Away in San Francisco

Hey Everyone,

I have been away in San Francisco. I come back Wednesday. What a great city!!!!

James

Business or pleasure? San Francisco is one of my favorite cities. Have had the pleasure of visiting it several times both for business and for pleasure and it was great each time. Used to have a sales office there and made as many excuses as possible to visit that office .

Hope you got to tour this place during your stay.



Safe trip home.

Jim

Business, but I have backed in as much on the pleasure end as I can. I have kept east coast time and have done sunrise every day (except today as I am meeting an old friend before flying out). I have easily hiked 40 miles since I landed on Friday. I will post some photos when I get home, assuming there is anything decent, of course. There were no great sunrises/sunsets, unfortunately.

Having said that, this is the first big city I have been outside of Manhattan that I liked so much that I could call it home...if only for the weather. I say that in light of the overbearing homeless issue, which is really sad to see. Of course, I have heard for years that this is an issue, but it is ubiquitous compared to NYC - and NYC has real issues.

James

Agreed. It's a great city despite the homeless issue and ironic that it is such a "rich" city overall with such a large base of poverty as well. But, love the city itself and really love the areas just outside of it both North and South along the coast. Gorgeous.

Will be looking forward to your shots.

Jim

Hey Jim,

I just wrote an article about the experience. It is a bit light on text, but I was a bit anxious about writing it anyway given that it is not my normal fare. :P

http://www.nwpphotoforum.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=40004#Post40004

Hope you like it.

James

James,
I read the article and enjoyed it very much -- both the images and the content. It's an addictive city. You can enjoy it as a tourist and yet it seems to have so much life for the people that actually live there. I very much like Northern California overall. Much prefer it to Los Angeles for example. But that might be just me.

When we were out in Hollister for the 2009 American Rottweiler Club's National Specialty which I shot, we managed to spend time in Carmel and Monterrey which are my favorite places on earth and got into San Francisco for dinner before we flew back home. I loved it.

Yes, I think I could live there. Not sure I could afford to live there however . Thanks for the article. It reminded me of why I love that city.

Jim

Lol, I hear you Jim. San Fran is even more expensive than Manhattan. It blew me away when ai paid 7 bucks for a tube of toothpaste...and that was just the beginning. I am not sure i could afford it either - though honestly, I have some how done it in Manhattan (admittedly with two jobs and sometimes three).

When I last went from LA up the coast, I stopped in Monterrey, and spent some time in Carmel (Dog Town USA). They are also really cool cities. I really like the aquatic wildlife that is so prevelant. None of this is so obvious on the east coast.

BTW, thanks for the compliments on the images and text. It was odd for me to be writing. I may do one for NYC, particularly as the holiday time is an awesome time to be here.

James

James:

I know this message was responding to a message from one of the other Jims here at NWP, but I just stumbled upon your wonderful images from San Francisco. Not only did I enjoy the images very much . . . especially the night panorama of the Palace of the Arts . . . but also the personal notes that accompanied them.

At one point some time back you indicated you were contemplating creating another forum area for these types of photos. Any further thoughts on that subject?

Thanks & keep up the good work!

Jim

Thanks, Jim. I appreciate the positive feedback. As to the idea of adding a "Human Nature" forum, I have been a bit ambivalent. While traffic to the site is very high, the forums have always been a challenge here. I am not sure if adding new places for posting dillutes the over-all feel of the community. I have seriously debated decreasing the number of forums and having a broader expansion of what each does. i.e. Collapse General/National Park and Nature into one forum and add a component for folks who do CityScapes.

I see a parallel to cities like Detroit that have had to collapse the borders in order to stabilize the community.