Cherry Pickers. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A line of cherry pickers along a San Francisco street.

Since the previous photograph I posted featured cranes (of a different sort!) I suppose that you could, from a certain perspective, regard this as part of a series. Well, these are sort of cranes, right? I encountered them along a San Francisco street a couple of years ago, in an area under extensive construction as part of the underground expansion of the City’s transit system. I can’t explain why there would be quite so many cherry pickers lined up in a row, but they certainly caught my attention.

I think this photograph my be an example of how the act of carrying a camera can change how you see. I know it changes how I see. Normally, I might give this sight no more than a moment’s notice before moving on: “Interesting. Cherry pickers parked along the road.” But with a camera in hand I start to ask visual and other questions: Who thought to segregate them by color? Do they always store them this way or did someone carefully extend them so their angles nearly matched? Am I the only person who thought they looked like gigantic anthropomorphic figures marching to the right?

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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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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