Nikon D800 | 24-70 @38mm | ISO 100 | f/16 | 125s
Here is wishing you a very safe and happy holiday season.
I’ve had a very great start this season and have been very happy in crossing out some items on my photographic location bucket list. One such item was this shot.
Its been close to 3+ years that I wanted to visit this location, but somehow things never materialized. I had made up my mind that I was going to get to this location on christmas eve. Couple of my friends also joined me on the shoot. My initial plan was to leave around 2 PM and reach the place early enough so that we could have enough light to reach to this spot.
This is not an easy location to reach. Once you reach treasure island, you need to park the car near at the US naval station and then start the hike. Try to walk as much as you can on the other side of the fence and not directly on the road. There’d be some distance where you have to walk on the road as there is no other option. But try to be as safe as possible. Once you reach the spot (37.808801, -122.365948), then the hike gets really steep and if you are on the right track, then you should reach some where close to these co-ordinates: 37.808022, -122.366846 which should put you in a perfect vantage point.
That was the plan I had and we set off. Rain was predicted and just before we started, it was raining pretty bad. The thought of canceling the shot did cross my mind, but my friends were already on road headed straight to pick me up. So we hoped for some clear skies and reached our parking spot. We were slightly delayed, but still managed to reach there having enough time to hike to this place.
All 3 of us were very enthusiastic about this shot and very eager to get there. As we reached half-way, a cop on a bike spots us and comes straight towards us. After some discussion, the next scene was that we were making our way back to the car with very gloomy faces. Seeing us in this state, one of my friend Anish did a very selfless act. He volunteered (coaxed us) to a plan where he would drop us off at point A (37.808801, -122.365948). All we had to do was just take the steep hike down.
We knew that getting another opportunity would be very difficult and mustered some courage to go down. Its pretty scary thing, but with daylight on our side it was little less frightening.
We reached the spot and the wait for blue hour started. Here is an iPhone pic which shows as to how close we were to the edge.
By the time we finished, I couldn’t move my fingers due to the cold air (serves me right as I had forgotten to take my mittens out). We managed to hike our way back to the main road in one piece and no incidents.
It was a very delightful outing and the selfless act by my friend makes it very memorable one for me.
Hover your mouse over the image to see the Before version.
