Opening the Golden Gate

Yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. At the time, it was an innovative miracle, and is no less impressive today. In 2007, I went to San Francisco and was able to take a couple of nice photos of this landmark. And although that city was cold, even in July (in fact Mark Twain once said: "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."), I'd love to go back. Here is my favorite photo of the Golden Gate Bridge I have to offer.

Taken from the park near the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge :: Holga, Ilford XP2 Super 400

After the Fog Rolls in

Canon A-1, Fuji Neopan SS

 Unreal City, 

Under the brown fog of a winter dawn

When T.S. Eliot penned those words in The Waste Lands, he so adeptly captured

the essence of the transformation which a city undergoes, when the fog sets in.

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Even the simplest, most innocent structures become surreal, eerie,

almost compelling you to look for something sinister in their midst.

Calumet 4x5, Schneider-Kreuznach 135mm f4.7, Ilford Delta 100

Holga, Arista EDU Ultra 400

And nature is no different. Peaceful mornings among the rudimentary, ancient woods that predate our own habitation, take on a different tone. One of isolation and solitude, whose connotations are of loneliness rather than a voluntary, if temporary, distancing.

Panasonic LX3

Panasonic LX3

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Carl Sandburg's Fog

The fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking

over harbor and city

on silent haunches

and then moves on.

Holga, Ilford Delta XP2 Super