Bay Area Fly Over

Dave and I got the coolest gift from his daughter and her husband…a plane flight over the Bay Area through SF Air Tours.  We scheduled our flight for sunset and I’m so glad we did.  The light was absolutely incredible and shockingly no fog!  Well there was a bit of haze and light fog on the coast outside the Golden Gate but it only added to the beauty.

Let me say that these pictures are not that great.  Unfortunately the windows were not the type where you can take crisp pictures through them plus I discovered how mistakenly easy it is to change the ISO on my camera!  It’s so pathetically easy that I have to assign that button somewhere else.  Evidently this is a common thing that happens with this camera and I got to experience it first-hand.   Anyway, without going into all the drama that ensued with me trying to adjust settings on my new camera in a plane that’s moving….lol….here they are for your viewing pleasure.  I’ve tried captioning most all of them so you know what you’re looking at.

Just fyi, I’ll be off my blog starting Saturday for about 10 days on a break.  I’ll be back at the end of July!

Golden Gate Bridge

Sign

Executive Terminal at Oakland Airport

From inside the terminal

Our little plane waiting!

Military Helicopter spotted on takeoff

SF side of Bay Bridge (Treasure island in foreground)

Berkeley Hills with Mt. Diablo in Background

Golden Gate & Presidio

Oakland & Mt. Diablo in Background

Berkeley & Albany near Bay

Oakland-Alameda Estuary toward Bay

Oakland-Alameda Estuary

Oakland-Alameda Estuary

Looking out from SF Presidio over SF to Oakland and Mt. Diablo in the background

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate Bridge

SF Side of Bay Bridge (SF to the right)

Out toward Tiburon and Sausalito

Alameda

Oakland-SF Bay Bridge

Lake Merritt in Oakland

SF out by the Ocean (Golden Gate Park is the strip of green)

Touch down!

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Convergence (2 images)

Here’s another one from Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge.  Almost everything in the preserve is represented here with the exception of birds which we didn’t see many on our outing.  You can see the salt pond to the left and right, scenic bridges, the red structures, marshy grass, beautiful light cast across the scenes, and the SF Bay peninsula hills off in the distance.

The red hut to the right you saw from inside a few posts ago, and the other structure to the left I’ve included in this post as well but from a different angle.  I really want to go back in the morning sometime soon.  What a fun place to take photos!

Convergence – Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge

Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge

 

Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge

The other day I took my camera club to Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge.  I’d never been there and I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful it is!  We didn’t see a huge amount of birds but it could be the time of year or time of day we were there.  It didn’t stop us though…all 20 of us!  Below is a gallery of a few images I took there with my Sony A7.  This camera is so easy to carry around.  I love it!

Background of Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge

This refuge was founded in 1974 as the first urban National Wildlife Refuge established in the United States, and it is dedicated to preserving and enhancing wildlife habitat, protecting migratory birds, protecting threatened and endangered species, and providing opportunities for wildlife-oriented recreation and nature study for the surrounding communities.  The wildlife refuge, originally named San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, exists thanks to the efforts of local citizens and members of Congress, especially Congressman Don Edwards, who the park was re-named after in 1995.

As of 2004, the Refuge spanned 30,000 acres (120 km2) of open bay, salt pond, salt marsh, mudflat, upland and vernal pool habitats located throughout south San Francisco Bay. About 9,000 acres (36 km2) of salt ponds within the refuge are managed by Cargill Salt, which has perpetual salt-making rights. Cargill uses the salt ponds to concentrate brines as part of its solar salt operation which produces salt for food, agriculture, medical, and industrial uses throughout the Western United States.