A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
6 November 2020
As we left the house in shirt sleeves Tuesday, we ran into our neighbor who we haven't seen since March. We joked that we were going for a walk to work off some nervous energy on Election Day. "It's cold!" he warned us.
He was right. The wind was brisk and cut right through our shirt. San Franciscans always take a jacket with them when they leave the house. But it's been so warm lately, we thought we could ignore the local custom for once.
We had our Nikon D200 and 43-86mm Nikkor to keep us warm anyway.
We didn't have a planned route, just the desire to put some steps on our app. So we walked down the hill and back up before deciding to keep going. We could walk over to where Portola turns into Market to take a few shots of the skyline.
Nice having a skyline just a few steps away.
When something caught our eye on the way over and back, we stopped and took a photo. Before we knew it, we had a slide show.
Nice having a skyline just a few steps away.
First of all, there was our polling place up the street. We were curious how many people were voting in person. We thought we would be able to take a few historical shots unobserved but there were plenty of voters around. A few of them looked at us warily. Most realized we were harmless.
In front of Juvenile Hall, the youth detention center, we looked up a pole to read a small sign on a large button. It identified the button as a Talking Sign for the Blind. We had to zoom in, it was so high up. The rust is a hint why it's out of reach. It's an artifact of another age, before the area was relandscaped to lead to another building entirely.
When we finally rounded the bend on Portola, we saw the skyline framed by trees on the median strip. We took a few shots of that, framing it in different ways. We couldn't pick a favorite, though.
And when we looked up (which is always good advice), we saw an array of balconies, a few outfitted with TV satellite dishes. Something about that made us smile.
We crossed the street to get better views of the skyline and surrounding areas like row houses in the distance following the landscape and the hill at Bernal Heights popping out of nowhere.
On the way back, we were amused to see two fairly modern and meticulously maintained homes on Portola both for sale. We had to wonder what was going on there to cause a wholesale evacuation.
And we finally got a shot of the painted fence by the high school. We pass it all the time, trying to remember to take a shot of it before it fades in the sun.
The high school's empty football field in the shadow of Mount Davidson was the last shot we took.
The fog was rolling in and, without a jacket, our continued existence was in jeopardy.