The sign on the bridge in the foreground (Metz, Nancy, with lane advice) is for vehicular traffic which flows next to the Seine and under the first arch just below this photo. The view across the bridge is of the left bank with the Austerlitz train station's dome in the middle. It is a very large station with a nice park adjacent to the right (from this perspective). That's where we were headed when I took this shot. We were going to ride the train from there to the Eiffel Tower but of course this day the transit worker's strike had shut it down. We were told it didn't exist by transit workers but with all the signage, etc. it was just shut down for the day. We took alternate metro lines and got there anyway with no particular help from the transit officials on site but Paris is a big and something of a hard city. It is a also a great city and obviously has been hardened against terrorism, etc. with barricades, bomb threats, ongoing strikes and so on.
Took this shot a few years ago in San Francisco with a Canon G10. It has fascinated me ever since. I love the cubism interrupted by the wheels of the bicycle and the legs of the walkers. I love the shadows. Counting the rectangles, the squares, the circles. I love the two inset fire hose circles next to the entry door. There's a lot of 2(s) of different items. The walkers, the word Stop, the cans, the windows, the doors, the bicycle wheels and so on. The words "stop" twice, but once horizontal, once vertical. The white stripe along the bottom in the street. The two cracks in the street. The inset shaded building just behind the scene with the angular side building giving it perspective. The 2 2(s) and the 2 8(s), the 3 A(s). The two identical garbage cans on either side of the fence gate opening. The crazy snake light that peers around from the side of the sign to light it at night. How the walkers are in perfect phase, each with a aligned white stripe on their sneakers. There's a lot going on.
