Saturday, July 2, 2011

Drive by Shootings: San Francisco

Drive by photography is not my preferred way of capturing interesting sights and scenes with my Nikon, but last week I had to rely on this tried-and-true method to photograph the streets of San Francisco. On the spur of the moment, I ended up driving over to the city with F and Z, who had to shoot some video footage in the City from a moving vehicle for a film project he was working on. F drove, Z filmed, and I navigated from the back seat. In between my shouting out directions, I was able to stick my camera out the window and click away - mostly when we ended up stopped at a red light, though. So here is the result of my drive-by shots of lovely San Francisco on a sunny, warm afternoon...

Getting off I-80...


The Rainbow Flag reflecting in a window in the Castro District...

Homes on Twin Peaks...


Heading down Market Street...

The Castro District...



SF City Hall...

O'Farrell Street...

Nearing Chinatown...

A quick glimpse of the TransAmerica Building from Broadway Street...

Traversing Broadway in North Beach...




At the Embarcadero Center...

A hole-in-the-wall noodle shop...

A church reaching toward the incoming fog...

Very near the Bay Bridge...
Drive-by shooting can be fun but also frustrating. It's fun because it makes you seek out shots that you might otherwise ignore, but it also causes frustration because you can't just stop the car and jump out when you come across a spot you want to investigate more. You can cover a lot more ground in the car though than on foot. Give it a try...as long as you're not the driver!

3 comments:

Carola said...

Really cool shots. All great. I like the way how you take us on a journey.

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

Oops..I do it while driving. I can't get Sinbad to take pictures for me when were on the road so I sit the camera on the dash of the motorhome and do what I call Through the Windshield Photography.

Photo Cache said...

I'm a fanatical drive by shooter and San Fran is the perfect place to indulge.

I agree with all the frustrations attached to drive bys, but one is rewarded with new shots that you might not otherwise take when given all the time to set up and compose your image.

Great job, newbie :)