Motifs in San Francisco – First Round: Union Square, Chinatown, Cable Car Barn, Lombard Street, Fisherman’s Wharf, Telegraph Hill

The centrally located intersection of Powell and Market Streets is a good starting point to get your first impressions of San Francisco. Here you can get the latest information at the visitor center in the basement of Hallidie Plaza before boarding a cable car at the end of Powell Street. You’ll probably have to wait in line for a moment, which gives you a chance to capture the turning of the cars on the wooden turntable in your picture. In the evening, it’s a good idea to do this with a creative long exposure time to let the turning motion shine through. On the other hand, you can pull the camera along with the movement of the cable car or another vehicle at a different position. To achieve this, choose an exposure time within the range of 1/15 or 1/8 sec, concentrate on the primary subject, and follow the movement of the camera (even before releasing the shutter) during the exposure. By doing this, you can create an image that contrasts the sharp main subject with a dynamically distorted background. A large street intersection that is well lit even in the early evening, such as you often find on Powell Street or Columbus Avenue, seems well suited for this in the case of the cable cars.

The first stop on the way up Powell Street is the small, green Union Square. Around the square rise the titans of consumerism: Macy’s Department Store, Chanel, Levis, Tiffany, Armani, and the Virgin Records Superstore, to name the most important. If you are looking for something fancy, you will definitely find it here! You can take in an overview from an elevated position, for example, from the second or third floor of the Borders Books building at the corner of Powell and Post Streets. Directly from the cable car stop, look along Powell Street, undulating up Nob Hill. It’s a good view in the morning when the sun provides alternating islands of light and shadow. Condensing the perspective with a light telephoto lens and waiting for two cable cars to meet and pass further up is the best approach. In the backlit situations of late afternoon, which are particularly appealing, make sure to increase the exposure by approximately 2 f/stops to preserve the details in the shaded areas of the image.

Once at the top of the hill, look down California Street into the skyscraper canyon of the Financial District. – With the prominent spire of the Transamerica Pyramid in the background, this becomes a truly signature image of the city.

Chinatown is the next worthwhile stop. Change to a California Street Line car at the corner of Powell and California Streets and head east two blocks to the intersection with Grant Street. Here you’ll be right in the center of the largest Chinese community outside of Asia, stretching 24 blocks. You’ll find the distinctive green-roofed Chinatown Gate, the unofficial entrance to this part of town, two blocks south at the corner of Grant and Bush streets. The Republic of Taiwan donated it to the city in 1970, and the depictions speak clearly in Asian symbolism: the dragon promises fertility and power, the fish represent prosperity, and the dogs keep evil spirits away. With the sun high at midday, enough light falls on this area to illuminate it without shadows. Grant Street was San Francisco’s main street in the early 19th century. Today, touristy Chinatown has established itself here. The side streets to the west, especially on Stockton Street, offer a more authentic picture of the way of life. In many places here as well as there, you can use the striking spire of the all-towering Transamerica Pyramid for interesting combinations. For color-cast-free shots of the various exotic displays in the stores and the colorful lights in the evening on silver film, tungsten film works very well. Digital photographers should remember to adjust the white balance in the meantime, not only to achieve a slightly cool impression, but also to capture incorrectly tuned images that have a warmer character.

Given the pleasant walking environment, continue your journey two more blocks west. At the corner of Washington and Mason Streets, you’ll reach the Cable Car Barn. Here lies the throbbing heart of the cable car lines, where the thick steel cables are set in motion. From the second floor of the building, you can watch the electric motors in action. A fluorescent filter reliably prevents the green cast of the analog recording material caused by the fluorescent tubes. There is also a small museum here that illustrates the history of this means of local transportation. In the basement, you can watch how the drive cables are guided out under the road via deflection pulleys.

