California Photo Scout

Golden Gate from Fort Point

Located beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, Fort Point’s spectacular views are legendary. The civil war fort that once protected the entrance to the San Francisco Bay also boasts historic exhibits and demonstrations and occasionally civil war re-enactments.

Fort Point has endured the times and is now a popular tourist attraction, providing education and exceptional photographic value. Joseph Strauss incorporated the fort into the design of the Golden Gate Bridge in order to preserve this historic site for future generations. From the top of the fort, you can almost touch the bridge arch, spanning across the fort and creating a perfect harmony of semi-modern bridge and historic fort.

Photographing this one-of-a-kind place is a wonderful delight.

How to get there

Map of Fort Point (click to enlarge)

From Highway 101 north, take the last San Francisco Exit (View Area Presidio / Golden Gate NRA / Fort Point), turn right towards Lincoln Boulevard, and then left onto Lincoln Boulevard. After about 0.2 miles, turn left onto Long Avenue and follow it all the way to the fort. Park on Marine Drive, close to the fort, or on the larger lot on Hamilton Street.

From Highway 1 south, merge onto Highway 101 and then take the next exit. Then follow the directions above. From Highway 101 north, take the 25th Avenue exit right after the Golden Gate Bridge then turn left onto Lincoln Boulevard and follow the instructions above.

GPS position

• 37°48’38.16″N 122°28’37.40″W

How to photograph Fort Point

Fort Point Courtyard

You can climb to the roof of Fort Point via several stairs to get exceptional views of the Golden Gate Bridge and the city of San Francisco. The round stone staircases themselves are fascinating subjects, but it is difficult to compose a compelling shot of them. The southwest stairs end in a small wooden structure that opens underneath the Golden Gate Bridge. You can use the door to frame the bridge. Use a small amount of fill flash if you want to retain some of the shadow detail of the wood. If the doorframe fills more than 20% of your frame, consider metering the outside to avoid overexposing the bridge.

You can use the fort in the foreground of your compositions when you photograph from the top, giving a better sense of the place or just focus on the subject without any distractions. Experiment and take as many photographs as you can; sort them out later.

I took the photograph at the start of the article from here.

Fort Point Patio

I photographed the courtyard (vertical picture above) from the balcony of the second floor with a wide-angle lens. By avoiding tilting the lens too much, you avoid unsightly distortions (converging verticals). Since you have three floors and the roof, you can pick a position that lets you keep a straight angle.

Unfortunately, the courtyard will be in the shadow during the morning and afternoon, making it necessary to recover dynamic range during post processing. In the image of the courtyard and bridge, I exposed for the bridge, clipping some of the highlights of the sky. This is still acceptable and lets me keep enough shadow detail to brighten the courtyard without significant increase in noise levels.

In the image of the balcony, I wanted to retain more detail in the window and keep the larger parts of the image clean. I thus accepted clipping in the sky. I knew I could pull the sunlit walls back. If you want to be able to recover details from the highlights and shadows, you need to understand how far you can push your camera. For instance, my Canon 7D is much less forgiving to clipping highlights than my Canon 450D was. This means, if I wish to recover detail in the highlight, I can only overexpose slightly.

Fort Point Furnace

Many of the exhibits are behind glass and appear staged. The cannons in the courtyard are among the few presentations worthwhile photographing.

The old architecture on the other hand still offers plenty of interest for photographers. Since the high walls of the fort block much of the residual sunlight, you need to increase your ISO speed to be able to shoot handheld. Do not worry about the noise, it often adds to the appeal of these historic places.

Civil War re-enactor

Keeping with the historic theme, I processed the image of this actor to give it an old photograph feeling. The original image showed a sliver of blurriness at 100% magnification, due to the suboptimal lighting conditions and the split second I had to compose and take the shot. However, blurriness works in favor of the old image appeal.

To photograph actors in the shadows of the fort’s courtyard, you need to increase your ISO settings. To avoid having to adjust sensitivity on the spot, I recommend that you preset your camera to ISO 800 or more.

Best Time of the Day and Best Season

At the time of this writing (02/2010) the fort is open for visitors Friday through Sunday from 10am to 5pm. It closes on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Day.

Time required

One hour is enough to photograph the views and architecture. If you also want to see the exhibits, you should plan two hours. On summer weekends, you should plan another 15-30 minutes to find a parking spot.

Equipment

• Fast Zoom Lens (f/4 or less)
• Wide-Angle lens
• Sensitive SLR for low light photography
• CP filter
• Cleaning equipment, the

Fees

Entrance to the fort is free.

Close Locations

• Golden Gate walk
• Views of Presidio
• Presidio historic walk
• Land’s End and Sutro Baths
• Golden Gate Bridge from Hawk Hill and Battery Spencer
• Fort Baker
• Baker Beach
• Legion of Honor
• Stow Lake, Strawberry Hill, Aboretum (Golden Gate Park)
• Japanese Tea Garden (Golden Gate Park)
• Marina, Crissy Field
• Palace of Fine Arts
• Fort Mason

Useful Resources

• Official Website

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