Photographic Art of downtown San Diego

San Diego has a height limit of 500 feet on skyscrapers in the downtown area. Supposedly it’s because the airport is also downtown and we saw back in 2001 what happens when planes run into tall buildings.

Following are some new Photographic Art creations based on pictures of downtown San Diego.

The new Skybridge completed in 2011, along with the Coronado Bridge at left and the Hilton Bayfront Hotel at right:

The Omni overlooking Petco Park with the new San Diego Central Library dome in the background:

The Omni is an interesting dual-use building. The top eleven floors are multi-million dollar condominiums, and the bottom floors are hotel rooms. Since the Omni overlooks Petco Park where the San Diego Padres purport to play professional baseball, many players bought a condo at the Omni so that when they have a late night baseball game, they don’t have far to go to get home.

Two Manchester Grand Hyatt towers at left, Harbor Club at right, and the two Marriott Marina towers:

The Harbor Club has two residential towers, both standing at 424′, although only one is visible in the picture. When Bruce Willis and Demi Moore were married, they owned one of the penthouses.

The Hilton Bayfront Hotel:

The two Manchester Grand Hyatt towers:

The right tower was completed in 1992 and stands 446′ tall. The left tower was completed in 2003 and stands 497′ tall. It is the tallest building on a waterfront on the West Coast.

The three towers at the left are condo towers—Bayside at The Embarcadero (395′ tall), and The Grande North at Santa Fe Place and The Grande South at Santa Fe Place, both towers peaking at 420 feet. The tower at the right is a Wyndham Hotel:

The water park in the lower center and right was just completed a few months ago. Previously all that was ugly parking lots.

The newer (taller) of the two Manchester Grand Hyatt towers:

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Downtown San Diego from Harbor Island

Two things that have always bugged me about Los Angeles are its traffic and is its location.

Why did the founders locate it inland, away from the shoreline?

They could have had a magnificent downtown with views of the Pacific Ocean, just like San Diego.

Oh, wait.

San Diego was founded first.

I guess they didn’t want to copy us. Their loss.

That picture of downtown San Diego was taken from Harbor Island (see A on the map below).

There are several vantage points from which to get great pictures of San Diego but Harbor Island is my favorite because you can get definition in the buildings while still getting all of the buildings in the picture.

Other good vantage points (see map below) are from Shelter Island (B), Coronado (C), Cabrillo National Monument on Point Loma (E), from a boat (D), and from an airplane (airplane location not shown on map 🙂 ).

Pictures from a boat are actually the best, but you have to buy or rent a boat; pay for a harbor cruise or a ferry ride to Coronado; or make a splash on the SEAL.

I can highly recommend all of them, but driving, walking, biking, skateboarding, or taking a taxi to Harbor Island usually is less expensive.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, BRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Downtown San Diego under a cloud bank

Sunsets during Santa Ana wind conditions, which hit us early this year on May 2 & 3, rarely are less than spectacular. I went out last night and took 185 sunset pictures in about 45 minutes. Here’s one of my favorites:

Technically, I wouldn’t call it a sunset picture. However, it was taken at sunset. There was a small bank of clouds hanging over just the tall buildings downtown, and the clouds were catching both the reflection of the sunset and the lights of the buildings.

The two spotlights you see at left center are two airplanes coming in for a landing at San Diego International Airport.

If you fly into San Diego, sit on the left side of the plane. The view of downtown is awesome, and you won’t believe how close you are to the downtown skyscrapers.

Also, this picture was taken from Harbor Island. The best views of downtown San Diego are in three places: Harbor Island, Coronado, and Cabrillo National Monument.

If you go to Coronado, eat at Peohe’s. It’s on the expensive side but the views and the food are worth it! Call me up and I’ll go with you; your treat………lol

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Skip the traffic and see San Diego from the sky!

Although San Diego’s traffic isn’t anything like Los Angeles, Houston, or Boston (three that I’m intimately familiar with), it still takes time to get around and see everything. Might I suggest, then, a tour by airplane?

Downtown San Diego:

San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge and downtown San Diego:

Ocean Beach in the foreground and downtown San Diego in the background:

San Diego International Airport and Harbor Island marina:

Shamu Stadium at SeaWorld San Diego. You can see one of the Shamus in the pool at center left:

Old Point Loma Lighthouse. First lighted on November 15, 1855, the lens was 462 feet above sea level, making it visible for 28 miles. Unfortunately, when the marine layer rolled in each evening, the light could not be seen, making it visible for 0 miles when it was most needed.

