What to shoot in & around SF

[swpars]

All,

I'll be in San Francisco on the 27th through the 31st of this month on a much-needed vacation with my girlfriend. As this is a vacation, photography will definitely be on the menu.

I'll be taking the D40, 18-55, and 55-200 VR, along with other requisite stuff like 5 gb of memory cards (2x2gb, 1 gb) charger, and CP filter. We won't be renting a car, but we'll be in the city - staying in Japan Town.

We plan to see the normal touristy stuff like Fisherman's Wharf, the cable cars, Alcatraz, Chinatown, the Presidio, etc.

Any other suggestions for "must see" photography locations within the city are welcome. Thanks in advance.

[DownByFive]

Check out ocean beach, the "painted ladies" at alamo square, and for street shots, hit haight-ashbury...There's tons more, but you already have a pretty solid must-see list.

[AdamW]

Alcatraz is very cool. (Bring water and snacks--there's none available on the island.)

Here's some more:

The tops of hills--Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, Twin Peaks. Good day or night.

The Embarcadero/foot of Market Street/Ferry Building/Bay Bridge/ATT Park area. Also good day or night.

I really like Crissy Field and Fort Point. Crissy Field is a former military air field on the bay at the edge of the Presidio. It's been restored to it's native habitat & is now part of the national park system. At one end is Fort Point, a Civil War-era fort under the SF anchorage of the Golden Gate Bridge. Excellent snacks/lunch/coffee at the Warming Hut. You can take a path up to the bridge itself. You can walk across the bridge (or part way.) The classic site for GG bridge shots is from Battery Spenser, on the Marin side (where you get the bridge with the city behind it. It's an old gun emplacement in the Marin headlands. You can walk up the path (about 1/2 mile) from the Marin side visitor area. I think you can also drive there from the visitor area parking lot.

In Golden Gate Park I'd hit the Arboretum, the Conservancy of Flowers, Stow Lake, and the Japanese Tea Garden.

[Rhys]

How about the seedier aspects - transvestites etc?

[DonSchap]

Oh Rhys ... why not some case studies of the poorest of the poor? Geez-Louise ... what a tragic way to spoil a perfectly good trip. :rolleyes:

The neat thing about the camera, is that we control what gets into it. You can usually avoid the less desireable elements of society and unpreferred subjects and stick to what has allowed us, as a people, to rise above ... and acheive success and relative happiness.

A celebration of life, as it were ... seen through the eyes of the respective photographer ... and not just monitoring every sort of thing, with an open lens.

[Rhys]

Well, you might do better than this New Orleans photo... http://farm1.static.flickr.com/142/351974294_5eeb388a65_o.jpg

[swpars]

How about the seedier aspects - transvestites etc?

Heh - I only have to go to Pioneer Square in Seattle for that!

[James DeRuvo DHQ]

You can also tour the SS Pampanito World War II submarine. It's quite the education on how touch submariners had it during that time.

Other options include Alamo Square, Six Sisters, The Coit Tower, the TransAmerica, Golden Gate Bridge (of course), but also the Presidio, Haight-Ashbury, Japanese Tea Garden at the Asian Art Museum is interesting. Then across the bay is Berkeley and Marin County.