An engineering marvel.

While it lacks the fame of its neighbor, the Golden Gate, the Oakland Bay Bridge is, if anything, a greater engineering marvel. Sporting a double deck it has a far greater span and carries more traffic daily than the Golden Gate, if with less drama. Both were completed in the mid-1930s at the height of the Great Depression and probably should be repaired right about now by putting some of those who recently lost their jobs in construction to work.

G1, kit lens @ 24mm, f/4.8, 1/800, ISO 100

Snapped from the Embarcadero, the toning and vignette were added in Lightroom 2.

How times change.

It is truly impossible to be destitute or without a meal in today’s America and while the results are not always praiseworthy, today’s social society has a lot to be proud of compared with that of of the Victorians or America’s Robber Barons, though many of the latter did a far better job of reallocating vast sums of capital to help the poor than ever did a politician.

At the 16th Street BART, San Francisco.
G1, kit lens at 14mm, 1/500, f/6.3, ISO 100

This chap, none the worse for wear after a bottle of hooch, was holding forth happily at the entrance to the BART station in one of San Francisco’s poorer areas in the Mission District. A fun guy and not the least down about his status or circumstances. The last thing I saw him do was pull a cell phone from his pocket to make a call ….

I can only think that the great humanitarian John Thomson would be amazed at the changes the pioneering work he and like minded photographers did 150 years ago has wrought. However we got there, it’s change for the better.

Happy in her own world.

Even one of our more common definitions of madness is becoming invalidated.

You see them everywhere and of all ages. Adults walking along the street speaking to no one in particular. A moment’s examination confirms that they are speaking into a cell phone microphone and doing so invariably loud enough for all to hear, the way the English speak to foreigners on the assumption that volume will conquer any lack of comprehension.

These people are not mad. Just dumb as a brick.

However, the subject of today’s snap is most assuredly crazy but her insanity is a far gentler presence than that of the cell phone prattlers, reassuring their honey that they are about to come home with the groceries. You can see her on Haight Street in San Francisco most days, merrily reliving past lives at sufficient volume to be heard and enjoyed.

The Madwoman of The Haight. G1, kit lens at 30mm, 1/1250, f/5.3, ISO 100

I feel far closer to her than I ever will to the fools with their cellular toys.

Reporting home.

This loving owner was reporting home on his new puppy’s first street outing into a very big world.

G1, kit lens @ 14mm, 1/800, f/5.6, ISO 100

On Haight Street in San Francisco,