The San Francisco Arts Commission received a request from "Sculpture" magazine for photos of the Patrick Dougherty sculptures in Civic Center, and a young woman who works there who's a fan of this site asked if I could send her my favorite photos of the sculpture.
The obstacle was that I take low resolution photos for the internet and magazines want as many pixels as they can get, so I offered to take new photos of the sculptures at a higher resolution.
The only problem was that the sycamores had fully bloomed and I didn't have a ladder high enough to take a good shot of the sapling nests sprouting out of the trees.
After a number of attempts on the plaza, I asked if we could somehow take a shot from the Mayor's Balcony at City Hall which struck me as the only unimpeded view of the sculptures, without lots of flagpoles in the way.
This request required protocol gestures, a multitude of emails, and a ridiculous amount of time, but finally my favorite person in Mayor Gavin Newsom's administration, Mike Farrah, gave me the number of a receptionist who would literally open the doors for the shot above.
Still, my favorite photo turned out to be from the fifth floor of the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library, flagpoles and all.
2 comments:
I agree. Even with the flagpoles, that's a great shot.
I walked under the trees back when the samurai show first opened (and you were kind enough to finagle me a press pass) and the view from below was interesting, but there were a lot less leaves back then.
Fabulous shots!
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