First Customer: Beginning of a Shopping Day

Redwood City is in the Silicon Valley, halfway between the 50 miles from San Francisco to San Jose, California.

A few years ago it was derisively known as “Deadwood City,” and a massive revitalization project was undertaken. Now the dominant retail space is a 200,000 square foot, timber-built shopping center called Sequoia Station. Within a three mile radius there is a population of around 120,000 people with an average household income of nearly $128,000.

Close to 25% of the population works in companies with over 500 employees. Of those over 62% are in the computer industry, 16% in hospitals and 16% in government.

The median price of homes for sale is nearly $700,000, now slowly declining.

In a pre-World War I international survey of desirable climates, Redwood City tied for first place with the Canary Islands and the Mediterranean Coast of North Africa. “Climate Best by Government Test” became Redwood City’s much-loved motto.

"Beginnings" for me definately had a slow beginning. On an unanticipated short trip to the USA mainland I took a few other images. Then on my way to have morning coffee this shopper walked into the picture of these almost Hopperesque buildings.

USA-Canada / USA-California

Lat: 37° 29' 4.61" N
Long: 123° 14' 55.74" W

Elevation: 3m

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.

Hardware: Nikon D40x, Peleng 8mm, custom oblique adapter, monopod.

Camera Settings: ISO 200, 1/250, f/8.0

Software: Adobe DNG Converter 4.1, PTGui 7.5, Photoshop 9.0, Pano2qtvr 1.6.2pro.