Yesterday, I photographed a wedding at the San Benito House in downtown Half Moon Bay, CA. Luckily for the bride and groom to be (and me too) the weather was beautiful with not even a hint of the typical fog. The entire event was held outside and the back garden and patio were decorated beautifully. The old hotel presented plenty of great locations for all sorts of photos.
On Friday night, I went for a sunset sail aboard the tall ship Seaward. This past week, San Francisco has hosted several tall ships as part of the Festival of Sail. While some of the ships had traveled across the world for the event, the Seaward had just come across the bay from Sausalito. The Seaward is an 82′ steel-hulled staysail schooner. She is operated by callofthesea.org.
I came home to find the new issue of Windsport Magazine waiting in my mailbox and inside are a few of my photos. First up is a 2 page spread of the San Francisco formula fleet (Steve Bodner, Mike Percey, and others) getting ready for the start of a race. Accompanying the photo was a nice writeup by Mike Percey talking about what happens in between formula races. Next is a shot of Whit Poor doing some freestyle at Crissy Field in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. Crissy Field is such a great place to sail and the magazine’s Ride Guide gives you the ins and outs of the spot.
Today I drove up to Sonoma to shoot photos for the Hit the Road Jack Run / Walk. It’s a 2.2 mile and certified 10k fundraiser run for the Boys and Girls Clubs Valley of the Moon and Hospice by the Bay.
Check out the photos at fotojack.com
I just got my Windsurfing Magazine and found one of my photos on page 86. It’s a technique article featuring Steve Bodner (USA 4). The shot is 1/3 of the page and shows Steve pumping his formula windsurfing board and sail.
It’s common to wake up in San Francisco and look out the window to find nothing but gray fog. On the rare occasion, it might even be sunny outside. Big, puffy , white, cumulus clouds are something that just doesn’t occur very often around here. This morning there were clouds everywhere. Usually, I have my camera with me, but not today. By the time I got around to making a few photos, most of the clouds had moved off to the east. The shot below is from Baker Beach in San Francisco and has the Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
The weather in San Francisco yesterday was looking a bit grey and I decided it was best to get out of town. I drove up to Point Reyes and stopped in at Drakes Beach where the photo below was taken. I then headed over to the Point Reyes Lighthouse. The rainy weather the day before had left the usually clear sky with a bit of texture. On the way home, I noticed the artists of the Inverness area were having an open studio event and I was able to stop in and visit with several of them. There was some really beautiful stuff: pottery, paintings and photography.
Yesterday was windy, but I heard on the radio today that the weather people had taken the extra step of issuing a high wind warning for the San Francisco Bay area. Driving past Candlestick this afternoon the wind was definitely on. The water was solid whitecaps everywhere, but nobody was out sailing. Hoping to maybe catch a few sailors or kitesurfers taking advantage of the wind, I headed over to Ocean Beach. Coincidentally this route helped me avoid the huge traffic backup caused by a head-on collision on the Golden Gate Bridge. Six cars were involved and created traffic problems for over 3 hours. As I drove down Great Highway, sand was drifting across the road. I pulled into the parking lot just south of the Cliff House and saw three sailors out windsurfing. The wind is supposed to stick around through tomorrow. Get out there and enjoy it!
This whole week, the San Francisco Bay Area is expecting unseasonably warm weather. Even San Francisco, which is normally foggy and 57 degrees is expected to see temps into the 80’s. By some amazing luck, the wind also happened to be up today and a bunch of sailors were out at Candlestick. There are usually only a couple people on the water, but today there were more like 10. Normally when I go out to shoot windsurfing photos around here I am bundled up with a sweater, windbreaker, and winter hat on and still barely able to stay warm. Today I managed with no jacket at all.
