Top San Francisco and Golden Gate Bridge Landscape Photography


San Francisco is an incredibly fun place to live. I honestly feel lucky and honored to be a part of a city that garners so much love and admiration from nearly everyone who visits. Every day when I walk around my city, I see tourists from far-off lands who have come to marvel at this place and take their own landscape photos of San Francisco. Having grown up here, I have had ample opportunities to explore with my camera, but I very often still find myself on some new adventure of discovery in this amazing city. It is no coincidence then that San Francisco landscapes are some of my favorite things to photograph.


The concept of taking San Francisco landscape photos encompasses a lot of different things, and means very different things to different people. For myself, it means almost entirely shortly after sunset, as the many different colored lights start to come out and reflect on the water. It means the iconic landmarks, and it means classic ideas of what it means to photograph San Francisco.


Some of these images have been photographed by the best photographers in the world thousands of time. It matters not. These are mine. These are my best San Francisco landscape photos.


The above shot is titled, "Golden Gate Bridge at Blue Hour." It was taken from a very popular and easy to reach spot in the Marin Headlands, about 45 minutes after the sunset. Other shots you will see below, were taken from far less popular or accessible perspectives.

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Downtown San Francisco Blue Hour

This insanely high resolution VAST Photo is of such quality and sharpness, that you can read the advertisements on the city streets, making this photo capable of being printed to exceedingly large sizes while retaining quality. Click "Learn More" to find a size that is right for your wall.

Sutro Tower at Sunset from the Air, San Francisco

This aerial landscape photograph of San Francisco means a lot me personally. This evening was the culmination of a lot of planning and patience for the right conditions, and this shot shows an aerial version of a view that I had outside my bedroom window a few years ago. Sutro Tower is one of those iconic San Francisco landmarks, and the fact that I captured it, dead center, while airborne, at sunset, makes me pretty happy.

San Francisco Skyline Panorama at Night from Treasure Island

There is a lot of work that goes into stitching together a high quality shot of the San Francisco panorama. This image is actually 13 individual high quality photos, taken on tripod, then stitched together with high powered software. The process is actually very doable, if you are willing to put in the work and accept that there will be lots of trial and error. You can learn how to stich together a panoramic image with this tutorial.

The Golden Gate Bridge at Blue Hour - Vertical

Vertically aligned image of the Golden Gate Bridge at blue hour, with a slightly longer exposure to create the blur of the car lights.

Sutro Tower and Karl The Fog

Black and white photo of Sutro tower in San Francisco, covered in fog

Aerial landscape photo of San Francisco at Sunset

Aerial photography of the landscape of San Francisco skyline, the view from the Bay Bridge through ferry terminal and transamerica building.

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Downtown San Francisco From The Air

The heart of the tech center of the country, and arguably the most expensive city at the moment. But from up here, you can almost sense the weight of change.

Downtown San Francisco, It's Alive

This city landscape photograph of San Francisco immediately after sunset captures Market Street and the Downtown. It is a stitched photograph of three individual images, enabling it to be extremely high quality and sharp. Ultra high quality stitched panoramic image (like the one above), are a combination of multiple photos, aligned perfectly with a tripod, and then stitched together using software.

Downtown San Francisco after Sunset - Aerial Photograph

Flying over downtown San Francisco in an aerial photography Bay Tour adventure.

Golden Gate Bridge Time-Lapse at Blue Hour

City landscape photo of the Golden Gate Bridge at blue hour, taken from the Marin headlands over highway 101.

At the Top of the South Tower

The view from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge on a semi-cloudy day. This photo taken from the top of the Golden Gate Bridge is a secret. I can't tell you how I got it, and that just angers you so much doesn't it. You know you're jealous.

Star Trails Over the Golden Gate Bridge, California

Star trail photo while the fog rolls over the Golden Gate Bridge late at night. This image was a total shot in the dark. Get it?

With the high levels of light pollution coming from San Francisco behind me, and the continual low-level fog creeping in, I thought this was going to be a flop. It ended up becoming a surreal and colorful night landscape photo. Check out the tutorial to learn how to capture star trail photography.

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Falling Star Trails Over the Golden Gate, San Francisco

So many elements came together to make this photo an amazing experience to take. The clarity of the night allowed me to photograph the star trails over a 45 minute exposure , which allowed a ferry to come to port in the Bay right at the end. This is another of my favorite combination night and city photography shots of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge.

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Bonus: My Favorite Aerial Video of San Francisco

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