Getting to grips with it.

Part II appears here.

On this outing I made for the north tower, pulling off the Bridge at the last Vista Point right before the Alexander Avenue Sausalito exit. Get a load of this! There’s an ancient walkway/tunnel under the bridge approached through unmarked stairs made from old railroad ties. You walk under the bridge, the walkway shakes like the devil and the whole thing is major league spooky.

I have embedded a brief video which shows this tunnel, together with purple haze from the iPhone every time it gets close to the sun, a serious flaw denied by Apple, of course. If the video does not appear, refresh your browser page.

Purple haze courtesy of Apple.

I sent this video to a friend occasioning this hilarious response:

“Hitchcock would have you inch your way on the lower steel support until you were way out over the ocean. Then you would slip and fall but you grab the support with one last lunge of your left hand. Your shoulder bag comes off and the movie camera watches it descend out of sight. The villain (Alan Rickman) now carefully inches his way out, mocks your vulnerable position, and starts stomping on your fingers. In desperation you grab his leg, he loses his balance, falls, and grabs your foot at the last second. Now you’re both hanging as you struggle to hold on. He tries to pull his way up when your pants come off and there is a long scream until he hits the surging water below. Just then, a USCG helicopter arrives, lowers Alfred Hitchcock wearing an orange suit and helmet, and he straps you to his rescue harness. As you pull away and head for land, the entire GGB suddenly lurches, begins breaking apart, and disappears in a thunderous roar under the Bay.

Cut… wrap…..send to post production.”

Poking the lens through the old wires purportedly offering safety to those foolish enough to try this traverse, I got this:

Working on the GGB.

On weekdays there is abundant parking on this Vista Point and views of the Bridge and City par excellence.

That other Depression Era masterpiece, the Oakland Bay Bridge, is also visible:

Oakland Bay Bridge from the GGB northeast Vista Point.

Exiting the Vista Point back onto the Bridge, I took the Alexander Avenue exit to Sausalito then turned left on Danes Drive/Bunker Road, through the single lane tunnel (“Red Light up to 5 minutes”!), then left and up McCullough Road, left at the roundabout to Conzelman Road and up to the GGB overlook. Forget doing this on a weekend. Parking is impossible.

This is the long way around but worth it for the many great views.

Now some serious photographic opportunities presented themselves. The Bridge is backlit by the sun at this time of the year from this location, making for dramatic lighting. I had taken the 16-35, 50, 85, 180, 300 and 500 lenses but in the event nearly all the snaps were made using the wonderful 180 because, as everyone knows, it’s impossible to take a bad image with that optic.

Only one chance to get this one.

Mother and child.

Passing by.

Pacific mist.

Umbrella.

Sweet memories.

Wait long enough and you will catch a moment where there are no cars on your slice of roadway. The superb 300mm Ai-S ED IF Nikkor MF excels at this sort of thing, rested on a convenient park bench in this case.

Empty roadway.

The original roadway was made from reinforced concrete, replaced with asphalt-coated steel plates a few years ago. These are so much lighter that the roadway rose twelve feet!

As I was taking this a young couple approached me and the man said “That lens must be older than I am.”

I replied with an insouciant “Yup.” The duct tape on my beater lens adds that Kerouac quality.

“Manual focus?”

“Yup. My subject is not moving today.”

“So how long have you been over here, then.”

“Most of my life. I keep the accent as it connotes a level of intelligence I do not possess.”

Quizzical look. Goodbye. Back to business.

Battery Wallace overlooks the GGB and is another abandoned concrete plateau, replete with cannon emplacements, the cannon sadly long gone. It makes for some surreal scenes:

Battery Wallace.

Hose the camera around and there’s Alcatraz, in all its grim magnificence. Time we reopened it as a hostel for America’s CEOs who refuse to pay their country taxes which are rightly due.

The Rock.

For lunch after so visually rich a day I recommend Sausalito, just down the road. Taste of Rome does an excellent sandwich with a nice choice of California beers. Sausalito is tourist hell at weekends, lovely on weekdays. Sit on the sidewalk. A lamb burger, salad and beer ran me $16 with tip.

Taste of Rome.

Garish sky courtesy of the iPhone 5. If Ansel Adams was making images today, this over-saturated garbage would be perfect for his oeuvre.

All images except the last made using the Nikon D3x.