Photographer’s Guide to the Golden Gate Bridge, Part 4

Guide to Shooting the Bridge, Part 4 – Fort Point, Horseshoe Bay amd the Visitor’s Center
(see intro here)

Fort Point is good at sunset all year long. Deep blue skies are most common in the winter. Warm days often produce mist under the bridge. Low clouds and fog can help this shot (see below). Rules of composition say to avoid a strong diagonal line (the bridge) intersecting a corner (top left, in this case) of a picture. With that in mind, I still like this framing better than others I tried because I want the rocks at bottom left. To avoid this intersection of bridge and image corner, use a wider-angle lens and crop the top or bottom of the image, yielding a wider aspect ratio.

Access – From San Francisco, take the last San Francisco northbound exit off Highway 101, just before the bridge. The exit sign reads “Golden Gate National Recreation Area View Area”. At the stop sign turn right (Vista Access Road) and then in 150 feet at the next stop sign, turn left on Lincoln Blvd. Follow Lincoln Blvd for .25 miles and then turn left on Long Avenue, the Fort Point access road. Follow Long Avenue (name changes to Marine Drive) 1/2 mile to its end at the Fort Point parking lot. You can keep the fence out of your photos by moving to the far right (east) side of the parking lot. This areas usually has armed military guards who won’t hassle you for setting up a tripod.

See on Google Maps

Horseshoe Bay is another spot that gets better as the weather gets worse. Afternoon fog in the summer washes out the colors. Use this for mood. If you’re lucky or patient, you can find a sun ray hitting one spot in the scene leaving it as the only part of the image with bright colors.

Access – From San Francisco, cross the bridge on US 101. The return trip will cost $5. Exit at Alexander Road, the second exit north of the bridge. At the stop sign turn right on Alexander Rd. Follow it 0.8 miles down the hill and turn right (almost a U-turn) onto East Rd. Bear left on Murray Circle and follow it as far as you can go.

Map view

The Golden Gate Bridge Visitor’s Center is the place to go for that annoying we were here shot filled with other tourists who were also there. Surprisingly, if you walk down the hill from the Roundhouse gift shop, you’ll enter a garden area (map) where, if you’re careful, you can see the bridge without signs, statues and the ugly tourist, albeit also without much of the San Francisco Bay.

Walk partway across the bridge on its east side to the south tower to shoot up at the cables and tower. A bit of polarizer helps, a lot will ruin your wide-angle shot with an unnatural dark band across the image, stemming from the fact the angular view of a wide-angle lens is broad enough to see the variation due to the gradient of polarization of light in the sky. This shot works best when the sun is near its high point in the sky. At other times the main cables that support the bridge cast dark, distracting shadows across the towers.

The east side of the Golden Gate Bridge is open to foot traffic in the daytime only. It has been closed at night in attempt to prevent suicides since it is America’s most popular spot for this activity. Millions of dollars have been spent studying of the feasibility of a suicide barrier by the Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District. San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano, exercising his typical restraint from politicizing an issue, has characterized opposition to such a barrier as follows: “There’s a lot of white Republicans on the board who resist change.”