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Night at the Golden Gate Bridge

On my first trip to the US west coast, I planned to visit San Francisco and Seattle. This was during the Californian bush fires which were noticeable as I arrived; there was a haze over San Francisco and it wasn’t the fog for which the city is renowned. My first note on San Francisco: The Golden Gate Bridge is a long walk from the centre. And my second note: it is the home of Uber, so the return journey is easier. The Golden Gate Bridge has been extensively photographed over the decades and it is not too difficult to see where the photographers’ viewpoint is. You just have to look for the collection of cars on the Marin Headlands. It was sunset and I joined the throng of other eager photographers to capture the sunset on the bridge, even though the sun was setting in the opposite direction. Afterwards, I decided to walk up the road (in the dark) to another car park. It was a steady climb and it was deceptively winding. Once I arrived I took more images of the bridge with SF in the background. Just before 10pm, the Park Police arrived to close the car park and ensure all cars were gone (i.e. no one was left stranded). I explained to the Police Officer that I arrived by foot, which was met with a puzzled look, but I did have the British accent to support my eccentricity. I was allowed to stay put. Whilst I was waiting for my series of ten-minute exposures, the Police were having difficulty locating the owner of one car. Shortly afterwards a helicopter showed up, sweeping its search lights across the hillside in the hope of alerting the car owner. Sure enough, this worked and the owner returned and the Police were able to close the park. I doubt many other countries (or states in the US) would go to such lengths to avoid people being stranded in a car park. Anyway, that aside, a few ten-minute exposures later and it was already past midnight. My plan for the following sunrise was to return to the spot I photographed the bridge at sunset, down the hill. To return to my hotel for a sleep, albeit short sleep, would take one hour to walk to a place where I could catch a taxi for a then 30-minute journey back to my hotel. Considering I would have to do the same journey in reverse for sunrise in five hours, I decided it probably wasn’t worth the effort for, at best, two hours sleep. After all, I had water and two chocolate bars. So I decided to keep photographing from the ‘closed’ car park until 3.30am and then headed down the hill steadily so I was in position in plenty of time for sunrise at 6am. The image captured here was the result of that long wait. As soon as I had my shot I summoned an Uber to take me to the nearest Starbucks for my coffee and cinnamon bun. Then bed.