Anyone who’s visited San Francisco, since 1972 has seen the Transamerica Pyramid, one of The City’s most iconic structures. I was in my teens when the building design was unveiled and quickly met with derision from the media and from public officials. It was criticized as something that would be more appropriate on the Las …
In our house we recycle and that includes Christmas bags and Christmas wrap and in that spirit (and laziness) some of the anecdotes in this piece are recycled from previous years. It’s upon us once again. The season of gifts, of Santa, of menorahs, stockings, twinkling lights and a blogosphere decorated with memoirs of holidays …
Featured image: San Francisco’s famous Painted Ladies as seen from Alamo Square. It’s not a difficult thing to find colorful buildings in the San Francisco Bay Area. A drive down Highway 80 from home brings me to Oakland’s Chinatown where the buildings are alive with murals. Below the mural on a city owned building is …
This week’s Lens-Artists Challenge, hosted by Amy focuses on negative space in photography. My understanding is that negative space is the area that, by definition, you aren’t necessarily supposed to focus on. Negative space is the lack of clutter surrounding the main subject that allows us to focus on the main subject. The photo below …
Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge for this first week of September is Commercial Buildings and Store Fronts. One of my favorite places in San Francisco is Chinatown. There are two major streets through Chinatown. Grant Ave. which I try to avoid, is where the souvenir shops peddle threadbare t-shirts, postcards and plastic Buddhas. Stockton Street is …
In keeping with the current architectural theme, this week Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge focuses on modern homes and apartments. This colorful apartment building sits just on the fringe of Chinatown in San Francisco. Maaaaay-be there’s an apartment in there somewhere. The most prominent building in the photo below is the Salesforce Tower. I’d be willing …
Washington Square Park is the centerpiece of San Francisco’s North Beach and it represents my earliest memory of San Francisco’s Little Italy. October, 1964, I’m on the cusp of my 12th birthday and President Lyndon Baines Johnson is appealing to San Francisco’s grass roots. It’s less than one month until the presidential election and I’m …
All that these men and women wanted was to live normal lives, be ordinary people, have families and not end up immortalized on sheets of plywood because they died for our sin.
For days following the killing of George Floyd, the city of Oakland was in flames, if not literally then figuratively. Peaceful protests turned into confrontation which turned into violence leaving the city littered with tear gas canisters, rubber bullets and broken glass. As calm returned and peaceful protest prevailed, the city took a moment, a …
This week’s Lens-Artist Photo Challenge comes from Ann-Christine who suggests that we find images with delicate colors in celebration of Spring. While sunrise and sunset often treat the viewer to brilliant, bright and vibrant views, dawn and dusk can also deliver the softest hues. Below are two views of nearby San Pablo Bay at sunset. …
Taking a breath of viral free air to offer something pleasing and to try to relieve some of the angst if only for a few moments. The San Francisco Bay Area is rich in street art; some of it sanctioned and some not. Below is a small sampling of images of a few of the …
It isn’t the end of days but, as the bard Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan) wrote, The Times They Are a-Changin. I’ve published one piece about the coronavirus and have begun another but I can’t seem to keep up with the a-changin’ times. What was relevant two weeks ago is ancient history. Hell what was …
This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge presented by Patti is “Change your perspective,” in other words look at an image or shot from a different point of view. Take a break from the tried, true and sometimes trite perspective of straight on from your standing eye level. “Look up and down and round about you.” ~ John …
This week Tina’s Lens-Artists Challenge is Treasure Hunt. The mission should we choose to accept it (Yes that’s a nod to Mission Impossible) is to search for specific items from the list below and present our images of those items. Extra credit items are a bit more challenging. Challenge Items: Sunrise and/or sunset, Something cold …
For this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge, the topic chosen by Amy is narrow. Water creates its own path through the narrowest of spaces, eventually eroding cracks and making them channels. Below are images of California’s Stanislaus River from a narrow rapid to the narrowest of passages. Below, a narrow section of waterfall cuts through Oregon’s …
This week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge from Ann-Christine is “Future.” Ann-Christine writes, “The future is the period of time that will come after the present, or the things that will happen then. Maybe a second away, a week, a year, a decade.” I’m playing very fast and loose with this week’s theme. It’s said that a …
Ramshackle looking cafe/diners dotted the area. Places like Susie’s, family owned and looking sketchy on the outside and maybe a little greasy on the inside offered simple fare and good service
My San Francisco is a series of posts that describes my own personal relationship with The City. My San Francisco pieces might be photo essays; they might be life stories or they could be commentaries. They might be a combination of some or all three. My impressions won’t necessarily be paeans to San Francisco; it’s …
This week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge is leading lines. Tina’s challenge is to display photos with lines “carry our eye through a photograph. They help to tell a story, to place emphasis, and to draw a connection between objects.” Cover photo: San Pablo Bay, California Converging lines. The lines of the shore and the clouds. …
This week’s Lens Artists Photo Challenge presented to us by Amy is #79: A Window With A View. Cover photo: Chinatown, San Francisco California. The window of a Chinatown market shows us a view of edible delights and Muni bus in the reflection. Chapel of the Transfiguration – Grand Teton National Park In a small patch …