Joseph Chen

views of tagus — lisbon, portugal

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:00:00 -0500

Lisbon is home to the outlet where the Tagus River empties into the Atlantic Ocean. The red bridge is the Ponte 25 de Abril, starkly resembling the Golden Gate Bridge. As for the other pictured bridge, the more industrial-looking gray one, was built to alleviate traffic from the Ponte 25 de Abril and is considered the longest bridge in Europe (second only to Russia’s Crimean Bridge).

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

azulejos — lisbon, portugal

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 11:00:00 -0500

while in Lisbon, we were bombarded with the amount of art on the building tiles. it turned out they were azulejos, an ornamental art form constituting a monumental part of Spanish and Portuguese architecture, but also functional in aiding temperature control in homes. we were warned online that these tiles in Lisbon were often stolen and sold in the street markets, which was helpful in helping prevent us from encouraging to this destructive black market.

they were honestly quite beautiful, and i took quite a few snaps of them; here’s ten!

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

25 irish hours — dublin, ireland

Fri, 01 May 2026 13:00:00 -0500

with only 3 useable hours of daylight in dublin—the remainder lost to work, transit, and forgetfulness—i took 35 photos, 6 of which made this final cut. unedited of course. i still have not learned how to edit.

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

these ones should be cherry — seoul, south korea

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 13:30:00 -0500

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

simple blips outside — fukuoka/dazaifu/arita/nagasaki, japan

Sun, 08 Mar 2026 16:00:00 -0500

with photography, i really just do snapshots: quick, pretty spontaneous, and with only some consideration of composition. still getting the hang of it despite its simplicity, but curious if i’ll dive deeper into photography or keep it as such!

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

plum, not cherry — dazaifu, japan

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 17:00:00 -0500

our trip barely just overlapped a small set of plum trees blossoming; gorgeous aren’t they?

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

shinto shrines — fukuoka/arita/nagasaki, japan

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 12:00:00 -0500

coming upon these shrines, we shared a common curiosity of religion in japan. i know there are definitely religious groups, and the more outspoken ones have made their way into my news feed here and there. however, these shrines felt communal and respected ubiquitously, not tied to a specific group within the country. i had initially and correctly associated the shrines mainly with Shinto, but i wasn’t well-informed enough about Shinto to explain what it was. but, i just did a bit of reading to refresh on it. Shinto’s the indigenous spirituality of japan, revolving around nature, but more specifically supernatural entities called kami that are believed to inhabit all things. this tradition today remains very imbedded into japanese culture, media, and lifestyles, and shrines continue to serve as local gathering grounds to commune, celebrate, express, seek, forgive, pray, and wish. gabi and i love visiting them, not only to get unique omamoris (お守り in japanese; they’re protective charms), but also to have a change to appreciate their beauty and intentions.

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

strawberry season — fukuoka, japan

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 14:30:00 -0500

surprised gabi with a trip to the boonies of fukuoka to pick super cute “stwoobweries”. little did i know that my grand plan of calling a taxi to and from the bus stop was futile from the start. there was no taxis there. no uber. no go. no didi. nada… we walked, in the sun, in the sticks, an hour and a half, round-trip, and waited patiently for the singular bus—our one and only lifeline back to urban civilization— that served the area… mind you, this was after i’ve been up since midnight, a whole 14 hours prior, working remotely. what a sobering realization that was, but gabi was a trooper as much as i was and we survived.

photos were a little overexposed as it was pretty dang bright out: the singular sunny and clear day of a rainy week. not sure how to best adjust my camera to adapt to it, but i shall learn for next time!

