A Sign of Life

Posted by Stephen Phillips (San Francisco, United States) on 14 August 2008 in Cityscape & Urban and Portfolio.

The financial district in San Francisco

[ photographer's notebook ]: yesterday's post with Elena Kulikova received warm support - thank you. Another image from that day is scheduled here on August 25th.

© copyright 2009 by Stephen Phillips Photography / San Francisco / www.joyoflight.com
please respect these rights - do not copy or use these images without permission

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Comments (21)

dj.tigersprout from San Bruno, CA, United States

beautiful detail here and a nice emotive feeling -- spring comes to the financial district! i love the shallow focus of this exposure. wonderful!

14 Aug 2008 5:21am

Michael Skorulski from Cigel, Slovakia

Lovely contrast between the sterility of manmade structures and the fecundity of nature. A wonderful statement, Stephen.

14 Aug 2008 5:38am

Zygene from morlaix, France

Dame nature reprend ces droits. ;-)

14 Aug 2008 5:38am

Calusarus from St Sorlin en Valloire, France

Nice framing : and the sharpen only on the branch is really an excellent idea…

14 Aug 2008 5:55am

Magda from Vancouver, Canada

Interesting.... Nice perspective. Love the DOF and focus choice

14 Aug 2008 6:39am

Kylie Greenan from Richmond, Australia

This is so interesting to me Stephen because if someone asked me where this is I would say "Pitt Street, Sydney". How similar it looks, a wonderful slice of the cityscape, well done!

14 Aug 2008 6:57am

@Kylie Greenan: What you suggest is sad - pointing to the architectural homogenization of the world. What you see here is Montgomery at California Street. The fanned glass and steel awning here is the side entrance to the Omni Hotel. There is great architecture here and there - but San Francisco seems short changed. So much of what goes up here are just glorified boxes.

Iconic architect, Frank Lloyd Wright once observed, "What San Francisco needs is another quake."

Arps from Hyderabad, India

Nice shot and i like the angle ....so true .... its a sign of life in this concrete jungle..

14 Aug 2008 7:03am

Carlos Palma from San Juan, Philippines

Good caption. Excellent DOF. Love the subject and backdrop! very well done!

14 Aug 2008 7:10am

Mirko Herzner from Mühlheim am Main, Germany

What a catch, Stephen. I would consider this picture as a welcome addition to one of my favourite photographic subjects 'urban details'.

14 Aug 2008 7:26am

@Mirko Herzner: thanks so much.

Lorraine from Gatineau, Canada

I love this Stephen, what a great, great touch to the financial district, it will grow anywhere ;)

14 Aug 2008 9:01am

Veronelle from Lens, France

nice shot

14 Aug 2008 10:36am

Laurent from Lyon, France

I definitely enjoy this kingd of shot!!!!
I love the way you used the branch for the focus.

14 Aug 2008 10:57am

Lorena from Fort Myers, United States

Your pictures are just amazing! I am glad we have people like you around :)

14 Aug 2008 1:10pm

@Lorena: I am humbled by your words and grateful to be part of this amazing community.

Anthony from Germany

Nice focusing,very cleverly done.

14 Aug 2008 1:24pm

@Anthony: This is one of the problems with automatic cameras - we stop seeing the 'pop' of selective focus. Many really good captures are hidden right in front of our noses.

Observing from West Cheshire, United Kingdom

The financial district... the term sounds very powerful. In contrast what I see is a tiny shrub, a living natural thing existing in limited space and daylight, that's powerful. Good DOF in this image, also the color.

14 Aug 2008 3:14pm

hugo poon from hong kong, Hong Kong

This is a great one Stephen! Subtle yet so strong!!!

14 Aug 2008 4:01pm

sherri from Little Rock, Arkansas, United States

If I've tried once, I've tried 10 times to post a comment and cannot, but if I could I would tell you how pretty this is:-)

14 Aug 2008 4:06pm

@sherri: I find myself deeply touched by also conflicted and confused. Our lead writer at AM3 - finding herself at a loss for words? This does not compute. Illogical. Sherri, you need to capture an image. (...and thank you.)