Five Frames from San Francisco: City Icons

In April, 2017 I was loose as a goose in San Francisco with my then new Canon 6D. I only had one lens, the Canon 50mm f1.8, so that’s what I used. Here are five frames of things you might recognize.

Transamerica Pyramid

This is the Transamerica Pyramid from Powell Street looking down Clay. When it was built in 1972, it’s 863 feet made it the tallest building in San Francisco and the eight tallest in the world. It has 48 floors of office space and a spire of 212 feet atop. It is way cool.

Cable Car

Is there anything more iconic of San Francisco than cable cars? This one has come up Mason from the Fisherman’s Wharf area and is now headed south down Powell toward toward its terminal at Powell and Market. See my previous post, Five Frames from San Francisco, for a cable car track frame.

Coit Tower

That tallest bit in the picture is Coit Tower. Coit tower was constructed on Telegraph Hill in 1933. It was funded by a local socialite and character, Lillie Hitchcock Coit. Lillie liked to chase fires, which were plentiful in San Francisco at that time. At an early age she became the mascot of the Knickerbocker Engine Co. No. 5 and rode on their engine for parades.

This is as close to the tower as I got during my 2017 trip. I took this shot from the waterfront near Pier 41 (The Fisherman’s Wharf area). In a previous life as a post-doctoral fellow, I walked up there and climbed the tower. I took in the view. It was nice.

For other views of the Fisherman’s Wharf area, see my posts, Five Frames from San Francisco, Five Frames from Five Cities, and even Five Frames of Pipes from Five Cities.

Water Taxi and Alcatraz

That cute little boat making its way along San Francisco Bay is a San Francisco Water Taxi. ($10, cheap.) In the background is Alcatraz Island. Alcatraz Island served many uses over the years but is likely best known as a maximum security federal penitentiary. It is now a National Park.

Unfortunately, when I’ve visited San Francisco, I’ve had other fish to fry so I’ve never visited the island. It is on my to do list.

For other shots of Alcatraz Island, see Five Frames from San Francisco and Five Frames of Pipes from Five Cities.

John’s Grill

Here’s a daylight shot of the John’s Grill sign. One of it’s claims to fame is that Dashiel Hammett’s famous gumshoe, Sam Spade, dined on lamb chops, tomatoes and potatoes the last night of the Maltese Falcon. They keep a model of the Maltese Falcon in a cabinet. I saw it the last time I was there. Sam Spade’s dish was on the menu the last time I was there and when I visited the website today, I saw a large picture of the dish. Unfortunately, John’s Grill is closed for the COVID-19 party, but that doesn’t keep me from remembering the last steak I had there — yum!

For another shot of John’s Grill, see Five Frames from San Francisco.

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These photos were all taken with a Canon 6D wearing a Canon 50mm f1.8 prime lens. They were processed from RAW files using Darktable, which is free software for Windoze, Mac, and Linux.