Mission afterbar makeout

This is not very nature-oriented (in the sense that this blog is dedicated to), nor necessarily characteristic of things American. It's a long exposure of some people making out after bar time in the Mission last fall. For reasons I don't remember now, I went wandering out late-night with my camera and a tripod at 3am or so, to see what scenes the Mission would provide. I had to go no further than just around the corner from my pad to witness this activity.

I know it's a little voyeuristic of me to have taken this, but I think it's worthy of celebrating. And, the subjects truly didn't seem to care. I set up a tripod, made a few adjustments, and took two 10-second exposures.

I wanted to capture blurred car lights ("light trails"), the sense of motion in the shadows of a bar's facade, silvery wet streets. The making-out couple is hidden just enough to make the scene seem private and seductive. It also adds the mystery of anonymity -- especially not even seeing the person against the wall enough to be able to identify their gender.

Mission Afterbar Makeout, 2012.

But the cars passing make the scene seem sort of ordinary.

Shortly hereafter, the two ladies were joined by a larger group. All walked together down to Mission Street, where one got in a cab with friends, and the other watched the cab go.