Minus tides occur infrequently at Baker Beach and China Beach, adjacent to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Here is a brief photo essay from a -1.5 foot low tide on Wednesday morning, a typical foggy day. Captions are below each picture.
Images were made with a Casio Exilim EX-Z-50 digital still camera using automatic settings, then adjusted very slightly for brightness and contrast (or Levels) using Adobe Photoshop 7. All pictures are full frame, except for the final one, which was cropped a tiny bit. This last image was enhanced using Auto Levels, which was a mistake that I decided to keep for dramatic effect.
Screen shot taken from the tide table for the area during the first part of July, 2006.
Closeup of my Garmin Forerunner 101 GPS display, saying I was standing 12 feet below sea level (not possible), which is roughly .007 leagues under the sea.
View from Baker Beach of the shore at low minus tide, with Golden Gate Bridge in the background.
Barbara and Artie meandering among the boulders that are underwater most of the rest of the year.
A large anemone and a purple sea star (or “star fish”) hugging above grey rocks.
Another purple sea star, surrounded by a thousand small and large anemones.
Dripping banks of green sea slime punctuate the dark cliffs.
A lone orange sea star looks like it wants to go for a little stroll. They don’t move very quickly (slower than a snail’s pace).
By late morning next day, thick fog settled over San Francisco Bay’s Golden Gate Bridge. This spectacular picture was enhanced for effect, as a colorful climactic counterpoint to the sombre tones we encountered at minus low tide the previous morning.
Thanks for coming along on this photo journey.
[John “a-Nemo-ne”]
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