Ferndale power and light
Another one from Ferndale. To preserve the Victorian ambiance, there are no utility poles along the town’s Main Street. Elsewhere in town, however, power and phone poles are an integral–and in places unavoidable–element in the landscape. The only option when they intrude is to work them into the composition.
6:58 am – Ferndale
Spent the weekend in “the Victorian Village of Ferndale,” as the town’s publicists invariably refer to it. In fact the place is not only authentic and impeccably cared for–the entire town on the national register of historic places–but it also feels lived in.
Castro connections . . .
Between the utility lines and and the line’s powering the electric buses, the air space above the intersection of Castro and 18th streets is a maze of wires–fitting for the main intersection in this high-energy San Francisco neighborhood.
From my boss’s window
The light is always changing on these buildings. The one in the center was for many years the downtown San Francisco headquarters of the local phone company. I’ve heard that it is being converted into residential condos, which means the light will no longer pour through it one side to the other. I have occasionally seen a pigeon flitting about inside.
Central San Francisco
Well, near the geographic center of the city, anyway. Adolf Sutro got rich by building a tunnel in the Nevada mines and then bought much of the western half of San Francisco. Beginning in 1886, he planted an enormous forest there, most of which is long since gone to housing developments. The nearly 60 remnant acres on Mount Sutro are owned by the University of California San Francisco. The aging, nonnative eucalyptus trees are shingled with ivy in most places. The place is at once both lovely and inhospitable.
Medical-industrial complex
I came to San Francisco in 1982 to take care of sick babies at University of California Medical Center Hospital. (This was several years before I started writing for a living.) Prospective students compete strenuously to get into UCSF, one of the best medical schools in the nation. The place is huge. Here is the back side, shot on my afternoon walk yesterday. Careful observers will discover fog softening the buildings to the back, a sure sign that the summer weather pattern is settling in.
On the way to work
Warm weather for San Francisco the last few days, and I have been stretching out my route to work in search of pictures. I love this building, the open window to catch the morning breeze, and the steps cut into the steep sidewalk.
Mission Dolores Graveyard
I very much like this old cemetery behind Mission Dolores and usually come away with at least one photo that I like. They recently trimmed the shrubbery along the fence–I’m guessing to prevent vandalism–opening up an alley and the houses beyond. This image is part of two ongoing series, one being of graveyard images.
January, 1989, Cowboy Poetry Festival, Elko, Nevada
Have begun scanning some older negatives from my Detours feature, which appeared in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle years back. I was hired to write the series (based on travels around Northern California) as a regular freelancer, but because it was a union shop I joined the Newspaper Guild as a part time employee and was paid so much per hour for so many hours for each piece. The editors asked how they would illustrate the pieces and I offered to take pictures. I recall that it was 30 below zero in Elko on the weekend this image was made. Someday I will dig out my notes from the trip and add to this post the names of this man and his son.
Tennis Court – Buena Vista Park
Chain link fencing is ubiquitous in the built environment and ends up in a lot of my photographs. In this instance, I just liked the way the regular grid of the fence was laid over the natural shapes beyond. (Also, of course, the morning light streaming down the path.)
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