On my morning walk, I’m often surprised and delighted by some moment of serendipity that pops up and pulls my mind out of whatever rut it’s in and opens it up to what’s happening in the moment. Always a delight when it happens. Often becomes the highlight of my morning!
Here’s what popped up on my walk when I turned a corner and moved up a walkway…
Wow! Those light beams shining down. The woman standing right in the center. And the. A few moments later her companion joined…
I almost couldn’t work my iPhone fast enough to capture the moments but I got lucky.
I often enjoy exploring an image in black and white. Not sure it’s the best for this image given the color of the sun’s rays but worth a try…
She left before I could walk over and say hello leaving me behind with that delightful sense of wonder that occurs when moments like these come along in my life.
We are coming up on almost 20 years from the launch of the iPhone and just passed ten years since the introduction of Apple Watch. Hard to believe it’s been that long for both of these devices but I certainly respect the profound impacts they have had on my life.
Apple Watch Series 10
The iPhone and, in particular its camera system, are superb at what they do. A supercomputer in my pocket. A superb camera system that’s essentially eliminated any desire I might have to use larger cameras. My “big” cameras have been languishing in my camera bag since before COVID when the iPhone became the best camera of my work as a street photographer. Having all of my images at hand and stored securely in the cloud is another big benefit.
But the little brother Apple Watch is also remarkable at what it does and how it complements the iPhone. I had one of the original Watches with its sluggish performance, poor battery life, thick body, etc. Many people have argued that it shipped before it was ready. But over the course of ten generations Apple has in a Kaizen way steadily improved the watch such the my latest Series 10 model is just a delight! It’s got refined capabilities, is speedy and crisp with battery life that is excellent.
I’ve dismayed a lot about Apple of late what with an abandoned car project, a poorly thought through product concept with the Vision Pro and its underwhelming response to AI. But I continue to appreciate every day my iPhone and Watch as they have more than delighted me with their impact of daily living.
Yesterday we drove to Sausalito to have lunch with good friends visiting from Sydney Australia. We met at The Spinnaker for lunch and had a delightful time catching up. It’s always fun to catch up with friends and hear what’s been happening in their lives.
Among the many things we talked about was the difference between how real estate sales happen in Sydney versus in the U.S. It turns out that broker commissions are substantially less there than they are here. There’s been recent litigation in this country that might affect the relatively high commission rates we pay when buying or selling a home. It will take some time for the effects of recent settlements to work their way through the system. But it was interesting to hear how a viable real estate market can function with a different and substantially lower commission burden paid by buyers and sellers.
The Spinnaker sits out on a piece of land that provides a spectacular view across the Bay from Sausalito to the San Francisco skyline. The image above was taken with my iPhone 15 Pro Max using the 5X telephoto in Live View and then smoothed with the Long Exposure adjustment. The toning is from the Silvertone effect in the Photos app.
My good friend Doug and I got together yesterday to visit the latest photography exhibition – “Turning the Page” – at the wonderful Pier 24 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, a venue that’s an old friend of ours.
From the exhibition description: “Turning the Page…celebrates the photobook, a medium that has undergone its own renaissance parallel to our years in operation. Each of the galleries presents works from a distinct photobook, whether an iconic volume or a recent monograph. The content, sequence, and design of each selected book guided our approach to that particular installation, aiming for a thoughtful translation of its overall tone and intent.”
In this exhibition, the works of several photographers I know are combined with many works from photographers I haven’t known, making for a very varied but interesting exhibition. One, in particular, I enjoyed was Donavon Smallwood.
As has happened each time we’ve visited exhibitions at this venue, we came away with our spirits lifted and new insights gained from studying these photographs. The idea of featuring a photobook in each of the galleries was unique and delightful. (Note: If you want to view this exhibition, you need to make a reservation on the Pier 24 website. One of the wonderful things about Pier 24 is how they use the requirement for advance reservations to limit the number of visitors in the museum at any time – making for a very nice, unhurried browsing experience! Just be sure to book well in advance of when you want to attend – and the museum is only open Monday-Friday so keep that in mind as well!)
The current exhibition – “Turning the Page” – runs through January 2024. Unfortunately, it will be the last exhibition in this wonderful space for photography, which opened in 2010. As discussed in this news release from January 2023, The Pilara Foundation, the sponsor of Pier 24, has been unable to successfully negotiate a lease extension with the San Francisco Port Commission after trying to do so for five years. Sadly, the Commission is demanding a tripling of the current rent charged to the Foundation for the space at Pier 24. As a result, the Foundation has decided to close the museum when its lease expires in July 2025.
This is such a sad event for photography aficionados in the San Francisco Bay Area. There is simply no other venue that has done such a superb job displaying photography exhibitions as Pier 24. I’m very disappointed in the actions of the Port Commission, which are forcing the closing of this exceptional museum.
Here’s another great video that I really enjoyed watching. It’s photographer Todd Hido talking about his life in photography, how he’s moved through various generations as he’s continued to explore making photos. William Verbeeck made the video and did a great job with it – just letting Hido talk about his life and work.
He has one stern recommendation for young photographers in particular: print your work! He talks about how images don’t really live until they exist on paper and you can hold them in your hands.
I first came across Hido’s work when I discovered his photographs of homes at night. These photographs reminded me very much of my high school years in Daly City – foggy nights, streetlights, homes with a light in one window, etc. Hido’s nighttime images evoke those moods. He collected much of that work in his book: House Hunting.
