There's no doubt been a fabulous explosion of nightlife photography in the past few years, much of it taken by outsiders lured into the glistening web of tragic glamour and omnisexual transgression that's become standard fare for Clubland's ever-flashy denizens. (We're sensing a not-so-mystical connection between cheap digital cameras and the return of neon clothing, here.) But what happens in reverse -- when a well-known night owl turns his eager lens toward once-dreaded daylight, and sets about discovering hidden pockets and angles of San Francisco's nether reaches? That's what party manimal Darwin Bell started doing four years ago with his "Sign Language" project, taking Polaroids of individual words found on signs throughout the city and assembling them into surreal phrases suitable for framing. "Sign Language was my gateway drug to digital photography," says Darwin. He soon upgraded his equipment and expanded his concept to include honed-in abstractions of colorful and obscure architectural details -- and, well, you can see the rest. View more of his work at www.darwinbell.com and www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell.

SFBG What made you haul your equipment out into the daylight?

DARWIN I'm somewhat obsessive, dammit, so I just started carrying my camera with me everywhere and discovered that I had a pretty good eye for composition. And this corresponded with my discovering online sites like Flickr. com, so not only was I able to post photos there but I was also able to gain an audience for them, which was and is very encouraging. The Web has made photography more accessible to people, and I think brought it to the forefront of culture in a way that it hasn't always been. There's suddenly a strong international community of creative people that are there to support and critique each other. When I started I knew very little about the technical aspects of photography -- Flickr was like my cheap art school.

SFBG What are some of your favorite places in the city to take pictures?

DARWIN San Francisco in general is teeming with inspiration. There are insane colors (and people) everywhere you look. And the architecture here is out of this world. I tend to zero in on colors and small parts of the big picture. It can take me an hour to walk five blocks if I'm in a new neighborhood. And of course places like Clarion Alley and the new Federal Building are open canvases for my camera. But even if I don't find a building particularly aesthetically pleasing, the challenge then is to at least make it seem like it is.

SFBG When you're not getting scalded by the devil sun, what are some of your favorite clubs to shoot?

DARWIN Anywhere there are half naked boys, dummy!