Street photography

Richard: Coming to San Francisco, especially the Mission District, was an amazing experience for me after living my life in Southern California, in a little town. But I had just come from Latin America, so it was foreign, but at the same time it was familiar. But the Mission District especially is amazing. There is nothing like it. I mean, the most amazing thing about being in this neighborhood, especially just walking in the Mission, is the idea of, there is like little stuff everywhere. This is such a visually rich community and place. I just love it. It really feeds into my need to capture it all. Oh, this is great. I love this. Hold on. You wait long enough and somebody passes through your frame, which is great. It's really just an impulse about what appeals to me. There is so much here. It could be anything, but I just kind of go with my gut. We all have that inclination when we have a camera to take a picture, and all I did was learn the idea not to resist that. Every time my finger wants to press the trigger for whatever reason, I don't question it. I just do it. Oh, it's great! Traveling in Latin America was really what started my passion for street photography, for this, for like what I kind of call "the hunt." And to be able to come here and do it and feel it is amazing, but that's certainly where it started. Hunt, hunt, hunting, right? Like HUNT'S Quality. How many times does that happen? To me street photography is about instinct, reacting quickly, not having to think about a lot of factors. This little camera, this basically little point-and-shoot does that for me. The other thing that's important for me, like I just took a picture there, and I really feel like I have possibly captured that person in a real situation. I think had I brought the camera up to my face and taken some time to do some things, she would have not been as natural. I am ridiculously, stupidly passionate about taking pictures. It's really liberating for me. Oh, this is nice. Right, I mean that is a sweet little moment, two people waiting for the bus up against the wall. They are just--I don't know I love that. I love that. This is just the art of discovery, right. That's all good storytelling really is in anyway: making a reader or a viewer feel like they've discovered something for the first time the way I discovered it. It's just, it's little tiny silly things, like maybe that.