Seeing 2011 (#12)

For your consideration: an image taken from the first night using my newly purchased Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 L IS USM lens. I'm quickly finding out that this device can produce some sweet results, but is also quite demanding - handling long telephotos presents its own challenges.

My friend Vernon and I, despite having mutually sworn (much) earlier this particular night that we would avoid going as far as San Francisco in order to make it a (relatively) early evening . . . after first spending an hour photographing a lighted pedestrian bridge over I-280 in Cupertino we wound our way up the peninsula seeking vista points from which to view city lights as subjects . . . Well, by midnight we were barely fifteen minutes from the spectacular view submitted below, on a (unusually) clear night featuring a just-past-full Moon.

Thus, it was a very late outing . . . but shots like these make the effort and endurance quite worthwhile.

This vantage point of the bridge is just under six miles away, line-of-site; photographed at approximately 2:20 a.m.

San Francisco Bay Bridge from Twin Peaks, #3673

© 2011 James W. Murray, all rights reserved.

(click image for larger version)

Details: January 22, 2011 ; Canon 20D; f/6.3 @ 2.5 sec; —1 EV; ISO 200; 207mm.

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