Pier 14

Late afternoon shadows
San Francisco, CA, March 2007 [Click all images to enlarge]

The sun does remarkable things when it first appears in the morning and again when it winks out at the end of the day. The low-angled light paints memorable pictures in ways that just aren't apparent around midday. So when I walked onto San Francisco's Pier 14 in the late afternoon and saw the shadows, I knew I had stumbled on something worth capturing.

I also have a particular fondness for repeating patterns (see here and here for past examples) so I hung around the railings for a little while longer and appreciated their shape.

While I was there, a couple of businessmen walked up to me and asked me if I was some sort of famous photographer. They seemed genial enough, so I bantered with them for a bit while I shot. They offered to take my picture, but I politely declined: first, I prefer to be behind the lens and not in front of it. Second, the thought of handing my camera to complete strangers makes me cringe. Not gonna happen. Ever.

So off they went. And when they got out of frame, I took this image of a seemingly abandoned stretch of land that wouldn't exist without the genius of some marine engineers and the dedication of a group of long-gone construction workers. Jutting out into an endlessly beautiful body of water, it's the kind of place I'd come back to again and again if I lived here.

Your turn: Where do you return to time and again for inspiration?