Green Door, Brick Wall. San Francisco, California. August 14, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Repainted and patched green door in the brick wall of an old San Francisco building
On this mid-August morning I got up early, took the bus to the train and the train to San Francisco, then walked right up into the downtown core of the City. The walk began with among train commuters heading up toward Market Street, past construction zones, freeway interchanges, and lots of traffic. Once at Market Street I turned toward the Bay and walked slowly, stopping frequently to watch and photograph. At the end of Market I turned south and began my walk back to the train station along the Embarcadero.
Eventually I decided to leave the Embarcadero and follow smaller streets to cross back to the Caltrain station. Like so many parts of San Francisco today, this is an area in transition. There are still some gritty old buildings, but things are rapidly evolving in a much more upscale and expensive direction — and for now the gritty and the modern live side by side. But not for long. Given the price of real estate in this area, funky old buildings like the one with this doorway do not have much of a future. I imagine that almost all of them will be knocked down for more condos and townhouses, and those that remain will be cleaned up and gentrified in ways that retain only the stylish chic quality. Two things (at least) caught my attention about this doorway, at least sufficiently to make me stop for a minute and make a few exposures. First is the stark contrast between the pinkish color of the painted bricks and greens of the doorway. Second is the sum effect of paint over graffiti and then painting it over again, which often produces interesting cubist patterns on San Francisco architecture in places like this.
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Dan, my interest has always been in nature photography. However, I really like your city photos. They are exceptional. My question is, are you always comfortable carrying a camera and exposing it in the city. Have you been in an dangerous situations? Are you able to do your photography discretely, which would seem very difficult if using a tripod.
Thanks for that Kerry — quite often the people who think of me as a landscape/nature photographer turn out to be a bit less enthusiastic about the city/street photography!
As to the comfort question, the answer is a little of this and a little of that. I have never had a problem problem, though there have been a few times when I was a bit uncomfortable about being in certain places with camera equipment, either because the place itself seemed a bit “sketchy” or because I thought my presence might not please the people who were there. You can never be completely safe anywhere — the city, the wilderness, traveling, etc — and too much fear of what could happen can paralyze folks.
I am much more discrete about how I work in the urban environment by comparison to what I do “in the wild.” When I shoot landscape I typically carry a backpack full of lenses and other stuff, have my camera locked to a rather large tripod, usually use the sort of equipment that yells “professional photographer” to lots of people, and I may stay in one place for quite a while. The way I work in the city is almost diametrically opposed to that.
I almost never use a tripod for urban photography. I use a very small camera that most people won’t even recognize as being that of a “serious photographer” — a small Fujifilm mirrorless camera. I tend to shoot with small primes. I carry my minimal gear in a smallish messenger bag that doesn’t look like a camera bag at all. As I walk I usually hold the camera very discretely down at my side, such that most passers-by probably don’t even notice it. In many cases (though not all) I tend to rather quickly raise the camera, frame the photograph, make the exposure and move on.
The difference between working this way and working with large equipment is often quite amazing. With big equipment, and especially with a large tripod, it is virtually impossible to avoid being noticed — in fact, that sort of stuff actually attracts attention. But a little handheld mirrorless camera or similar, equipped with small prime lenses, gets little attention at all. I recall one of the first times I took the little Fujifilm camera out for this purpose (I used to use a DSLR with a prime) on a visit to San Diego, when we went to Balboa Park. It was a tremendously busy day there and I walked through crowds of people. Yet when I raised my camera — even pointing it in their direction — few people even seemed to notice. It was quite a surprising and liberating feeling.
There is quite a bit more I could say about this, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment!
Dan