The Story Behind The Photo...

Have you ever stood on a bridge between the past and the future?

I found myself at Pier 7 on San Francisco’s Embarcadero, my shoes echoing on the weathered wooden planks. The sun was dipping low, casting a soft, bruised purple light over the “City by the Bay.” This pier wasn’t always here in this form. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake shook the city to its core, San Francisco made a choice. Instead of rebuilding walls, they opened the waterfront, creating this beautiful wooden walkway that stretches 840 feet into the water, lined with vintage iron lamps that whisper of a Victorian past.

The air was cooling fast, tasting of deep ocean salt and the faint, sweet smell of waffle cones drifting from the Ferry Building nearby. A foghorn groaned in the distance, a lonely sound that always feels like home here. The wind picked up, biting at my face and shaking my tripod, a constant challenge for any photographer trying to catch the “blue hour” on the water.

But as the vintage lamps flickered to life, glowing warm against the cooling sky, the Transamerica Pyramid rose up ahead like a modern beacon. I pressed the shutter. In that moment, I felt completely connected to the city’s resilience. I wasn’t just capturing a skyline. I was standing on a testament to rebuilding, proving that beauty often rises from the places that have been shaken the hardest.