There is just so much to shoot in San Francisco!

As I highlighted in a recent post, I spent a week in San Francisco recently, and despite a very busy work schedule, I was still able to get out and fire away to a pretty significant degree. That always makes the week better, doesn't it? :-)

Of course, it required me to sacrifice a little sleep here and there (my meetings ran into the evening, so it was easiest for me to shoot at sunrise, which is WAY early this time of year), but that's why I always stop at Starbucks while I am out and fuel up (a venti Awake tea, thank you very much!). Honestly though, I would rather shoot sunrise anyways. I always say that, and it's true. You can walk around the busiest cities at sunrise and nearly have them to yourself. It's amazing. And oddly, I don't see as many photographers out that time of day.

As everyone knows, San Francisco is a beautiful city. I really love it there. There is a lot to see and do (and photograph), and it's just gorgeous. It's one of my favorite American cities, that's for sure. There is a lot of diversity, despite what I read in the news about Google and other companies "taking over" old neighborhoods and driving out the locals.

To be clear, I'm not saying it doesn't happen, as I am sure it does. I'm just saying I still notice a lot of diversity, which is good and in my opinion it makes a place more interesting. For example, I spent some time one day in the Mission District, which I had never been to before. It has some excellent graffiti, which I just love, so I wanted to go see it. Well that area is much different than down along the Embarcadero, for example (which is normally where my hotel choices are - because that's where my work happens). Vastly different, in fact. (And yes, I will do a future post of the excellent graffiti I shot that day.)

Since I go to San Fran several times per year, I end up with a lot of photos from there as well (oh darn). And while I am addicted to the new, so to speak, there is a lot of enjoyment I get from revisiting a place time and again - especially one so interesting. Because of my constrained work schedule, I only brought my tiny little prime lens, so that I could travel fast and light.

I wanted to force myself to look at things somewhat differently than if I had a collection of lenses to choose from. While I wouldn't do that if I was going to a new place, it is a great creative exercise. It forces you to work the scene with your feet before firing away, instead of just zooming in on something. It may not sound like it's a big difference, but it feels like it is.

And in addition to shooting with only the prime, I also decided to just shoot whatever caught my eye, anything I observed that I found at least somewhat interesting. So I have some street scenes I captured as well as some bits of this and that. I did shoot at the Ferry Building quite a bit, but I just can't help myself since I love that place so much. Oh yeah, and I grabbed some shots of the Bay Bridge as well. It's a beauty!

Well, I hope you enjoy this little tour of San Francisco, and come back for more soon! I have a lot of graffiti to share as well as some stunning blue hour photos I caught one evening after a rain. I will get all those processed and shared as soon as I can!