Street photography captures candid, unposed shots of people in public places. Unlike posed portraiture, street photography relies on spontaneity, serendipity, and impulse. The street photographer must have a quick eye to capture fleeting moments. As such, street photography is fundamentally an art of observation.
Henri Cartier-Bresson is often considered the father of modern street photography. His concept of the “decisive moment” emphasizes the photographer capturing the perfect instant within a scene. Famous examples like Behind the Gare St. Lazare show his knack for capturing those transient moments brimming with visual energy. His street photographs play with geometry, reflection, and movement in a lyrical way.
Helen Levitt was a pioneer of street photography in New York starting in the 1930s. She captured the daily life, humor, and grit of the city’s neighborhoods. Levitt often photographed children at play. Her work poetically captures the transitory joys within urban life. She had a gift for uncovering whimsy amid the mundane.
In the 1960s, Robert Frank’s seminal book The Americans cemented street photography as an art form. His work stripped away romantic notions of America through raw, gritty, ironic photographs of real life. Frank traveled across the country and captured strangers, cities, cars, and open roads with an unwavering eye. His photographs reveal underlying emotions through powerful composition.
The work of these photographers matters because they transformed street photography into an artistic medium of observation, social commentary, and subjective expression. Their ability to capture visually arresting moments imparting deeper meaning put street photography on the artistic map.
Importantly, street photography is fundamentally about the eye of the photographer, not the camera itself. Many iconic street photographs were shot on nothing more than compact cameras or even modern smartphone cameras. The key is the photographer’s ability to see and capture meaningful moments in public settings. A great street photograph has more to do with vision and timing than expensive equipment.
Several years ago, I’d go out on the streets of San Francisco with a camera bag filled with a fewo Fujifilm cameras. I enjoyed shooting with those cameras – but, frankly, the gear became a hassle – one more thing to worry about. Increasingly, I found myself just pulling my iPhone out of my shirt pocket and capturing the moment with my iPhone camera. Perfectly adequate for almost any kind of street photography. In fact, shooting bursts is so easy with an iPhone that I might do that and then select one image out of many that I shot in a second or two of shutter time.
One other advantage of street photography compared to, let’s just say, landscape photography, is that you’re usually just steps away from a spot where you can take a break, sit down, have a cup of coffee or lunch, etc. before getting back out on the streets. It’s a much better pursuit for older folks like me, rather than hiking the hills out in some national park somewhere to capture one of the iconic vistas! I’ve attended many photo workshops over the years, and I’ve come to smile at how there’d often be a line of us workshop participants with our cameras on our tripods, shooting essentially the same scene! So, so different from street photography. Both certainly have their place, but I’ve outgrown my early interest in landscape photography and now enjoy street photography much more—at least when we’re not in a pandemic and people are actually out on the streets!
For many years, I met my good friend and photo buddy Doug Kaye almost every week on Fridays in San Francisco. We’d meet at the Ferry Building and head out walking from there – exploring the streets of San Francisco in a most leisurely way. Taking our time when we saw something that captured our interest, a scene that seemed particularly interesting.
As our tastes evolved, we became increasingly drawn to finding places with the best light, the most interesting light. Chasing the best, most interesting light and then slowing down to capture slices of time – as people would pass through while we watched and waited.
After a couple of hours walking the streets, we’d find one of our favorite places for lunch, kick back a bit and take a breather, perhaps do a quick review of the images we’d captured, and enjoy each other’s company over a shared table.
Then Covid hit… and everything changed. Those walks on the streets of San Francisco just stopped. Our photography interests changed during Covid – they had to change! The circumstances forced our hands – we had to abandon our love of street photography. We no longer had our favorites streets to walk. The people were gone. You know the feeling…
Last week we reinvigorated some of those old memories – meeting up in San Francisco again after over two years of being absent. We traveled light – no heavy camera gear – and we did do a lot of street walking. We stayed along The Embarcadero, shared lunch outdoors at Waterbar and went to see the new exhibition that’s just opened at Pier 24. We had a great time – it brought back memories of those years we’d walked the streets.
Doug summed our time up nicely:
Yeah, it was a great day. Good weather, good food, good friends. Hard to beat.
Here are a few images from our time in San Francisco – all taken with my iPhone 13 Pro Max.
The swimming pool at Filoli is beautifully situated in the garden – behind a high hedge that provides isolation from the traditional part and sets the pool and the pool house in a lawn area up against that trees.
Here’s an aerial view of the pool and the gardens from Apple Maps:
Photos made with my iPhone 11 Pro Max at a recent visit to Filoli in Woodside, California:
Went for a walk on this lovely brisk January morning at Menlo Park’s Sharon Park.
iPhone 11 Pro Max Live photo – edited first in Photos (to change to Long Exposure) and add a bit of warmth. Next, edited in Snapped to add a touch of ambiance, a bit of negative structure (more painterly), and added a No. 12 black border (size: 20).
Here’s another image from our evening out in Havana at the Tropicana Club. This was near the end of the floor show – shot with my Nikon D600 and the Nikkor 85mm f/1.8 prime lens, ISO 3200, 1/250 at f/4. Post-processed using Nik’s Silver Efex Pro 2 and a number of other tweaks in Photoshop CS6.
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