From My Window — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
Several years ago, I bought an iPhone 7 off eBay as I was a little disappointed in the image quality of the Samsung phone (Galaxy S III, I think?) I was using at the time. It didn't really turn out to be much—if at all—better, so I put it away, essentially not to be used except for doing Facetime with my granddaughter. Its battery life is extremely short, so it made little sense to make it my primary mobile picture taker anyway.
At some point, I got curious about whether or not the Hipstamatic app was still available as many of the images people posted back in the early days of Instagram were created with Hipstamatic. In fact, it was one of the major factors behind using Instagram in the first place—there were so many cool and funky looking photographs. Alas, Hipstamatic was not available for Android phones, so I downloaded Retro Camera, which sort of had some cool effects, but they didn't quite do it for me.
But I digress...
In searching for Hipstamatic in the Apple Store, I came across TinType, an app which gives photographs a vintage, tintype look. Not long after I moved to San Francisco, a photographic store and gallery, Photobooth, opened on Valencia Street in the Mission, and in the middle of the space, a tinype portrait studio was set up. I attended a few photo exhibitions there and saw portraits being taken as I milled about looking at the photographs. The set-up, as I recall, required pretty intense lighting (in this instance, I think the lights were strobes) due to the film's (actually, a light-sensitive emulsion-coated metal plate) low response to light. Also required was a wide-open (or near wide-open) lens aperture which reduced the recorded image's depth-of-field severely—mostly only to about an inch or two. It rendered very cool portraits. I was disappointed when the place closed.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago, when I recalled that I had the TinType app on the phone. Because historically, tinypes have been preponderantly used for portraits, I thought I could use this faux version of it for photographs around the city since I have little interest in doing self-portraits these days. That said...
Tintype-y Me — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
Thursday night, I had a job across the street from the Transamerica pyramid, and just before checking in with my client, I hopped across Montgomery Street to take some photos of the pyramid. Because I was so close to it, and because I wanted to include Montgomery Street and Clay Street in the final frame, I did a six-frame panorama in the light drizzle and grey of the early evening.
Transamerica — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
After the job, I headed home in a slightly heavier drizzle with a wind heavy enough I didn't bother to open my umbrella figuring it would be useless. As I crossed California Street; I saw a lone woman in the distance walking towards me with her umbrella up. She was sticking somewhat close to the pillared structure at 300 Montgomery, and I saw potential, so I lifted my phone and took a couple of frames, only to decide I wanted to get closer so that a street sign wasn't in the frame. As I waited for her to get closer, I heard a couple coming up from behind me and I absolutely did not want them to walk into the frame to ruin things, so I hurriedly took the photo. Thankfully, the TinType processing hides the blurriness.
Montgomery Street — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
I really would have preferred to wait another split-second for her to take one more step to get fully in front of that pillar, but that couple!
It was sunny on Saturday, so I took a bike ride to Fisherman's Wharf. I've imagined photographing a number of the more landmark-y aspects of the city and running through the application, but the SkyStar Ferris Wheel appealed to me as well. I did a semi-circular tour of the wheel to see what angle might work best, and I ended up on the opposite side of the wheel from the sun. Typically, I don't like pointing the cellphone (most often my camera of choice these days) into direct sunlight as it usually results in beaucoup flare, but I moved to where the sun was hidden by the frame and spokes of the wheel. I was particularly excited about the long shadows that splayed out towards me, so after taking a frame or two of about half the wheel plus the shadows, I took six frames to create a panoramic image when I got home. Of course, I had no clue as to whether or not the panorama would turn out, but I was delightfully surprised with the stitched image. I was lucky that the wheel was loading/unloading at the time I was doing this, so I was able to get the six frames clicked off without the wheel rotating at all. The TinType processing helped to make a lot of the details of the scene unrecognizable, giving the image the timeless, vintage look I was hoping for.
SkyStar Wheel — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
I spent most of Sunday working on my photographs from the Thursday night job as I wanted to have them uploaded for the client by Monday morning. I also watched most of the Super Bowl game, so I wasn't able to get out to take any photographs until about 8:00 PM. Despite that I knew there'd be few people out and about, I decided to go to Union Square to get the Dewey Monument rising up into the darkness. I did that, but my favourite for the night came as I was headed back to Powell Station to catch the train home. I've long loved the Elkan Gunst Building at the southwest corner of Geary and Powell, so I paused to get that, waiting what seemed like an eternity for all traffic to clear. There is a heart sculture on each of the four corners of Union Square, so one is in the frame, and I got lucky that a person (actually two) walked into the center of the frame.
Geary — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
A friend back in Michigan has been doing actual tintype photography for a number of years. But as someone who basically has lived hand to mouth for thirty years, I'm OK with using a phone app, as I have neither the space nor the cash required for doing the real thing. Ultimately, though, it's the image that counts, and while I wish I had more control over certain aspects of the app, it's keeping my pursuit of at taking at least one photograph a day interesting for me. I have been posting them at Flickr in a set called Faux Tintypes (and another called Tintype San Francisco, which is mostly—but not entirely—redundant) so as not to try to fool anyone that they're the real thing. I've also tagged each of them with "faux tintype"—again... I want to be clear with what's going on.
F Market — ©2025 Patrick T. Power
Im my mind, it makes for a more interesting photograph—or digital image—whatever you want to call it. Especially for someone who has been walking around San Francisco for fifteen years and seeing many of the same things over and over again. This process allows me to see them in a different way.
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