Photoessay: San Francisco, I have never seen you like this

Experiencing San Francisco’s natural beauty

There was a little voice which kept creeping up to me, telling me that I have not been having enough new experiences in my life. For the past year or so I have been focused on nothing else but work, rightly so — but I have no excuses left when faced with a year-end break.

I fell in love with San Francisco for the city that she is, with the Mission capturing most of my heart. What would it be like, exploring the non-city bits of her?

It was with deliberate intent that I wanted to see San Francisco with a different lens, literally and figuratively. I rented a car, opened Foursquare and searched for the spots people are recommending, resulting in these amateurishly captured photos. The square crops are Instagrammed (but of course), the rest are taken as it is with an iPhone 5S. Hopefully some of you will get to see these sights for yourself — it changed a part of me.

(Yes, some of these places are technically not in the City of San Francisco but they are all within a 20m drive.)

Crissy Fields

View of the city

Golden Gate Bridge from Crissy Fields

Tried so hard to capture the seal in its full glory, still failed. Seeing these seals out in the wild made me remember how much I love animals. In a parallel universe, I would be an animal activist, I think.

Land’s End & Sutro Bath Ruins

Land’s End, where the land literally ends?

Sutro Bath Ruins, it used to be a fancy bath house

The Bath Ruins from another angle

Golden Gate bridge in the distance

Fort Funston

Sutro Towers in the distance

When I first saw this, I gasped.

I had weak knees trying to take this picture, I swear.

This dog was named Tuxedo and he bounced with unbridled enthusiasm the first moment he saw this other dog.

Frequent sight at Fort Funston, people with tons of dogs. This was like half the dogs he was herding. It gave me so much joy to be surrounded by dogs.

Pacifica

Surfers waiting for that wave.

This must be the tacobell with the best view ever.

On my way out I was moved by this image of this old couple eating tacobell. Simple joys of life, I guess.

Rockaway Beach, quite literally.

State Pier at Pacifica

View captured from the pier. Must be amazing to own one of these houses.

Tranquility, almost.

The End