Architectural Forms, San Francisco. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Black and white photography of juxtaposed architectural forms in downtown San Francisco, California.

This is another “urban landscape” – this one obviously focusing on the juxtapositions of dark and light (both light/shadow and white/black), vertical and horizontal, the inclusion of a single curved shape at the upper right, and the effect of converging perspective lines. Although this looks like a photograph that more likely would have been shot from the tripod, this was actually done handheld while walking up Market Street not too far from the San Francisco Bay on a morning when Bay fog was just clearing away near the waterfront.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, building, architecture, window, column, wall, railing, cement, concrete, stone, angle, converge, perspective, sky, black, white, monochrome, light, shadow, form, texture, morning, stock

Steps and Landing, The Embarcadero. San Francisco, California. September 16, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

With west end of the Bay Bridge above, steps lead down to a bayside landing along the Embarcadero on a foggy morning in San Francisco, California.

I think this will be the first in short string of urban landscapes coming up over the next few days. During the last few weeks of the year I go back through all of my (many thousands of!) RAW files, rediscovering images that I somehow forgotten about and finding some that I had not really paid attention to at the time. This one falls into the former category.

For some reason this spot along the Embarcadero always intrigues me. On one hand it seems like it should provide access to the water for people strolling along the Embarcadero on the San Francisco Bay waterfront since it opens directly from the sidewalk. But on the other hand something seems just a bit dangerous about it. I’m not sure if it is the ominous warning signs along the steps, the wet and slippery concrete, or something else. In any case, I’ve photographed it a few times. This black and white version was photographed on a foggy morning near the end of summer as the overcast was just barely beginning to thin.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, tourist, scenic, city, urban, downtown, landing, steps, stairs, railing, water, waterfront, bay, oakland, bridge, fog, clouds, pier, dock, building, palm, tree, concrete, cement, cable, suspension, black and white, monochrome, fence, sign, street, sidewalk, urban, west, grafitti, stock