7X7 Adventures...

Photos: © Stan B.

Retirement, and the long daylight summer hours, continue to allow me the time to explore the nooks and crannies of this 7 square mile plot of land known as San Francisco. I've actually discovered places unknown to this East Coast transplant these past two decades, places like the non presumptuous Turtle Hill, which allows one the most panoramic view in all San Francisco- from the downtown skyline to the entirety of Golden Gate Park (20 acres larger than Central) to the Pacific Ocean itself... a spectacular vista from such an unassuming and unheralded viewpoint! 

One day I zigged instead of zagged in an area I had previously frequented and found myself in the neighborhood of... Sea Cliff, an area tantamount to a drug induced experience- LSD in the morning coffee! Most of San Francisco, no matter what the geographic or economic environment, has a certain rhythm and familiarity to it, particularly in its unique architecture. Sea Cliff left all that far behind, it didn't look like anything, feel like anything even remotely connected to San Francisco! By the mere turn of a corner, I had been somehow, someway rather magically transported to a Riviera seaside resort, a very wealthy seaside resort. I was now in the land of, not the well to do, but the filthy rich- mansion beside mansion beside mansion... with curiously little real estate separating them. A goddamn ghetto of mansions! And I do mean... Mansions! With a beach on either end of this very compact and ultra exclusive neighborhood. 

These photos are from neither of the above, not much purpose in my book if the photos can't in some small way capture some of what the place actually feels like. If I can't do the place some kind of justice in my small way, well then, I'd rather it live in my mind just how I wish, rather than belittle it with an image that just demeans the entire experience. Fortunately, I do, on occasion, get photos where I never anticipated, expected or contemplated;* these are the neighborhoods I've been exploring, usually working class, mostly residential and on the outskirts of town, far from the hipsters, tourists and tech nerds the city is known for; neighborhoods such as Bayview, Excelsior and Portola. Rounding the corners and traversing the hills and crevices, one will occasionally (very occasionally) be rewarded with the odd, photo worthy streetscape or unique, unforeseen point of view...

Photos: © Stan B.

*I still see young 'street shooters' moping about in the SF downtown area and I wanna yell at them (or at least gently suggest)- why are you wasting your time trying to retake classic street photos... on streets devoid of people?!? Move on, adapt- do something different! Even pre-Covid, when downtown SF streets were bustling, it was good to have a more varied diet of photo resources, now it's 100% crucial! It's why I expanded to also do essays on: pet cemeteries, 'bipping,' graffiti (and painted over graffiti), cars, Oakland Mail Trucks, panoramics, the SF leather Fairs and just about every protest I can attend locally. The latter will culminate in a book entitled 45-46-47 (ie- the Trump years) which will end in (god spare us all!) '28... Point is, ya gotta keep stretching the envelope, testing the waters- or rot on the vine.