A local photographer recently got a batch of film developed showcasing San Francisco and the surrounding Bay from multiple vantage points, and the results are a reminder of something we occasionally forget while arguing about budget deficits and transit failures: this place is stunningly beautiful.

Say what you will about California's governance — and we say plenty — but the raw geography of the Bay Area is world-class real estate for a reason. The light hitting the water at different hours, the fog rolling through the Golden Gate, the skyline from across the bay — it all looks better on film, somehow. Maybe because film forces you to be intentional. You've got 36 shots on a roll, not 36,000 in your iCloud. Every frame costs money. There's a fiscal discipline to analog photography that we can appreciate.

It's also worth noting that the Bay Area's visual appeal isn't an accident of nature alone. Decades of conservation efforts, waterfront protections, and — yes — some genuinely smart land-use decisions helped preserve the views that make this region iconic. Not every government action is wasteful. Sometimes the best thing officials can do is simply protect what's already there and get out of the way.

For all the Bay Area's problems — and the list is long enough to fill a few rolls of film — the physical beauty of this place remains an asset that no amount of mismanagement has managed to squander. Yet.

So if you've got an old 35mm collecting dust in a closet, load it up and go shoot. Forget the algorithm. Forget the likes. Just point the camera at the Bay and let the place speak for itself. It's been doing that long before any of us got here, and with any luck, it'll keep doing it long after we're gone.