When your feet are a little tired, board another Powell and Hyde Line trolley here, which will take you through the narrow streets below Nob Hill and up to Russian Hill in no time. The drop-off point here is the intersection with Lombard Street. – The name is familiar, isn’t it? Lombard Street traverses the entire northern part of San Francisco without causing much of a stir. Only on the stretch down Russian Hill, between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets, it plays itself into the center of interest as the „Crookedest Street of the World“: on a length of only 125 m (135 yd), it makes the world-famous eight bends here, which everyone wants to drive down once. Lombard Street doesn’t quite fit into this daily routine, as the winding part looks east and thus gets the best light in the morning. The best view is from the east side of Leavenworth Street, so from the bottom up. A light telephoto focal length compresses the curves nicely from here, and a cable car stopping at the top of Hyde Street completes the shot. By the way, the hydrangea beds on the flanks of the switchbacks were planted by friendly local residents. From May to June, the flowers are in full bloom and enrich every picture with their colorfulness. But Lombard Street isn’t the only really steep street in San Francisco: just one block south, we measure a full 31.5° at Filbert Street (also between Hyde and Leavenworth Streets), and Vermont Street makes a remarkable six switchbacks in just 82 m (90 yd) on the section between 20th and 22nd Streets in the southeast of the city.

From the crest of Russian Hill, you also have a very good teleview east to Telegraph Hill, well lit in the afternoon with the prominent Coit Tower at the top. From the corner of Hyde and Chestnut Streets, just a block to the north, look behind the downhill cable cars across the Aquatic Park piers to the former prison island of Alcatraz. A telephoto focal length raises the perspective here as well, making the background appear a bit larger.

With its terminus at the corner of Beach Street, the Powell and Hyde Cable Car line has now brought you right into the middle of Fisherman’s Wharf’s „year-round carnival.“ In the 1880s, this roughly 1.5-mile stretch between Aquatic Park to the west and Pier 39 to the east was the active center of San Francisco’s Sicilian-dominated fishing industry. You can watch the few remaining professional fishermen unloading their fresh catch at Pier 45 very early in the morning, at sunrise. Along Jefferson Street, you can take in ever-changing scenes of souvenir stalls, carousels, rides and gaugers, piers, and open cookshops against the backdrop of Alcatraz Island and San Francisco Bay. – If you like, you’ll find the Fisherman’s Wharf Sign, familiar from movies and television, at the intersection of Jefferson and Taylor Streets. The best view is from the west end of the Municipal Pier, from where you can put Coit Tower in the background for a change.

And Coit Tower is precisely where you should head now, likely already late in the afternoon, to witness the twilight descending over the city. Just follow Embarcadero Drive east along Jefferson Street to the striking red Levis Plaza. At the back of the handsome complex, you’ll reach Telegraph Hill from Sansome Street via the wooden cascading stairs of Greenwich or Filbert Steps. We have the eccentric millionaire Lillian Hitchcock Coit and her love of volunteer firefighting to thank for the remarkable 63 m (207 ft) Art Deco tower at its top. After her death in 1929, she left $100,000 to memorialize all firefighters. You have to buy access to the tower’s observation deck (10:00 to 18:00, in summer until 19:30). However, the prohibition of tripods makes it challenging to capture quality images in the evening. But that doesn’t matter, because the plaza in front of it, around the statue of Christopher Columbus, offers almost as good views of the city: to the northwest, a long telephoto unites the Golden Gate Bridge with the sun sinking into the Pacific behind it. To the west, you can turn the lights of cars on the switchbacks of Lombard Street into long streaks with an exposure time in the 30 sec range, tracing the curving course of the street in the semi-darkness. A two- or four-stop neutral density filter will help achieve an exposure time of this length. To the north, look at the illuminated piers of Fisherman’s Wharf just below the hill. To the east, the houses nestled on the slopes of the Berkeley Hills reflect the subtle light of the setting sun. Beyond the motifs mentioned, the white Ferry Building, the Bay Bridge, and the Transamerica Pyramid to the south remain to be highlighted. So on a clear evening, preferably a full moon date, when the moon rises over Oakland to the east, this is the place to set up the tripod!

By the way, the only way to get up to Coit Tower by car is via Lombard Street. Alternatively, you can take the #39 bus from Washington Square. This small park on Columbus Street also serves as a worthwhile foreground for the view of Telegraph Hill from below. If you still have some energy left after the many motifs of this long day, you can stroll around Chinatown, now illuminated by many lights, on your way back downtown. Just follow Grant or Stockton Street south at the foot of the hill.

Next Intermediate: The Golden Gate Bridge

Next Motifs in San Francisco – Second Round: Presidio, Palace of Fine Arts, Pacific Heights, Alamo Square

Next Motifs in San Francisco – Third Round: Golden Gate Park, Haight-Asbury, The Mission, Twin Peaks

Next Fourth Round: Alcatraz and Angel Island, Skylines

Previous Photo Tips USA – San Francisco (with maps)

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