Monthly Archives: May 2012

Hayes Valley

Photographs

A charming area of SF.

Hayes Valley, 2 blocks SW of City Hall.

Replete with upper end restaurants and fine stores, Hayes Valley is an area a few blocks square, close to San Francisco’s City Hall, Opera and Performing Arts Center. The area is quite charming, chic in a non-yuppy way, containing many interesting alleyways and old homes. Downtown is anchored by a small children’s park named Patricia’s Green and quite lovely. On a sunny day it’s a throwback to less crowded times.

These were all snapped on the D700 with the ne plus ultra 35mm f/2 MF Nikkor, a lens which really speaks to me.

They all look alike. An overabundance of riches is seldom a good thing.
Don’t ask me which is which, because I have no idea.

Truth be told I had intended to take my favorite, the 24mm MF Nikkor and was wondering why I was too close to everything when snapping, then it dawned on me that the lens on the D700 was the 35mm, and that the two look quite similar with hoods in place. I had simply put the wrong lens on the body, leaving the 24mm at home! Anyway, I made do ….

At the Fatted Calf. My greed for images like this equals the calf’s for its food.

At La Boulange. f/5.6 and be there. Click the image for the map.

Inside the art exhibit on Patricia’s Green. At f/16, where diffraction remains negligible.

Morning coffee. At f/2 the lens has a nice way about it.

On Hayes Street, between Laguna and Octavia. Light to die for.

Alleyway doors.

Two stories on Linden Lane. Midwest light.

Clapboard derelict.

Charming stores line Hayes Street.

An earnest walk along Mission Street

Photographs, Short stories

Do you want to fight?

Any street snapper visiting San Francisco should avoid the tourist traps. He should forget Union Square and Fishermen’s Wharf and take the BART subway to 16th or 24th Street. He will immediately notice the stench that is Mission Street and he will be inspired by it, for it is life lived large.

The street snapper will not find Gucci or Louis Vuitton there. He will encounter a neighborhood where the predominant language is Spanish and the most common price is 99 cents. He will absorb the atmosphere and he will know it is good.

Mission Street between the 16th and 24th Streets BART stops.

All he needs is a camera with a wide lens. The sidewalks are not especially broad. Stepping into busy Mission Street is a bad idea. The wide lens will allow him to get in close. The snaps will then be devoid of clutter. The lens is small and it is also right for the many alleyways. These are rich in murals. They are steeped in history, in popular culture and in political protest.

This is not Beverly Hills. Cops patrol actively on light Noddy bikes. That does not mean he should take his safety for granted. The weak should stay away. If he cannot afford to lose his camera the snapper cannot afford to come here. He must dress down and leave the Rolex at home. This is a place for men, brave men, and they will not be found wanting.

These were snapped on 40 year old Nikon lenses. Lenses made by engineers for men and for men who know what they are about and who know how to use them. The street snapper must risk losing his gear or be prepared to fight for it. He must think like a bullfighter. The smell of fear is broadcast louder than a whore’s scent. No bullfighter ever entered a ring expecting to meet a friend. Nor did he enter it scared. He will prevail or he will die, be he bullfighter or snapper.

Mural. 24mm.

Cop Noddy bikes. 24mm.

Sun and mural. 105mm.

Cocktails. 50mm.

Usurious lenders aplenty. 50mm.

Many derelict theaters remain. The street has seen better days. 50mm.

Primary colors everywhere. 24mm.

Buddhist low rider on 17th Street. 24mm.

Clarion Alley mural. Along with Balmy Ally, off 24th Street, this is a ‘must see’ location. 24mm.

La Taqueria with pups. The finest Mexican food anywhere, at 25th Street. Click the picture. 24mm.

With apologies to Ernest Hemingway.

In Evans’s footsteps.

Photographs

Flashback.

One of the greatest pictures of the American Depression is not one protraying migrant workers or starving children, moving and deeply tragic as those are. No, Walker Evans’s ‘Damaged’ is very much the iconic picture of that sad era.

It was Evans’s masterpiece that was playing in my head when I snapped the picture below. This was two days ago. It is black and white. That is in keeping with the poverty of the neighborhood. Click the picture for the Google StreetView of the jewelry store. It is stuck between a Goodwill shop and a Christian Science Reading Room. Google doubtless refreshes its StreetView snaps from time to time, but their current one was taken when the awning was enjoying better days, before our latest Depression.

During the current Depression. Ken Jewelry, 2285 Mission Street, SF. D700, 24mm lens.

Evans’s masterpiece? How could one image better tell of America’s fall from grace in the Great Depression?

During the previous Depression. Damaged, by Walker Evans, around 1930.