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Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15

Paul Abbott

New member
I believe the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed bridges in the world so I declined to photograph it in it's location. Fortunately with this image I think I got a poster type feel of the bridge. and I hope my processing goes some way to enforcing that effect...



goldengateunderside640.jpg


Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15 Paul Abbott
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I believe the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed bridges in the world so I declined to photograph it in it's location. Fortunately with this image I think I got a poster type feel of the bridge. and I hope my processing goes some way to enforcing that effect...
goldengateunderside640.jpg


Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15 Paul Abbott
Paul,

San Francisco is a crossroads within the USA cultural groups and to the world. The Golden Great Bridge is the most photographed bridge on the planet, my friend and so it's tough,really tough to get an original angle. But you can do it. In fact in my own pictures I think I myself have been influenced by your style of shooting monuments from unique and intimate angles.

This bridge is really an engineering marvel and amazing to think that one can reliably suspend such a magnificent mind-blowing immense structure, just by cables! But then, most qualities of physics start out on a local level with minute forces and strains that we take for granted, as nature scales them up a billion fold in building creatures that move and jump and even dance!

The bridge to me is a massive symbol of freedom of movement - traffic, bicycles, people and ideas. it is also esthetically stunning Yet it does not mar the landscape of the San Francisco Bay. Like a treasured spouse, it is maintained, monitored and supervised 24 x 7!!! There are more than 2 dozen painters just for touching up the acrylic paint that protects the steel from the elements!!!


In a way,the Golden Gate Bridge has a social
value akin to a cup of black tea in the U.K.!

Like my tea, this Bridge serves as both a
"necessity" at certain times of day and also
as a respite for any issue that comes up!


In San Francisco it works to sort out vexing problems in the head, the engagement of your 17 year old daughter to a divorced man with 3 kids and a reversal in one's career. Folk walk on the bridge, at dawn with the span suspended in mist, with the wind in their face, in sunshine, at night and even in the rain! Some how, that long walk is therapeutic like a good nights sleep or a "cup o' cha", (=English tea with milk in the cup first!). Both work when one is alone and also with company, even if they don't utter a word. The elements of the bridge, it's scale, stature and feeling of a paradox of permanence and vulnerability, help us reset out mental states and refresh us. It does not take problems away, but helps to put away a lot of angst so we can greet the next days unknown challenges.

So, I am drinking an extra large cup of superb PG Tips tea, as a toast to both you and your family and wish you especially good times now your are back at your home base!

Asher
 

Paul Abbott

New member
A mass of information for such a massive symbol and subject.
Sam and I did hire a bike and chose to cycle across it, on the way to Sausalito. We could see that it was a well maintained bridge.

Btw, I found it hard trying to get a strong cup of tea from anywhere, i'm not sure why that is. I'm sure yours is the correct strength though eh, it being PG Tips...Although, Yorkshire Tea is a very good brew too. :)
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
A mass of information for such a massive symbol and subject.
Sam and I did hire a bike and chose to cycle across it, on the way to Sausalito. We could see that it was a well maintained bridge.

Btw, I found it hard trying to get a strong cup of tea from anywhere, i'm not sure why that is. I'm sure yours is the correct strength though eh, it being PG Tips...Although, Yorkshire Tea is a very good brew too. :)

That bike ride is great for the lungs, legs and soul! That mass of words was meant for just the two of you, as I was sure you took that journey and, doing so, contemplated your tragic loss. Not that fresh air and the open waters can heal a void in one's heart, but at least one can get prepared for more love and attention for all the close family left behind that need support to just lift up one foot and take another step to the rest of their journeys.

....and strong tea here? Great teas in the USA are like the names of foreign countries, beyond the knowledge base of most folk! What the stores carry are tea bags with the ground up tea plant stems and whatever actual larger leaves fall to the ground or are rejected for the more choice teas sold in France and the U.K. To the addicted Brits and French with more refined taste, however, there are particular brand that deserve attention: yes, Yorkshire breakfast tea, typhoon Tea, Harrod's of London and of course, if you know the suppliers distribution network locally, PG Tips. If you seek a higher plane of tea/drinking pleasure in the European style, you can't do better than Marriage Freres! Yes, the French not only make great wine, women and romantic song, but also some of the finest teas available!

Asher
 

Paul Abbott

New member
Ah, so now I know. I was always at the mercy of hotels and coffee shops, and they're tea.
As for the bike ride, it was a very good and positive experience. I've always ridden bikes, I own a TREK road bike and a mountain bike and to get out on them on a trail or road is to escape some of life's drawbacks and problems for a while...and come back mentally refreshed, with a cup of tea in hand too. :)
The coffees were great, I particularly liked ordering myself a Keith Richards and a Jimi Hendrix, both white coffees with four or five shots of Espresso added, nice.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
goldengatelookingback_1_of_1_800.jpg


Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15 #2 - Paul Abbott

Paul,


Now you're talking! This is splendid with that single rock stopping us dead in our tracks and the bridge spread majestically behind it, reach the horizon. Dramatic, simple and memorable!

Asher
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Notice that the giant dark orange-red painted steel support towers in Paul Abbott's wonderful Golden Gate Bridge picture below, are stabilized by 4 massive horizontal cross beams of steel.



goldengateunderside640.jpg


Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15 Paul Abbott



The photographs of the Bay Bridge I have posted here are the bay bridge with cross-crossed diagonals of steel on the main column structures supporting the cables.

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi, Paul,

I believe the Golden Gate Bridge is one of the most photographed bridges in the world so I declined to photograph it in it's location. Fortunately with this image I think I got a poster type feel of the bridge. and I hope my processing goes some way to enforcing that effect...

goldengateunderside640.jpg


Golden Gate Bridge - San Francisco, California '15 Paul Abbott
A beautiful shot!

Best regards,

Doug
 
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