Aerial San Francisco

Yesterday, I left Portland just as a snow storm was moving into town. I had expected major delays at the airport, but it turns out that getting out of Portland was cake. An hour and twenty minutes, we were directly over San Francisco on a very clear day. Luckily, I had planned my seat selection with the approach vector I knew we’d fly and had my D700 with the new Nikkor 50mm f/1.4 G at hand. Even better, I had a moderately clean window.

Shooting through airplane windows and several miles of atmosphere is never a recipe for sharp photos. The incredibly clear day, however, along with using a fantastic lens, really worked in my favor. There’s an amazing amount of detail in the photo. Here’s a 100% crop of where the new Bay Bridge is being constructed:

At a guess, the construction on the bridge is at least 5 miles away from where I was sitting. For a shot that I can’t get any other way, and which has to be taken through crappy warped plastic, I’ll take that in a heartbeat.