Union Square
Union Square is San Francisco's central downtown plaza, offering a mix of urban architecture, street life, and the iconic Powell Street cable cars that run along its eastern edge. The cable car turnaround at the corner of Powell and Market is one of the best spots in the city, where you can get tight shots of the cars being manually spun around or use a wider lens to include the surrounding buildings and crowds. The open plaza itself works well for compositions framing the central column monument against the surrounding retail facades and hotel towers. Overcast days are ideal here since the plaza sits in a built-up canyon that creates harsh shadows in direct sun; golden hour light does break through nicely from the west in the late afternoon. Street level on Powell gives you the most dynamic cable car angles, and a 24-70mm range covers most situations well. (San Francisco, California, United States)
