These are some of the photos I've taken in the past year of two places I've spent more time than I have in the past: Oakland's Chinatown and San Francisco's Chinatown. These were all taken with my iphone 13. One of my loves is photography. I love to look at pictures. I love the process of making images: taking the time to think about what I want to convey or what message I want to send with a photo, considering lighting, thinking about a narrative concerning the subject, and also the process of editing the photo afterwards. And I love to look at pictures whose purpose is to be art. Ever since I got my own camera when I was a teenager, I've loved capturing moments, people, buildings, or whole areas. What mainly attracts me to taking photos is spending time with the thoughts and feelings I have about a subject before and after I take a photo. Something I shoot may make me think about the world differently in that very moment, or answer a question I had about something, or warms my spirit even more after I take a photo of something. For me, the world expands when I take pictures. I love taking photos because in the moment the stories, lives, possibilities, histories, cultures in my subjects that are there or maybe me taking a photo will bring them out to myself and/or someone else, deepens my appreciation for the existence of the subject. People, places, objects, moments, situations, wardrobes, everything has this way of making me feel joyful for whats here on our earth.
I took this love of photography, my love for art making, my need to express, my love for exploration, and my desire to practice and get better at shooting photos to Oakland's Chinatown one of my favorite places in Oakland, where I live, and to San Francisco's Chinatown, a place that I've been and always wanted to learn more about and I took these pictures. I have more than these, but I just wanted to post my favorites. Taking photos in these places helped me learn more about the history, people, cultures, ways of living in these spots, and it was a lot of fun. Enjoy.
