San Francisco, California
I love exploring new neighborhoods, especially old neighborhoods that are just new to me. Maybe it’s just the mood I was in, but San Francisco’s Chinatown had a mystical, ancient feeling to it, like the dragon guarding the gate. Is he a good luck dragon? Or will he lash out with flaming breath? Maybe he just needs an Altoid.
This is Chinatown: bright-colored signs competing for your attention, each building like a ribboned soldier standing in formation, sunlit lanterns bouncing in the wind peacefully ignoring the bustle below.
The dragon is in the details…
Have I told you I love photographing signs?
Michael’s mission was to find Sam Wo’s, a hole-in-the-wall cheap Chinese restaurant that’s been around for over 100 years.
I love studying languages. One of my favorite B.U. classes was an archaeology course on languages and decipherment (taught by the incredible Prof. Paul Zimansky). I’m especially fascinated with the languages that use characters. Did you know that to be fluent in writing Chinese you need to know over 3,000 characters?!?! I wonder how many different characters a newspaper typically uses?
In the middle of Chinatown is Old St. Mary’s, rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire.
Below the clock is this bible quote: Son, observe the time, and fly from evil.
We didn’t fly away, but we did take the cable car.
Apparently so did Humphrey Bogart. You can barely make out the scrawl in the front: H. Bogart rode on this car – circa 1946 – 47 (Dark Passage) I’m intrigued. I’ll have to add that to my must-watch movies list.
It’s not the end of the line for us!
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Smuah - I meant to ask you, what do you shoot with (Nikon, Cannon, etc.) Love the fisheye pix as well.
Polka Photos - I shoot with Canon bodies and lenses. I used to shoot with Nikon but made the switch about 10 years ago. You can’t go wrong with either – they both make high quality cameras and glass.
Smuah - You bet. I “love” the Nikon v. Canon debate. For me, it borders on silly and stupid at the same time. Now with Sony, Pentax, and Olympus, there are so many options available for the beginner & intermediate photog to choose from.