At the Convention Center, SF.
D3x, 85mm f/1.8 Nikkor-H.
Category Archives: Photographs
Flagmakers
Coming back soon.
The Flagmakers mural between Howard and Natoma Streets in San Francisco has been lost to sight as MOMA has undergone an extensive rebuild. The museum will finally open in May 2016 and let’s hope they make far better use of the internal volume than before where most of the display space was simply wasted, making for too few exhibitions.
When scaffolding went up all around I rather feared that Flagmakers would be lost to the world and my extensive collection of mural images – so many of them ephemeral and now gone – shows I photographed it in 2011 and 2012.
Here’s the 2012 version:
February 18, 2012. Nikon D700, 85mm f/1.8 AF-D Nikkor.
MOMA has an interesting story about photographer Janet Delaney who snapped the same scene in 1982 – seemingly as faded then as now.
Click the image for the story.
Click the image for the story. The good news is that the mural has been saved, if rather crowded out by the building additions.
Comparing the two, not that much has actually changed in the mural building. The fire escape ladder appears to have grown a counterweight to the right, the delicate iron balcony appears unmolested, the top of the fire escape now has handrails added and the sign was as faded then as now – I did add a little saturation here and there to the surpassingly bland original. The garage in the foreground is long gone, unlike Chevron, which should be around another century or so as we reluctantly migrate to renewable resources.
I’m reminded also of how much I miss the Nikon D700 body – no video nonsense, a modest sized sensor with superior low light capabilities and exceptional responsiveness. A photographer’s machine. No one needs more than 12mp in an FF sensor.
Another version of Flagmakers, no longer possible, appears here.
Legs
Some architecture
A great way to end the year.
Few things beat a crisp, sunny day in San Francisco, and the city’s propensity for preserving its old buildings means more subject matter for an itchy trigger finger.
These were all snapped today on three classic ‘metal era’ MF Nikkors from my copious inventory on the D3x – the 35mm f/2, the 85mm f/1.8 and an all time favorite, the 200mm f/4, an outstanding optic for picking out gorgeous period details.
The absence of autofocus for this type of subject matter is anything but a hindrance. If anything, the more contemplative approach required is a benefit.
Processed in LR6, some verticals straighened in PS CS5, some juice added here and there in Snapseed.
At the Wharf
Lovely colors.
Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco is much more than a tourist trap selling dumb T shirts to white trash which has travelled 3,000 miles from Noo Joisy for no other purpose.
Take the back roads and amble along the commercial fishing wharves and you are met with more subject matter than you can shake a stick at.
Dungeness Crab nets. The metal ring is to let out immature crab. Keep telling yourself that, environmentalists.
Alcatraz is always present ….
…. as is the Golden Gate.
Coit Tower.
Dungeness Crab ready for the pot.
Honoring sailors of yesteryear.
Season’s Greetings.
All snapped on the ancient Nikon D2x with a 35mm f/1.8G AF-S DX Nikkor. The early CMOS APS-C sensor in this magnificent body does all colors justice and the body can be found throwaway cheap in mint condition and will certainly outlast you.
With thanks to Keld Helmer-Petersen who taught me how to see in dockland.
After so exhausting a session there’s good food to be had and, yes, it is available among the hot dog stands and pizza parlors.
It comes by the name Capurro’s, has been here for ever and if you search out Paul Capurro, the former marine who owns it, you will be regaled with tales of the mob and Capone’s buddies, back when Big Al was cooling his heels in Alcatraz and Paul was hearing tales on his father’s knee.
Arrive early and you miss the crowds, and mercifully the prices here discourage T shirt shoppers:
Start with the Drake’s Bay oysters, locally caught and wildly flavorful.
Follow up with Sand Dabs, now in season.
Capurro’s snaps on an iPhone6.
Later at the fishmonger’s:
Ready for eating and Made in the USA!
I have the fishmonger break up the shells and then add some lemon from the garden. Delicious!