390 - Alcatraz Island
One of the most epic places to take photos in all of San Francisco is Alcatraz Island. But only if you come at the right time...
If you don't come at the right time, you'll be flooded with tourists in every single square inch of the space. The CORRECT time of the day to come is on the last tour of the day. Now, your first hour or two there won't be that great. It'll be busy as anything. BUT... about 45 minutes before the last boat leaves the island for the day, this is where your time to shine comes.
Everyone has left the prison to walk down the ramp to wait for the boat, but in reality it only takes 10 minutes to walk down if you're fast. Which leaves you about 30 minutes in the prison with ALMOST NO ONE IN SIGHT.
It's ridiculously haunting, and you can almost feel the presence of ghosts when there completely alone. Fuck. I literally got a chill through my body just thinking about it again.
That's where I snagged ALL of these shots, and it's also when the lighting is absolutely brilliant, at least for late summer, which is when we went. You'll get the soft haze drifting through the jail bars, illuminating strange patterns on the wall. It's quite abstract, really. Here's an example:
“Barred for Life”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 640 ~ 24mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/1250s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
One more example is the light leaking through this door, that's only possible when the sun is almost along the horizon. Check this out:
Both eerily strange photos, and they were lovely to capture. THIS is the type of Alcatraz photography I wanted. Moving along, one shot I really wanted to get but I was almost positive would be impossible was to have an entire aisle to ourselves. I wanted a straight on shot walking down it, completely empty.
And since the whole place WAS empty because we timed it right, we snagged this shot:
“Jailry Tale”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 640 ~ 24mm ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/160s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
At this point, we started to realize we probably should head down to the boat, because that would absolutely suck to miss the last one out. I have no idea what the procedure is for people who get left behind. They probably make you call a private boat to get off the island or something, and they probably charge you a TON for it.
We ran down the the boat, and on the way out saw this window that looked creepy. Since I felt such a ghostly vibe, I put Haley in front of it to look like a ghost. Creepy:
“Ghosts Come in Pairs”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 1250 ~ 24 ~ f/4.5 ~ 1/8000s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
One thing I forgot to mention is that the out side the place is awesome. You always think of the inside of the jail being the primary shooting spot, but there's also a recreational yard, the guard quarters, and a path around the island you can walk down if it's the right time of the year. Here's a shot I got of Haley at the rec yard, earlier in the adventure:
“The Yardhouse”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 640 ~ 24mm ~ f/5.6 ~ 1/3200s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Lots and lots of photos on this adventure, and I had even more I was considering posting, but I didn't want to go too overboard. These are my FAVORITES of the session. Here's one more, just for good measure. I enjoyed the flag in the foreground of this shot when we were leaving the island on the boat:
“Land of the Free”
Sony a7rIII + Zeiss 24-70mm f/4
ISO 1250 ~ 24mm ~ f/8 ~ 1/640s
(Want a Print? Get one here.)
Alright! I think that's it for this adventure. I shot this on the weekend, which I'm trying not to do because I get too burnt out if I shoot more than 5 days in a row. It was too epic not to shoot though... So we'll see how Monday's adventure goes... Fingers crossed.
I’m on a mission to explore as much as humanely possible.
Want to see my progress? Check out the Adventure Map.
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