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While visiting San Francisco, California, I took a ferry over to tour the Alcatraz Island Prison. Apparently, lots of other people had the same idea, so the island was crowded. Having watched the popular movie, "Escape from Alcatraz" starring Clint Eastwood prior, I was eager to explore the prison and visualize some of the scenes from the movie in person. It was an interesting experience to say the least and I even got locked into a jail cell as part of the tour.
Here are some fun facts about the prison according to Wikipedia. Alcatraz was opened in August 1934 and closed in March 1963. The water current was always high, which made it difficult for inmates to escape. With that said, three people escaped Alcatraz in 1962. It cost three times as much to operate Alcatraz than other prisons. Currently, the island houses the oldest operating Lighthouse on the West Coast.
I captured pictures of various locations. Now, I'm definitely a people's person, but I also wanted to get captures of some of the exhibits without people obstructing them. As stated earlier, there were lots of people walking back and forth on the island—hundreds even! The odds of getting the type of captures that I wanted were going to be a challenge and would likely require some crowd participation. Did I pull it off? Absolutely! I set up shop and focused my camera on the scene pictured here. The other tourists began to notice that I would start to compose a shot, but stop when someone walked in front. A couple of them took the initiative to motion to other tourist to pause. As a result, they waited on both sides, allowing me to get my captures. When finished, I gave them a "Thank You" wave and traffic resumed.
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