Street photography is calling my name again. It’s been a while since I last picked up my DSLR and hit the streets to photograph people doing daily things like the person pictured above in the kiosk drinking Dunkin’ on a rainy day.

One reason for not doing street photography lately is that it’s been at the bottom of my creative to-do list. The first half of this year centered around Happy Bean Bakery, and the second half focused on recovering from bakery burnout, surviving work, and packing for our move upstate.

To be honest, I completely forgot about the joy that street photography brought me, which is similar to the joy when I pick up painting again. When life gets busy, I seem to forget the things I love doing. 

A camera was the first creative tool that I used as a kid. For many artists, it is the memory of their first paint stroke or first drawing that sticks with them. But for me, it was photography.

I had neighbors, Suzan and Albert, who owned a Nikon and photographed our neighborhood little league baseball teams. I admired them so much, I insisted on having a Nikon (not Canon) like Suzan. I was adamant about Nikon surpassing Canon’s quality when, really, I had no idea—it was just because Suzan had one that I believed it was true.

Since we couldn’t afford a DSLR, my brother’s girlfriend at the time gifted me a Hello Kitty film camera when I was in 6th grade. It smelled of plastic and had no manual settings, but I was happy. 

I remember telling my father that I wanted to be a photographer when I grew up. He had his religious reasons to convince me otherwise, but I knew I wasn’t doing anything wrong; I was just trying to capture the beauty around me.

Location is another reason why I haven’t been photographing lately. Living in Southern California, you have to drive in order to commute. But on the East Coast, you can practically walk (or take the train) wherever you want to. Plus, the sights and people are plentiful! It was much easier to dedicate a day to photography and see what photos came of it (if any).

Now that we’re in the Bay Area, I am inspired by the newness of it all; I grew quite bored of Riverside fast. The best part is that there’s a Caltrain station up the street that, if I’m not mistaken, can take us directly to downtown San Fransisco.

Speaking of which, we went downtown last weekend and had us some Chinese food at an Islamic Chinese restaurant and croissants at B Patissirie, our new favorite pastry shop.