I  had a client at the beginning of the year who required an iconic shot of Berkeley for the header banner on his website. Initially, I thought that wouldn’t be so difficult but as I began to run through the mental images of having gone to school there and having lived in the area, I was pretty stumped on one that would look good and iconic on such a thin ribbon that he was proposing. Berkeley doesn’t have a remarkable or distinctive skyline. In fact the only image that leaped to mind was of Sather tower with perhaps an overview of Berkeley in the background. I had in mind a shot with the tower to the left from the Tilden Park region but in scouting the area, I found a construction crane just to the right of the tower and just about the same height. After driving the Berkeley hills to about an hour I found a great spot to capture this image just above the Greek Theatre and managed to pull the Golden Gate in as well.

Canon 5D Mk III, EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM, 120mm at f/10 at 15 seconds

It worked out rather well for his banner: