For a compilation of the morning walk images, click here.
The Center Of San Francisco: San Francisco is special in a number of ways. If we ignore the land provided by the Presidio and Candlestick Point, the city is a nearly perfect square seven by seven miles.
A while back, an an article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle describing the placement of a surveyor's disk that marked the geographic center of San Francisco. The article described the brass disk as being somewhere on Corbett Avenue, that street that I walked daily on my way to school so many years ago.
For a lark, I decided to find the marker. I had seen several other surveyor's markers placed here and there across the city, but if I could find this one, I could stand in the epicenter of the cosmic field that summoned the Age of Aquarius. Not.
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| Street Sign On The Corner Of 17th Street And Mars, San Francisco. April 24,2020 |
I set off on my quest, again carrying the 12mm 7artisans lens, looking for a subject appropriate for this extreme wide angle lens. While it wasn't that early in the morning, the shadows were long, and if photographing them was my objective, the 12mm lens was a good choice. I was hoping to make a photo where there would be some visual disconnect between the shadow and the object casting it, and this was the first opportunity of the morning. With this photo I was off to a fair start.
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| Sinrise on Corbett Avenue, San Francisco. April 24,2020 |
With a lens as wide as this (102 degrees), the backgrounds become extremely important, simply because so much of it will be included in the photo. I wish I was given a foreboding, early morning sky filled with ominous clouds and an unclutter foreground, but that was not to be. This was the best framing I could get, given the X-E1's lack of a rotating LCD display and my reluctance to lie on the ground beside this plant. The moral is that if I want better perspectives, then I should bring an X-T2 body, or be prepared to get dirty.
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| Pumps, Corbett Avenue, San Francisco. April 24,2020 |
I'm sure there's a great story to explain the bed riser box and a pair of all too precious pumps sitting on a backyard fence that faced the street. Just the same, I came, I saw, I took (the photo).
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| The Center Of San Francisco. April 24, 2020 |
I seem to remember seeing a surveyor's marker on the south-east side of Corbett near the old Twin Peaks Elementary School. After a futile search, I consulted the map provided by my phone, and was notified that I was literally standing on top of the marker, even though I couldn't see it. Just then I saw some walkers approaching me, so I crossed the street in an act of extreme social distancing, looked down, and saw the marker at my feet. The quest was over.
The writing differs from the photo that accompanied the original 2016 photo. Also, the edges of the cement appeared chipped. I heard that stealing the marker became something of a sport, so I'm sure the one I was photographing wasn't the original. The sidewalk appears damaged, probably from attempts by some visiting or local miscreant to pry the marker up. It wasn't the same as finding the Holy Grail, but at least now I could turn my concentration something important, like what I was going to have for breakfast.
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| Duplex, Corbett Avenue, San Francisco. April 24, 2020 |
Ansel Adams' use of shadows and texture in his images from New Mexico has always been an inspiration to me. Lacking picturesque adobe structures to photograph, I found something similar int the geometric forms in this stucco duplex. The background is too distracting and the shadows total lacking in subtlety, but like so many early efforts, it's only a beginning. It's what happens next that counts.
This experimental conversion of the color image to a black and white one doesn't seem to do the trick. Perhaps this simple "removal of color" action is too sanitized, and once performed, doesn't leave enough character to carry the photo.
The resulting image is far too cluttered to be taken seriously, and the contrast to excessive if the view decides to explore the cluttered background. I suspect that when a perfect conversion is made from a digital file to a suitable black and white image, I'll know.
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| Advice, Corbett Avenue San Francisco. April 24, 2020 |
When I make my morning walk, I don't usually see children. But they leave their mark in the form of chalk drawings and messages on the sidewalk, as children are want to do. This advice, obviously left by an adult with excellent penmanship, serves as a reminder to us all, one that can be applied at many levels.
Stay well.
A while back, an an article appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle describing the placement of a surveyor's disk that marked the geographic center of San Francisco. The article described the brass disk as being somewhere on Corbett Avenue, that street that I walked daily on my way to school so many years ago.
This experimental conversion of the color image to a black and white one doesn't seem to do the trick. Perhaps this simple "removal of color" action is too sanitized, and once performed, doesn't leave enough character to carry the photo.
