City by the Bay

I
spent the early part of this week on a business trip in San Francisco. It’s been ten years since my last visit and I didn’t take any photos on previous visits. Although I had very limited time, I marked up a bunch of potential locations to shoot if the opportunity presented itself. I made a few, but missed most of them.

One thing I’d forgotten was just how confusing it is for a stranger to navigate in San Francisco. If I made this comment to the locals, they’d invariably blame it on the one-way streets. That wasn’t my problem, though. I can deal with one-way streets. What confuses me is when a street isn’t where I think it’s supposed to be.

Here’s an example. My hotel was on 8th Street. The first issue is not to confuse the numbered streets with the numbered avenues. As they seem to be in different parts of the city, that wasn’t too much of a problem. I could find 9th street. I could find 7th Street. There just didn’t seem to be an 8th street between them. It turns out that 8th Street only runs for a short distance at the end of Hyde. I was literally missing my street because I was crossing about a block or two away from it.

One of the first places I stopped just to shoot a little bit was City Hall. It’s a beautiful building filled with (seemingly) homeless people sleeping on the front lawn. Hey, it was a nice day for a nap in the sun. I nearly had a run-in with one of those folks. He seemed to be extremely angry and yelling at no one in particular as he walked toward me. Mentally unstable is the phrase that comes to mind. He really didn’t like all of us purple-skinned people. Rather than debate the issue with him, I decided to get the hell out of there. Little did I know at that time, but I would spend the next three hours driving around town only to discover that my hotel was about two blocks from City Hall.

The shot above is from the Sutro Baths / Seal Rocks / Cliff House area. It was actually a dreary night, filled with misty rain, high winds, and cold temps. I’d like to think this image actually captures some of that dreariness, but yet somehow makes it appealing. Then again, that’s just what I think. The truth is that this isn’t quite the image I originally had in mind. That’s because the front element of my 18-200mm VR lens FELL OUT and cracked on the floor just a few minutes before I setup for this shot. I was having dinner at the Cliff House and splat. It’s a sickening feeling when you lose a lens. Fortunately, I had my wide angle and a fisheye with me. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have a single picture to share.

There are three things that really struck me about the people of San Francisco:
1: They are the slowest pedestrians in the world when crossing the street.
2: These folks are bag people. Nearly everyone has a backpack or messenger bag.
3: Bicycles are everywhere and they defy death by running red lights without care.
After the first day in town, I smacked myself upside the head and realized that the solution to my navigation problems was right inside my pocket. My iPhone has Google Maps. I could easily use it to navigate the streets from source to destination. Once I started using it, the various confusing streets no longer mattered. All I had to do was follow directions and that was easy enough. A built-in Nav system is better, but my iPhone was a saving grace in town.

My other crisis in town happened on Baker Beach. Apparently, this beach is part of the park system and it closes at 7:00 pm. Well, it’s supposed to close at 7:00 pm, but I got there after 8:00 and access to the parking was wide open. The sign with information about closing time isn’t by the entrance, so I didn’t notice it at all. I parked my car and blissfully hiked about a half-mile to a spot on the beach where I shot time exposures (like the one above and the Golden Gate Bridge photo at the top) until 9:00 pm. When I tried to leave, there was the barricade in front of the road locking me inside the park.

I didn’t panic. I figured there had to be a way out of there. Maybe there was enough room on either side of the barricade to squeeze through. After all, I’m driving a rental car. You can drive a rental car anywhere. Maybe you can’t get it back, but that’s the rental car company’s problem. Let’s just say that my efforts failed. In fact, I got stuck in some sand and also nearly rolled it down a steep hill. Since I got out of the sand and didn’t actually roll it over the hill, the rental car company doesn’t know about those events and we’ll assume it never really happened.

Finally, I just called 911 to explain that I’m an embarrassed tourist who got himself locked in the park. A couple of transfers later and I’m told that the Park Police know I’m in there and is already on the way. My guess is that he came by way of Oakland, possibly because he didn’t want to quickly accommodate me. Once he arrived, he taunted me with his loudspeaker telling me that the parks close at 7:00 and it’s clearly after sunset, so what’s my problem? I didn’t care. Truly, I really didn’t care. As far as I’m concerned, he’s my bitch. That’s right. I made a phone call and he came to do my bidding. Once he opened the gate, I waved and left with a smile on my face. My original intent was to apologize to him for not paying close enough attention, but screw it. I don’t particularly care for public servants who get their ego stroked by trying to insult people they’ve never met.

After my two days in town, I developed a love/hate relationship with the city. Parts of it are stunningly beautiful. I could take photos there for a lifetime. Other parts were not so hot. It’s an old city and quite a bit of it looks decrepit and decayed. If I had the financial freedom to live there (and I don’t), I think I’d rather live across the Bay in Marin County and commute to the city when I felt like it. The food certainly wasn’t a hit for me. No doubt there are many fine restaurants in town, but I just kept picking the wrong places. In the end, I was happy to leave. San Francisco is charming in a way and I’d love to spend more time there, but it’s not home to me. I think I’ll always be a Florida man at heart.