Honeymooning man photographs 109 film locations around San Francisco

A still from "The Incredible Hulk," 2008, Marvel Studios. A still from "The Incredible Hulk," 2008, Marvel Studios. Photo: Marvel Studios Photo: Marvel Studios Image 1 of / 34 Caption Close Honeymooning man photographs 109 film locations around San Francisco 1 / 34 Back to Gallery

While honeymooning in San Francisco this fall, Steve Peterson and his wife saw the requisite sights. They snapped photos in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, gazed into prisoners' cells on Alcatraz and schlepped all the way up Bernal Heights for a panoramic view of the city.

But Peterson's path diverged from the standard tourist's. When the sightseeing was done and over with, he sought out scenes of a different kind: film locations, from the Palace of Fine Arts to obscure street corners off-the-well-trod touristy path.

In all, Peterson visited 109 locations. He took photos of the scenes, where everything from "Ant-Man and the Wasp" to "Vertigo" was filmed, and will eventually match them with corresponding stills from the movies. He posts the composite images on his popular Instagram page.

At the War Memorial Opera House, Peterson recreated a still from the 1996 classic thriller "The Rock." A few blocks away, at San Francisco City Hall, he captured a nearly identical image to a scene from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," only his photo has no Donald Sutherland and more leaves on the English sycamores.

"I've always been a huge movie nerd," said Peterson, a 37-year-old accountant from South Florida. After film school and a brief stint at a small production company, he decided making movies wasn't for him (hence the accounting degree), but he never lost his passion for the moving image.

It all started in 2001, on a road trip to New York with his dad and sister. Peterson tagged along under one condition: the trio stop at Quick Stop in New Jersey, the stand-in for RST Video in Kevin Smith's cult classic "Clerks."

Visiting a place he first viewed on the silver screen left an impression on Peterson. He has since recreated 863 film still comparisons. In that time, he has been chased by two men at the cemetery used in "Nightmare on Elm Street," nearly been hit by three cars on Chicago's LaSalle Street while trying to snap the famous location of the Joker-Batman fight, and basked in the suburban aura of Marty McFly's childhood home.

He finds the scenes by combing the web — there's a subset of the internet devoted to identifying film locations in the real world — or carefully viewing movies for "clues," like storefronts, street signs and unusual angles.

Chasing film sites like this, Peterson says, "makes for a fun way to explore the world."

"There have been a lot of locations we would never have seen were they not in a movie."

You can see some snapshots from Peterson's San Francisco trip in the above slideshow, with stills from the movies they reference. To view the rest of Peterson's opus, follow him on Instagram at @hollywood_irl.

Read Michelle Robertson's latest stories and send her news tips at mrobertson@sfchronicle.com.

Start receiving breaking news emails on wildfires, civil emergencies, riots, national breaking news, Amber Alerts, weather emergencies, and other critical events with the SFGATE breaking news email. Click here to make sure you get the news.