Bay Area Film Photography Meetup

Through the end of January, the winter sun aligns closely with the length of Market Street, shining up the corridor toward Treasure Island in the mid-afternoon. While the sun never fully “sets” on Market Street, this is the most dramatic alignment of the year.

We’ll start on Treasure Island to photograph the alignment, then move up Yerba Buena Island for golden hour views over the bay and the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. After sunset, we’ll wrap with drinks at Gold Bar Distillery in the iconic Art Deco Building 1.

Rough agenda

3:00pm: Meet on Treasure Island
Meet at the Treasure Island ferry terminal and walk up the pedestrian path, scouting for a spot where we can look directly down Market Street into the low sun.

I’ll be honest: I don’t know exactly what to expect here. It could be a bust—or it could be something quietly special.

If you’re running late, just walk up the pedestrian path and you should find us.

4:00pm: Yerba Buena Island / golden hour
We’ll head up to the top of Yerba Buena Island.

• Shooting west into the sun for postcard views of the city and the Bay Bridge’s western span
• Exploring the east side of the island near the classic Coast Guard residences for views of the new eastern span

6:00pm: Wrap at Gold Bar (after sunset)
Drinks, snacks, conversation—and the second meeting of #CamerasAndCocktails (or is it #CocktailsAndCameras?).

What to bring

• Layers. It can get windy and cold anywhere in the Bay Area, but especially where we’ll be. (You already know this.)
• Your favorite camera(s). Film encouraged, but we're all just here to have fun.
• Medium to long lenses. Given the distance, even a normal lens will comfortably capture large sections of the skyline. Longer lenses help isolate details:
• Ferries cutting through bands of light
• Sun glinting off streetcar overhead lines
• Buildings compressing into abstract, graphic forms
• Long shadows stretching across the city