March 28, 2008

A photo of a tree

This is my favorite tree in San Francisco:

Golden Gate Bridge tree in San Francisco

I was going through my photo archives this morning and found this picture from a trip to San Francisco a few years back. I’ve always enjoyed this photo, but I never found a use for it. I generally don’t like taking pictures from the exact spot that millions of photos have already been taken, but I found this tree so compelling I couldn’t resist.

Posted by David at 10:33 AM | Permalink
Filed under: Photography | Tree
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Comments

oooooOOOoOoOoo….that IS a good tree…

Posted by: Kate | March 28, 2008 10:57 AM

I have a favorite tree where I live on Vashon Island. It’s nothing much really - a scrubby little thing right along the road. But it’s gnarled just so, and it’s overlooking the water and, sadly, it’s on a small piece of property that’s for sale that I hope someone doesn’t buy because if they do they’ll probably take down my favorite little scrubby tree gnarled just so.

Posted by: Jonathan S | March 28, 2008 11:21 AM

My friends and I have a favorite tree in town. In the winter when all the leaves fall off it looks like a tree straight out of a Dr. Seuss drawing. As an added bonus, it’s located in an Elementary School playground.

Posted by: Gar | March 28, 2008 12:01 PM

I was there too, a couple of years ago. I zoomed-in too close to get the tree though. Plus, it’s foggy.

Posted by: Scott | March 28, 2008 4:06 PM

Ditto. But I wasn’t so good with the Photoshop back in ‘05. I keep thinking I’ll go back through those old pictures and polish a few gems, but this never seems to get too high on the action items list.

Posted by: aquariumdrinker | March 28, 2008 4:14 PM

It’s definitely a cool photo.

Posted by: js | March 30, 2008 8:38 PM

That the tree isn’t in San Francisco — it’s in Marin County, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. The distant hills on the left are San Francisco. This part of Marin is actually a national park. One of the great parts of the Bay Area is that nature thrives so close to the city. I like this tree (and this picture) as a symbol of that.

Posted by: Anonymous | March 31, 2008 9:58 AM

Gorgeous photo. I’ll be spending some time in the Bay Area soon— I’ll keep an eye out for that tree.

Posted by: Miss Debater | March 31, 2008 6:22 PM

Sadly, the tree is no more, at least according to this post I just saw.

(link is no relation to me, just came across it via a friend’s shared items in Google Reader)

Posted by: Aaron Muszalski | March 31, 2008 7:35 PM

There is a tree in Rannoch Moor in Scotland, and it is probably the only tree in a 5 km radius of rugged heather and little swampy lakes - it has been photographed sooo many times for photo albums, books, and postcards, and still, whenever I go up there, I can’t resist, and take another picture!

Posted by: Sardionerak | March 31, 2008 8:31 PM

What I find sad about your post is that tonight I am going to hack it down, it isn’t very thick trunked. This tree will not be standing on saturday.

And you singled it out for death.

You should feel bad.

I will email you some photos, but if you want, I can snail mail you some sap and twigs.

Post a follow up, some of your readers must drive by it daily.

Posted by: Sorry | April 4, 2008 10:49 AM

Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease make a wallpaper of this image and post it! This is a beautiful shot! :)

Posted by: Toby | April 4, 2008 3:06 PM

I agree. With both the aversion to common photography spots, and with the love for that tree. It’s so stoic.

Posted by: zoe | April 4, 2008 4:52 PM

Great look!
I must see this in live on my next trip to San Francisco.

Posted by: Biceps brachii | April 5, 2008 3:04 AM

If you half-close your eyes it looks a bit like a massive boulder at the top of the hill. I can imagine Wile E. Coyote trying to shift it with a makeshift crowbar…

Posted by: Daniel | April 7, 2008 8:28 AM

That tree in the photo is not in San Francisco. It is on the other side of the bridge in Marin.

Posted by: denise | April 11, 2008 10:55 PM

He’s from New York, the entire Bay Area probably feels like San Francisco to him. At least cut him a little slack. ;)

I just got back from there! Didn’t see the Golden Gate Bridge (today at least), but I did cross the Bay Bridge twice… as that’s the main way in and out of the city from the east. I wish I could go check that tree out, but it sounds like it’s not there anymore… pity.

Posted by: Arden | April 12, 2008 11:06 PM

Thanks! I live here. If you zoomed in real close about 1/3 of the way from the bottom on the left side of your photo you might see my house. As a non-tourist, I’ve never seen that tree despite hundreds of times crossing the bridge. I hope it’s not gone.

Trees are remarkably rare out here. That hill was probably covered with them 150 years ago. We cut most of them down to build the city, then the city burned down and we chopped the rest.

There’s a story that when Khrushchev visited SF in the late 50s he commented, “you’ve got a beautiful city but where are the trees?” Not much has changed.

Posted by: Art | April 18, 2008 9:32 PM

Yes, the tree is definitely gone. It’s been a few months now.Possibly the tree came down in the windstorm we had in late January. Winds were over 70 mph and trees came down all over Marin. We lost 3 in our yard (abt 10 miles from the GG Bridge). More trees came down a week later in another storm, when winds of 50mph took down trees that had been weakened by storm #1.

Posted by: spitfire | April 18, 2008 9:45 PM

I was watching Final Analysis when this scene flashed on the screen for a split second. I KNOW THAT TREE!

Posted by: Ro | June 19, 2009 8:54 AM