


This Friday I started an adventure with a good friend of mine. I came up with the idea that Martin and I should tour as many Chinese restaurants as we can in the coming year. Martin is a foodie who really loves rice and has some Asian heritage. My own interest in this was reignited by having a student in class who is from China. Peiyin reminded me of how I had a tremendous interest in China while I was in college. I took a history of China class that was enriched by having a Chinese student in it who arranged for the whole class to participate in a seven course formal Chinese dinner at a local restaurant.

I remember how disappointed I was that a week later when I went back to the restaurant I couldn’t find any of the dishes that we had eaten during the feast. It was nothing but American-Chinese combo plates! I really love authentic Chinese food. One of my best experiences was walking into the House of Nanking in San Francisco with a group of friends and being sat down in a booth with menus. After just a moment of looking at the menu, a old Chinese man came over to the table and asked us “have you eaten here before?” When we said no he immediately grabbed the menus out of our hands and said, “no worries, I take care of you!” He started clapping his hands and yelling out orders to the kitchen in Chinese. I can’t tell the difference between Cantonese and Mandarin but if I had to guess, based upon the history of San Francisco, I am thinking it was Cantonese.
Within moments plate after plate of food came to the table. I didn’t really know what I was eating but it all tasted wonderful.
Martin loved the idea of exploring Chinese restaurants together. We are both fascinated by how important this culture is to the history of the American West. You will find Chinese restaurants in virtually every small town in America. It is a story of survival. The food tour was really just a carrot designed to bribe Martin to let me make a portrait of him. Martin is a retired photographer who does not like to be photographed. The last time I tried he was completely uncooperative. I told him that I wanted him to help me test out a new portrait workflow in my studio. I had recently installed a 43″ 4K monitor on the wall of my studio and connected it to my editing computer in the studio with the goal of trying to use a tethered capture system whereby I would make exposures on my camera and have them instantly show up on the computer and edited automatically using a custom tailored preset. I was also experimenting switching over from studio flashes to LED cinema lights from my filmmaking tool kit. The advantage of photographing with these lights is that I can shoot continuously without having to wait for the flash to recycle. This would give me the possibility of capturing micro-expressions and avoiding the person blinking at the flash of a bright light.

The new lighting system also allows me to create any custom colored background I want. I can pick a color out of the wardrobe and make that the background color. In the case of Martin’s portrait I was inspired by the fact we were going to lunch at the Red Dragon.
I have driven by the Red Dragon for years but had never walked inside. I am fascinated by the fact it has been in business since 1946. I am unsure why I never tried it before. Was it because it was in a tough part of downtown? I don’t think so, because I love dive bars. I think it was just too early in my daily commute that I never had an excuse to stop.

When we walked in I was blown away by how clean and opulent it was. I was struck by the large historic family photos, the painted screens and the Chinese mural artworks on the wall. The host seated us and gave us menus. There were an overwhelming number of those American style combo plates. However, I saw a small red box near the upper right side of the menu that had a heading that said Authentic Chinese.
My wife and I have watched a series of documentaries about Chinese food so I was familiar with some of the dishes. I had to try The Generals Chicken. I knew it could be spicy so I was relieved when our host asked me how spicy I wanted it. I’m a spice wimp so I said very low please!
The food was great and the portrait session was a success. The new workflow shows promise and the lighting equipment worked great. Martin told me that seeing the images on the large screen while we were actually photographing made him feel more confident in the photos which built more trust. I like that. The red background works for Martin. I think I will call this my Red Dragon portrait!
