Arizona Treks

Of all the places and activities the most challenging for me was San Francisco.  Several factors went into making this such a challenge.  The range of situations was amazing, crowds, attractions, architecture, boats, seals, this is keeping the Golden Gate NRA out of the equation.  At one time I was spending a good deal of time in SF on business, I had a close friend who was doing his post-doc work at UCSF and lived in the sunset district, another friend had grown up in SF and accompanied me on several trips.  But that was 25 years ago so I had forgotten much and was limited on where we went because of time constraints and lack of desire to drive the big pickup through the city.

We spent time in the Fisherman's Wharf area.  The first trip was interesting and I shot a fair amount, mostly color so I have not seen the film yet.  But the crowds intimidated me and I shot mostly ships, birds, Lombard Street, and houses.  There was plenty of that to shoot.  The second trip I was more prepared for the crowds and shot more of the crowds and street performers.  The one above is my favorite street performer.  I can imagine how street photography could be addictive.  In some cases I would pick out a single interesting person and shoot them with the crowd around them, in other cases it was a more general crowd shot.  

We went to the National Historic Park there as well and as much as I love ships, that was a real treat for me.  We wandered around on several of the ships there and I shot quite a bit.  This was a bit more comfortable for me than the crowds because it is closer to the things I normally shoot.  But trying to capture the feel of these old ships without showing the water was a challenge that I was not fully up to.  The photo below is one of the better photos from the old ships.

So, overall I learned a lot from the experience but would love the opportunity to do it again.