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San Francisco Portraits with Isabelle

10:31 am

Isabelle Engler_Presidio_San Francisco

With my days in San Francisco coming to an imminent end, I started to look for ways to document my last memories in the city. On my last weekend in town, Isabelle and I decided to go out and take some portraits of each other.

Accompanied by Karl the Fog, us two photographers attempted to make each other the subject in front - not behind - the camera. A commenter on here once said that all photographers are camera shy, and it couldn’t have been truer for me. I’ll easily check off a few hundred shots on location and not come home with a single image of myself.  This is a constant source of frustration for me when traveling, so Isabelle and I agreed to each play model for the other.

Isabelle Engler_Presidio_San FranciscoIsabelle Engler_Presidio_San Francisco
Isabelle Engler_Presidio_San Francisco
Isabelle Engler_Presidio_San Francisco

In less than 7 days, I’ll be moving out of town. Trading in my cushy job in Silicon Valley for a summer adventure through China, and then settling down in New York City and giving life in the Big Apple a try. When people ask me what I want to do for my last days in San Francisco, my answer is not to hop off to Yosemite valley or drive down to the City of Angeles - all I want to do is spend some more time with my friends in town, load up on carbs, and, attempting for one last time, to nurture some sun-kissed freckles.

I should have known that there would be few sunny days during this time of the year in San Francisco. While the rest of the country is enjoying the beginnings of summer, June in San Francisco is bristling with chilly mornings and foggy evenings. As Isabelle and I hiked in the Presidio, our fingers going numb in the cold, the evening fog hailed down on us. It cloaked the forest, producing an eery feeling that made us glad that we were not there alone. Daylight was giving away into night and I felt a tingling sensation of anxiety wash over me. As we hiked on deeper into the forest,  I only had vague sense of where I was going and very limited visibility of how I would get there.

Still, the Presidio in the fog, like this next chapter of my life, dared me to keep going.

San Francisco, see you later.

Tracy Zhang_Presidio_San Francisco


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