New Point Loma Lighthouse, built in 1891 at about 20 feet above sea level. Although you can visit the Old Point Loma Lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument, the new lighthouse is not accessible to the public.

The end of the Ocean Beach Pier, the longest pier on the West Coast at 1,971 feet.

And a 29-second video coming in for a landing at Montgomery Field after a San Diego Sky Tour:

For more about exploring San Diego from the sky with San Diego Sky Tours, see Explore San Diego…….from the sky.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

A visit to the Marriott Coronado Island Resort

If you are coming to San Diego for a romantic vacation, might I suggest booking the Marriott Coronado Island Resort?

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Along with the quaint cottages, every room has a view of water, and most rooms have a view of the San Diego-Coronado Bay Bridge and downtown San Diego across the bay. A late afternoon or early evening walk along the beach with a view of downtown San Diego is just, well, romantic!

Also, if anyone asks you where you can see flamingos, there are actually four places in San Diego. Most people think there are just three—the San Diego Zoo, Safari Park, and SeaWorld—but you can see more flamingos, as well as ducks, gulls, egrets, and herons, in the lagoon at the Marriott Coronado Island Resort.

In the Marriott courtyard, there is a small aviary with lots of cute little birds. In this first picture, I’m presuming daddy is on lookout duty while mommy is sitting inside taking care of the little ones.

The grounds are beautifully landscaped with ponds, streams, waterfalls, and plants:

Did you see the two sleeping mallards in that picture above?

If you do stay at the Marriott Coronado Island Resort, I hope you have a good time and that you’ll send me a postcard………….

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Downtown San Diego fog pictures

It’s been foggy, misty, and sometimes a little rainy here in San Diego the past couple of days so this morning I went downto to see if I could get some good fog pictures. I got three, not what I ultimately hope to get but by far the best downtown fog pictures I have so far.

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Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!

Panoramas from downtown San Diego

After I finished at The Festival of Sail yesterday, I wandered around downtown San Diego looking for more opportunities to take some pictures to use for  Photomerge in Photoshop CS6. I had a lot of fun exploring some buildings that I had never been in and got some pictures to create these photomerges.

The first picture is a photomerge of two pictures taken from the new skybridge downtown. It shows the San Diego Convention Center, the tracks for the San Diego Trolley, downtown Marriott (the two black towers), and the two Hyatt towers (white).

Next up is a panorama of San Diego Bay, a photomerge of five pictures taken from the 15th floor of the Holiday Inn north tower. The ship at the left is the USS Midway Museum, and across the bay you can see the USS Carl Vinson, a nuclear powered aircraft carrier currently docked at the North Island Naval Station.

The following is a tile mural in the lobby of the Holiday Inn downtown. A photomerge of three pictures.

The following is a photomerge of five pictures of Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres. The tower at the left is the combo Omni hotel/condominiums. The upper flower condos have a beautiful view of the ballpark, and most of them are owned by players from the Padres and the Chargers. The big building at the right is the new Central Library, the dome of which will be the second largest dome in the United States and the fourth largest in the world (see more of the library in my post here: America’s second largest dome is nearing completion).

The following photomerge of eight pictures shows mainly the tracks of the San Diego Trolley. The new skybridge for pedestrians is one of my favorite places to watch trains, which I do quite often. Although the Trolley is light rail, the BNSF heavy rail tracks run through here, too. They are the two tracks on the left. Unfortunately, BNSF trains tend to be a couple of miles long so they are not allowed to run through here during the daylight hours, making real train watching here less than ideal since it has to be done at night. Petco Park is at the right, and the greenish towers in the center is the Omni hotel/condo talked about above. The white towers at the left are the Hyatt, and the black tower (actually two towers) in the center are the Harbor Club towers, where Bruce Willis & Demi Moore once owned the 5,000-SF penthouse when they were still married to each other.

Of course, since my whole purpose for being downtown yesterday was to go to the Festival of Sail, I have to end with a photomerge of a tall ship, this one using three pictures:

Remember that you can click on a picture to get a much larger version of it.

Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572

If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!