California Photo Scout

Macy's Christmas Lights, Union Square

Christmas time should bring cheer to our hearts and bring people closer together. In our consume driven society, corporations have succeeded in distorting our views and changing our perception of what matters and what does not. Consequently, people fight each other throughout the month of December in order to serve their new masters, department stores.

Fortunately, the city of San Francisco offers many opportunities to relax and enjoy some of the more beautiful sides of this time of the year. The sparkling Christmas lights bring some joy back to our hearts. Many places throughout the city light up and nearly every store and office building put forth a tree and lights, competing with each other. Walking through the streets of San Francisco at this time of the year is a pure joy if your only purpose is to enjoy yourself instead of following the call of the stores.

I set out with my brand new Canon 7D, capturing San Francisco’s beautiful lights. Strolling through the city, I enjoyed the luminous wonderland.

How to get there

Consider leaving your car outside the city and taking BART and Muni into the city. Driving during Christmas time, especially during the day is no pleasure. At night, things relax considerably though. I got free parking at the Embarcadero Center, City Hall and in front of the Ghirardelli Square.

GPS position

Embarcadero Center: 37°47’42.39″N 122°23’46.63″W

Union Square: 37°47’16.00″N 122°24’26.91″W

Pier 39: 37°48’30.66″N 122°24’36.62″W

Ghirardelli Square: 37°48’21.09″N 122°25’22.93″W

Chinatown: 37°47’40.90″N 122°24’22.94″W

City Hall: 37°46’45.80″N 122°25’5.36″W

Downtown red tree: 37°47’33.38″N 122°24’16.68″W

How to photograph Christmas Lights in San Francisco

Embarcadero Center

The tastefully decorated Embarcadero Center and the Ferry Building frame San Francisco’s largest ice rink. You can easily drop off your car at the garage and go for a stroll on the second level promenade.

Embarcadero Center, looking towards Ferry Building

Here I discovered this bridge, leading two stairs up to the third level. From underneath the bridge I could frame the Ferry Building and the decorations of the center. I used my internal flash and dialed in a flash exposure compensation of -2.5 stops to brighten up the arch, while metering off the lights in the background.

Embarcadero Center Building

On Embarcadero Street, I photographed the façade of the Embarcadero Center as it pierces into the dark night sky. At this time of the year, the Christmas lights add additional flair to the skyline that you can see from Treasure Island.

Embarcadero Ice Rink

Looking into the opposite direction, you can see the large ice rink. Psychedelic lights illuminate the ice, creating a funky foreground for the Ferry Building. By the time I got here, after 9pm, all the skaters were already gone, but the lights were still on. Come sooner if you wish to photograph with skaters. If you photograph at night, you will need a very high ISO sensitivity to ensure short exposure times in order to avoid blurring the skaters. I assume that the lights are turned off not much after 9:15pm.

Union Square

A shopper’s heaven, Union Square, is where all the action is. Police officers are trying to regulate traffic, in a futile attempt to maintain order while shoppers from all over the world rush through the department stores. Macy’s, looking like a box of chocolates, dominates the scene and lures shoppers into its vast belly (see picture at the top of the article). Don’t resist, enter the beast of a department store and take the escalators to the 7^th floor. Squeeze behind the Christmas decorations for a superb view of Union Square, the tree and the ice rink.

Union Square as seen from Macy's 7th floor

At this point, I really came to appreciate my decision to travel light. A tripod and large backpack may have made the Macy’s staff nervous, but nobody minded my presence behind the Christmas tree ornament sales display. If you carry a tripod, ask somebody to keep it for you while you go here. You will otherwise have trouble squeezing in.

Another excellent photograph of Union Square is from the heart near the Powell St. and Post St. intersection. The green palm trees combine favorably with the warmer glow of the Christmas decorations.

Palms and Christmas lights on Union Square

Walk around the Macy’s cube and check out the store windows. This year, the corner near O’Farrell St. and Stockton St. contains an adoption fair with puppies, kitties, and Santa Claus in a rocking chair.

Macy's Christmas shop window

Pier 39

The colorful tree at Pier 39 dominates this area by its size. I felt that the obscure flashing lights, four of which you can see lit up in this image, and the section that wasn’t lit greatly diminished the appearance of the otherwise good looking tree.

Pier 39 Christmas tree

I stood on the footbridge crossing Embarcadero Street from the Garage to Pier 39. This let me photograph the tree from a good angle with the Pier 39 sign in the background. Turn around for another excellent photograph including the skyline with the bridge in the foreground, leading towards it.

Ghirardelli Square

Ghirardelli Square is already a beacon of light throughout the year. The sparkling glory of the square is hard to top. The tree is thus an exercise in understatement. It fits the overall appearance of the square nicely.

Ghirardelli Square Christmas tree

Chinatown

Walking between the Embarcadero Center and Union Square I passed Chinatown (Grant Ave). It didn’t fit with the Christmas theme, but the Chinese lanterns, street lights and shop lights drew me in.

Chinatown at Night

I simply walked along Grant Avenue and took some photographs. This is one of them.

Other downtown areas

Further down the road, at the intersection of California and Kearny, I saw a tree in front of the Hartford Building glowing bright red.

California Street at Kearny Street

Many tall buildings that have a small square put up trees around here. If you have time, you can find more or wait for a decorated cable car to pass. To minimize motion blur, you need to use high ISO and get the cable car moving towards you or away from you.

City Hall

On the Civic Center Plaza in front of City Hall, you can find another Christmas tree. You can easily vary the relative size of the tree in respect to City Hall by adjusting your position. The image below illustrates this. In the image on the left, I stepped very close to the tree, using a wide-angle lens (19mm equivalent) to increase the size of the tree. I took the image on the right from further away, with a longer focal length (45mm equivalent). With a little bit of legwork, you can find the position that best suits your needs, maybe somewhere in between these two.

San Francisco Town Hall Christmas Tree

The Herbst Theatre just one block further at Van Ness and Grove Street has four giant Nutcracker lights and the Davies Symphony Hall across the street shows a spectacular display of tastefully decorated Christmas trees.

I photographed all but one of the pictures hand held. I used my new Canon 7D camera, which has ISO levels of up to ISO12800. Paired with an image stabilization lens this gave me enough flexibility to leave my tripod behind and gave me the time to photograph more locations. Follow the link above if you want to find out more and see an HD video I shot at the Union Square Ice Rink.

Best Time of the Day and Best Season

You should start as soon as it gets dark until the lights go out. Most shops close at 9pm.

Time required

We were surprised how much time we spent enjoying the lights. We could have easily stayed longer, but as everybody closed up shop, we felt compelled to leave some time after 10pm. By then we had spent 5 hours light gazing.

Equipment

• Tripod: I used it for only one picture in this article for time reasons, but you will get better pictures with a tripod, although it will cost you more time to set up.
• A camera with high ISO (3200 and above) capability if you want to go hand held
• A lens with image stabilization for hand held shots
• A wide angle lens

Difficulty Getting There

Christmas time is always a challenge. Shoppers are out in force, clogging the streets. Avoid driving around Union Square where everybody seems to converge at this time of the year.

Close Locations

• Ferry Building Farmers Market
• Fisherman’s Wharf
• Pier 39
• Financial District
• Coit Tower and Telegraph Hill
• Chinatown
• Lombard Street
• Cable Cars
• Treasure Island
• Pier 7

Useful Resources

This page on about.com inspired my article in part:

List of Christmas light displays in San Francisco

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