The Cliff House, San Francisco, California

The Cliff House has sure become quite the attraction in the past several years. With all of the recent renovations and additions in the past several years, this area is almost unrecognizable compared to what it looked like when I last lived in San Francisco. Lands End for instance now has a NPS visitor center overlooking the Sutro Baths and as a result attracts tons of tourists. The Lands End parking lot used to be dirt but now it is paved and has formal parking spaces. The far end of the Sutro Caves now has a keep out barrier presumably because too many tourists have been swept to their death there.

This area used to be my local “getaway” when I wanted to do scenic photography within the city or just to walk around to clear my head. This place wasn’t overrun by out-of-town photographers back then. I’m not sure I like this sort of “progress” because I’m old school and prefer low-key things but I suppose it was inevitable given the popularity of San Francisco and social media. This is a dilemma I think we face as photographers. Naturally we want to and need to share our work but once your work is out there the cat is out of the bag.

See more of my San Francisco photos.

2 Responses to “The Cliff House”

1. David Leland Hyde
   January 16th, 2013 @ 8:46 pm

   I really like this photograph, Richard. Sf is such a great subject and the light and mood here perfectly captures that magical time of the evening when the City starts to come alive in so many ways.

2. Richard Wong
   January 17th, 2013 @ 1:17 am

   Thanks David. I defintely wanted to capture something with energy more than just a static shot of the Cliff House.

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