Nature outside the window
For fifteen years after we came to San Francisco, we lived in an apartment with a sliding glass door opening from the living room onto a fire escape and large evergreen tree. Ours was a redwood, this is a pine. Still, this scene struck a chord with me. Image made on States Street, one of the many routes I take from my home took the Castro District.
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.
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.
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.)
Better homes and autos- Ashbury Heights
My wife and I have lived in a 1,000-square-foot condo in this neighborhood of 4,000+ square-foot homes for almost ten years. The neighborhood dates from the boom years of the early 20th century, and many of the houses are very beautiful. I most like to photograph them where they overlap (are in relationship with) one another and the street. I used a tilt-shift lens to bring both the foreground and the houses into focus.
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