San Francisco Belle
Photo Location: San Francisco, CA
San Francisco earns its reputation in the light. Other cities have skylines. San Francisco has a skyline that sits at the edge of a bay with the Pacific fog rolling in from the west, the hills pushing the city up at unpredictable angles, the water reflecting everything from three sides. On the evenings when the fog holds back long enough to let the last light of the day reach the buildings, the city goes gold and then amber and then the blue hour comes and the skyline begins to glow from within in the way that only a city surrounded by water on three sides can glow.
I was at the right position at the right time on an evening when San Francisco decided to justify every superlative that has ever been applied to it. The skyline, the water, the light at that specific angle — it all came together in a window that lasted perhaps thirty minutes before the fog moved in from the Pacific and closed it down. The French word for beautiful is “belle” and there was genuinely no other word for it.
This is the San Francisco that people who have lived there carry with them for the rest of their lives regardless of where they go — not the cable cars or the landmarks but the specific quality of the light on a clear evening when the bay is holding still and the city is showing you everything it has.
TruLife acrylic-mounted limited edition of 100, signed by me with Certificate of Authenticity. Free US shipping.
Image copyright © Jongas Fine Art Photography.
