Monday, April 1, 2013

True Colors of San Francisco

On Saturday evening I was treated to a view of a lifetime: a stunning rainbow over San Francisco from Coit Tower. Capturing a rainbow over the city has been on my 'bucket list' for a long time, and I was thrilled to finally have a chance to do so.

The weather was strange on Saturday afternoon: the passing storm was pretty high in the sky and the city was bathed in warm, but flat light. A friend from out of town and I were doing some touristy SF stuff and decided to head up to the top of Coit Tower (which I think is one of the best deals in SF at $7). Once up there, I noticed a break in the sky to the west and was hopeful for some great sunset light and so we waited... and waited... for more than an hour for the sun to make an appearance. We almost left the tower a couple of times as I was getting impatient and it was windy and cold up there.

Luckily we stayed. When the sun finally came out near the horizon the City was bathed in dramatic warm light and the stormy sky was spectacular. That would have been incredible enough, but then a double rainbow burst out to complete the scene. Key landscape photography lesson re-learned: always, always wait it out!

Here are three photos taken as the light changed dramatically over a period of just 8 minutes. You can also see the Bay Lights twinkling on the Bay Bridge.

Canon 5D Mark III, Canon 24-70L, ISO 800 (handheld)