Donald Chan Photography » captive observation, revealing insight

         I was treated to lunch at the Ferry Building on a recent Saturday. This place provides an excellent selection of high quality (albeit expensive) eats. If you haven’t been, it is definitely worth a visit. I’d suggest bringing friends so you can share and sample more things. Some of my favorites are the porchetta sandwich from Roli Roti, macaroons from Miette, cappuccino from Blue Bottle, almond croissant from Acme, and the chocolate milk from Cowgirl Creamery.
This is Roli Roti’s porchetta sandwich in the making. Pork loin wrapped in pork belly and cooked on a rotisserie…Ridiculously good.

DELICA is a Japanese deli and sushi bar. Everything is neat, tidy, and presented exceptionally well. This is their hijiki and soybean salad.

Bocolone serves thin slices of their cured meat sampler in a paper cone. Tasty salted pig parts.

Street lights as seen while heading toward the Embarcadero to walk off my lunch

Thoughts and observations taken during my last visit to the California Academy of Sciences.

Observing the animals, I kept thinking about what it might be like to live in a confined space with people gawking at me all day.

As I began to watch other visitors, I realized that from the animals’ perspective, they could think the same thing about us on the other side of the glass.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that we all subject ourselves to some form of confinement and scrutiny on a daily basis.

While the state of the animals seems inescapably obvious, the human experience is harder to be aware of.

What seems like freedom might actually be enslavement.

And giving up some freedoms might actually feel more free.
 

 
There was instant film. This film was used in instant film cameras, like the polaroid SX-70, but was also available for use in regular film cameras by replacing the standard film holder with an instant film holder. This gave the photographer the ability to produce an instant print and check exposure before making an exposure on film. This process is the film analog to chimping on a digital lcd today. The following photographs are scans of Fuji FP-100c instant film on a camera that was generously lent to me by my cousin-in-law. Shooting film has really caused me to slow down and become more deliberate in my photography. I’m also enjoying composing with the square format.