The waterfront warehouse district of Oakland after Friday’s Northern California storm

I was sitting at my computer not long ago and happened to see some beautiful light glowing through spent clouds above the buildings crowded around my window. I grabbed my camera and ran up to the roof to see if I could get some interesting images. Actually, I ran up there twice because the battery in my 1D Mk II was dead the first time around. :)

Downtown Oakland after Friday’s northern California storm

After driving home from Lake Tahoe through snow and strong winds, I arrived back the Bay Area to find chaos on the roads. The winds in the Bay Bridge were the strongest I had ever encountered, and ripples of wind-blown water on its surface exploded outward repeatedly from the bridge’s edges. Each was like a mini-shock wave, blasting into the car with surprising force for something invisible. The blasts of wind never managed to blow the borrowed 4Runner (thanks, Dave) more than a few feet sideways, but it did require constant correction to stay in a one lane. Although there was no traffic, no car drove faster than 40MPH.

Sunset over Lake Tahoe (days before the storm)

The winds were strong in Tahoe, too. After hearing the mighty roar of wind through forest, I looked up the mountain just in time to see (and hear) a pine tree fall down. Shortly after, I watched a small girl fall off of the ski lift and do a series of backward flips down a steep snowbank. Fortunately, she appeared to be made of rubber and stood up without any visible damage.

PS — wanna buy the camera?