that was close to where we were shooting. I think it had something to do with visiting during the week. We did have to pay to park the last day, but were validated for most of the amount.

So what did we do? Our first stop was Treasure Island. I was there on a night Meetup to photograph the Bliss Dance statue before she was moved, and I wanted to shoot in that same area during the day. It was so much easier to get a sharp image of the city this time, even though there was fog.

After Treasure Island, we went to Fort Point National Historic Site at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge. Built between 1853 and 1861, Fort Point was used as part of a defense system of forts planned for the protection of San Francisco Bay. Designed at the height of the Gold Rush, the Fort and its companion fortifications would protect the Bay’s important commercial and military installations against foreign attack. We made a few more stops before checking in to the Hostel. All this and more will be discussed in the next few posts.

I’m so glad I finally said yes to this photo adventure and probably part of Linda’s bucket list.