Going to San Francisco

I'm off to SF this weekend and was wondering if anyone had any insight into locations for those "must have" shots. While I have reasonable confidence in my ability to "choose my own", I would appreciate hearing from others.

Thanks in advance.

Then there's no waiting
It's well worth it!
--

ThumbDog said:

I'm off to SF this weekend and was wondering if anyone had any
insight into locations for those "must have" shots. While I have
reasonable confidence in my ability to "choose my own", I would
appreciate hearing from others.

Click to expand...

I have two off-the-beaten-track suggestions:

1) If you have a car, go over to the East Bay and drive along Grizzly Peak Blvd. in the Berkeley Hills. There are plenty of turnouts and you can get some absolutely stunning views of the Bay and San Franscisco.

2) Go to Ft. Point, nestled below the Golden Gate Bridge on the very tip of the S.F. Peninsula. Not only is there an old Civil War-era fort to explore, complete with stone spiral staircases, gun emplacements and a ton of photogenic light/shadow shot opportunities down long halls with arched openings on the sides (perfect for B/W!), there is perhaps the area's best possible view of the Golden Gate Bridge extending over to Marin County. There's also surf crashing on rocks, giant rusty iron chains, etc. And you can take a shot of the Bridge's superstructure from underneath! Cool. And you're only a few seconds away from the Presidio, which also presents lots of photo opportunities.

Google Maps and/or Google Earth can help you plot your trip. Have a good time!

Thanks for the suggestions Paul.

Sounds like the civil war era fort is similar to Fort Sumpter in SC. I had the opportunity to shoot there a few years back and was quite pleased with the the results.

How long are you staying there? If you are staying there for a while I would pick up a book called bay area backroad. It is a wonderful book that shows many great location to visit in the bay area. San Fan is a great place to visit. If you are only staying there for a day or so, you wont get much of it. You might be able to see most of it, but there is A LOT more then what most city people see.

What type of place do you want to go? Do you like the outdoors or indoors? There is a lot of stuff outdoors with great landscape of the city and coastal view.

One place that I highly recommond that is in the city if you want a great view is Twin Peaks. I would recommond you go there in the day time and once at night. You can get to it on Market Street by going all the way up. When you get up the hills you will find a gas station called Twin Peaks Gas station or something like that. If you reach that, you just passed the road that leads up to twin peak, it is just right before it.

Thanks for responding superakuma...

superakuma said:

How long are you staying there? If you are staying there for a
while I would pick up a book called bay area backroad. It is a
wonderful book that shows many great location to visit in the bay
area. San Fan is a great place to visit. If you are only staying
there for a day or so, you wont get much of it. You might be able
to see most of it, but there is A LOT more then what most city
people see.

Click to expand...

We've got four days...

superakuma said:

What type of place do you want to go? Do you like the outdoors or
indoors? There is a lot of stuff outdoors with great landscape of
the city and coastal view.

Click to expand...

I'd mostly like to get some outdoors street/architectural shots.

superakuma said:

One place that I highly recommond that is in the city if you want a
great view is Twin Peaks. I would recommond you go there in the day
time and once at night. You can get to it on Market Street by going
all the way up. When you get up the hills you will find a gas
station called Twin Peaks Gas station or something like that. If
you reach that, you just passed the road that leads up to twin
peak, it is just right before it.

Click to expand...

We're staying right at Powell and Market so thanks for the tip regarding Twin Peaks (I just google mapped it ). It look like it's a brief bus or cab ride.

The painted ladies at Alamo Square is a row of old houses that is pretty famous.

The street sign at Haight & Ashbury to relive the 60's. Of course when you see the stores at that location you will know those days are long gone.

Golden Gate Bridge from Baker beach.

The redone Cliff house.

Have fun.

Paul H said:

ThumbDog said:

I'm off to SF this weekend and was wondering if anyone had any
insight into locations for those "must have" shots.

Click to expand...

2) Go to Ft. Point, nestled below the Golden Gate Bridge on the
very tip of the S.F. Peninsula. Not only is there an old Civil
War-era fort to explore, complete with stone spiral staircases, gun
emplacements and a ton of photogenic light/shadow shot
opportunities down long halls with arched openings on the sides
(perfect for B/W!), there is perhaps the area's best possible view
of the Golden Gate Bridge extending over to Marin County.

Click to expand...

What I could never understand is why they'd built a defensive fort
right underneath the Bridge. Attackers could just drop their cannon
balls through the roof ;-) Great place though!
(ducks and runs)

Phil in Adelaide.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area - incudes the GG bridge, Fort Point, Presidio and other areas so their website is a good starting point. The Marin Headlands - the north end of the brdige offers the views back across the bridge to the city.

From Powell and Market area, you can take the cable cars back to the Fisherman's Wharf/Embarcadero area. Check the web for the availability of multiple day passes, there are routes for cable cars and street cars around the embarcadero and other toruisty areas which may be fun. With passes, you might try riding near Chinatown, Lombard Street, etc., and hopping on and off as you see interesting opportunities. (My last visit was off-season so the cable cars may be kind of crowded for just hopping on and off but you'll see areas to return to.)

If you Google up "San Francisco Walking Tours" you'll get several good hits. the visitor and Conventions bureau has pdf format guides for several trips - and even if you don't walk them, they highlight several areas which may interest you.

http://www.sfvisitor.org/visitorinfo/html/walkpdfs.html

More scheduled guided tours at: San Francisco City Guides. Again, even if you don't do the tours, they have transit and descriptive info on a variety of different parts of the city.

http://www.sfcityguides.org/

There is much to shoot in and around the area. I typically go back every year. Don't overlook the people as subjects. There is so much culture there. Many interesting sites there like the GG Bridge, probably one of the most shot objects in history. It looks different every hour. There is the Ghirardelli Square, the Piers 39, Alcatraz, Sausalito, Muir Woods, the wine country, the cable cars, the TA building, The GG park area, and the list goes on and on. If you have time for a side trip take a jaunt south down US1 towards Monterey Bay, Carmel and Big Sur.

Don't forget the two Coit towers.



--
Jim

Many thanks to all who responded. This is my first visit to SF and I'm pretty jazzed about the photographic potential. If I end up with any decent shots, I'll be sure and post 'em.

If you are into plants then the arboritum in Golden Gate Park. It has about 8 different geographic areas w/ their plants. Also a few animals and birds.
Mark

There is so much to do in a very compact area. For photos, I like the Coit Tower, Fort Point (under the south tower of thr Golde Gate Bridge), the Exploratorium and Palace of Fine Arts, TransAmerica Tower downtown, Cablecars, crooked Lombard Street, SF Zoo, Steinhart Aquarium and Golden Gate Park, China Town. For great views go to Sutro Tower...
Good luck