Completing a photo per day project here in Sacramento has challenged me to get out of my comfort zone (i.e. my office) and take photos in mostly the urban areas of the city, which is mainly downtown. While Sacramento provides some nice spots to photograph (e.g. Old Sacramento), I longed to head down to San Francisco (one of the 10 top photographed places in the world, or at least this country.)
Hooking up with my friend, Eugene, we set off around five in the morning with the goal of spending most of the day in San Fran shooting pictures. With Eugene using the map app. in my iPhone, getting around the San Francisco was much easier.
Our first stop was the famous Golden Gate Bridge. We shot as best we could, but the fog and clouds worked against us. We didn’t get the clear skies we were hoping for. This is not a complaint because we still got nice shots. It was my first time shooting the bridge, so I was happy to capture what I could.
While we visited many other nice places, China Town stood out for me as the best PhotoWalk of the day.
I remember a photo blogger back in the day (around 2002) who used to post numerous street photos of people in China Town. Within ten minutes of shooting there, I realized why the photoblogger spent so much time there. I’ve never been able to freely photograph people on street as I was able to do in China Town.
What a vibrant and historical community. It was like a little country within a country. Many elderly people were visiting the sidewalk stores purchasing fresh vegetables for an evening dinner.
We only covered a few blocks, but we could have remained there the entire time. I understand that many photographers go there on the weekend to shoot, but we went in the middle of the week, and it was almost like we had the place to ourselves.
There should be a place in China Town where every photographer sends samples of his photos for the people who live there. There were no questions or complaints about shooting pictures while there, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t consciously respect the citizens of the town.
I so look forward to visiting there again.
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photography, PhotoWalk
