Alameda Airport

As many of you should know, I live on the small Island of Alameda in the San Francisco bay. The northern part of the island used to be a large Naval air station. There is an abandoned airport, with giant hangars that have been repurposed for business use. They are now used by special effects houses (the Matrix movies were done here.) Aviation facilities, nautical construction firms and even a large winery. There is also still a small fleet and naval museum situated there. This is the permanent port for the USS Hornet Aircraft carrier (I'll leave it to the humble reader to discover the significance of that specific ship.)

The Island is much closer to the East bay and Oakland. We are joined to the mainland by two underwater tunnels and several draw bridges. My apartment has a great view of the Oakland hills, but the city can only be seen from the roof, and they get mad when I go up there. Anyway, I was scouting for a sutable place to take some snaps when I discovered the old Air traffic control tower. It was covered with No Trespassing signs so I decided to return in the evening to take some night shots.

Unfortunately, I didn't have a tripod handy, and taking long exposure pictures from a distance is just about impossible. But with a little photoshop loving and a little luck this shot came out okay.

I will try to go there again better prepared (tripod), and perhaps on the weekend for some daylight snaps. It's such a beautiful Island and place to live, it's hard to understand sometimes why I feel so compelled to be in Japan.