I went into San Francisco about a half hour before sunset last Saturday night. I took some photos—none of them good—from ground level in Union Square, then took the elevator to the fifth floor of the Macy’s building to get this elevated perspective. This is a three-shot pano with a 28mm lens.

I knew about this shot because I’ve taken it before—five years ago, to be exact (thank you, metadata). Below is the same scene taken with a 10-22mm lens on a cropped-sensor camera. I prefer this version because of the sunset light on the buildings and the tallest building isn’t cut off.

The two photos could be run side by side in one of those puzzles where readers try to spot the differences.

Here’s a tighter crop of the scene after dark.

These photos from on high are much better than the ones I could take on the ground—just too many people for me to get good compositions there.