Brian Smith's Photos

A full day out with the camera, start to finish — six stops from the Golden Gate Bridge in the morning to the botanical gardens at Berkeley by evening.

Golden Gate Bridge

The day started at the overlook south of the bridge, working the span in different light as the marine layer shifted.

The Legion of Honor

Monet’s Water Lilies, seen the way the Legion often frames them best: not head-on, but through a receding line of open doorways. Each of these steps one gallery closer — from the Katherine Hanrahan Gallery, through the Sheila L. and Richard P. Essey Gallery, through the William Fries, II Gallery — until the painting fills the Edward E. Hills Gallery ahead.

Elsewhere in the galleries: Cézanne’s Forest Interior, Rodin’s Three Shades, and a portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and her children by Lavinia Fontana.

The de Young and Golden Gate Park

Out into the park: Chestnut-backed Chickadees, Poecile rufescens, working the branches near the museum.

Down at the pond: a Mallard, Anas platyrhynchos, a Red-eared Slider hauled out on a log, a Great Blue Heron, Ardea herodias, and a Black-crowned Night Heron, Nycticorax nycticorax, tucked into the shade.

Inside the de Young: the Eye of the Storm exhibit, and William Wetmore Story’s marble Dalilah. Back outside, a different kind of eyes — a Waymo working its way along the street.

Tilden Regional Park Botanic Garden

Across the bay to Tilden, its native plant garden tucked into a canyon in the Berkeley hills.

A Bushtit, Psaltriparus minimus, a Lesser Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria, and a Brown Creeper, Certhia americana, working its way up a trunk in short spiraling hops.

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden

Last stop of the day, and the light held out for it — a bee at work, and the garden itself.

An Allen’s Hummingbird, Selasphorus sasin, and two Anna’s Hummingbirds, Calypte anna, feeding on Sapphire Tower, Puya coerulea.

A Western Fence Lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis, and a Dark-eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis.

And the last light of the day on the California Tree Poppy, Romneya coulteri — its crepe-paper petals and golden center closing out a long day well.

A long day, and a good one — bridge, museums, park, and two very different gardens, all in one loop around the Bay.