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

pottery and interiors — fukuoka/takeo-onsen/arita, japan

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 20:00:00 -0500

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra)

post-grad RRR weekend — paris, france

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 18:00:00 -0500

in berkeley, RRR stands for Reading, Review, and Recitation, which is the week after classes end and before finals when students focus on studying, reviewing course material, finishing papers or projects, and attending optional review sessions. typically, you do a bit of that and also a good bit of trips, adventures, parties, and other fun.

after a recent development that was a bit of a downer for one of us, it became prudent for gabi and i to embark on a post-grad “RRR”-esque in paris: studying for mcat (her) + working (me) while enjoying the sights and seeing a few friends! it was fun, our apartment was adorable (6th floor with only a cramped, uneven staircase), and she brought back vacuum-sealed butter after seeing katia, erin, and becca doing the same…

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra recipe)

random snaps for memories — krakow/warsaw, poland

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0500

poland, all in all, was a wonderful and affordable trip. would visit again! three notes:

milk bars were great (they’re government-subsidized food eateries w/ a bunch of traditional Polish food) but i specifically liked this one the most by far in terms of value, quality, and offerings)
the museums were all really informative and valuable experiences, although accurately harrowing in their content
hanashi omakase cocktail bar in krakov was an absolute blast, delicious cocktails and amazing bartenders

ricoh gr iiix iphone 16 pro (singular photo, figure out which!)

californian popsicles — krakow/warsaw, poland

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 16:00:00 -0500

here’s some snaps of gabi and i while we struggle with the concept of winter and snow after many years in sunny california

ricoh gr iiix

house of god — krakow, poland

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 13:00:00 -0500

churches were the place of refuge for many freezing passersby in krakow, and they were beautiful and toasty. i still struggle to capture photos in dark lighting, but i hope these did those churches justice.

the royal outdoors — krakow/warsaw, poland

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0500

it was absolutely freezing in poland like what the heck! barely got chances to pull out my ricoh because my hands would be deathly frozen and the sun would set at like 3 or 4 latest. my $150 hestra gloves were literal paper in that weather—traumatic. however, the royal supra recipe + outdoors in poland was a beautiful combination. no post-editing needed at all, which i rarely like to do anyways.

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra)

angry skiffy in snow — chicago, illinois

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 17:30:00 -0500

testing out a new portra 400 recipe! skiffy and snow seemed to be a bust. was not a happy little kitty.

ricoh gr iiix (positive film & portra 400)

royal supra recipe test ft. kitties — chicago, illinois

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 15:00:00 -0500

right now, i shoot jpeg only even though i heard ricoh’s RAW capabilities are really good. at my current point of life, i want to reduce the headspace needed for hobbies so that they feel fun, not exhausting. so, that means little to no post-processing as possible. it’s already hard enough going through past photos as it is haha. i’ve been using the same positive film recipe since i first got this camera. only now am i trying new recipes and this royal supra recipe is really nice. i love the punchy and bright colors, and i’m excited to go on a trip shooting it.

ricoh gr iiix (royal supra)

hanfu 汉服 — suzhou, china

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 17:00:00 -0500

hanfu is traditional chinese clothing. i thought han meant the han dynasty specifically, but it seems that modern chinese people are alternatively recognized as the han people at large as well (han chinese being a recognized ethnic group). interesting that chinatown is typically called 唐人街 (tang people street), which recognizes another prominent and prosperous chinese dynasty. anyways, suzhou was fun! cool to see all the outfits and intriguing to see all the chinese livestreamers.

ricoh gr iiix

random things i liked — suzhou/shanghai, china

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 10:30:00 -0500

my camera performs really well in the right conditions. ofc, if i knew how to use it properly, i’m sure it’d perform just as well in other conditions haha.

ricoh gr iiix (positive film)

people in action — shanghai, china

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 20:00:00 -0500

wish i took more photos of this category. there’s over 8 billion of us in the world, and we’re all living different lives.

ricoh gr iiix (positive film)

cityscape and cafes — shanghai, china

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:00:00 -0500

all i want to say is that asian malls have been very overstimulating so far

ricoh gr iiix (positive film)

wandering stray kitties — shanghai, china

Sun, 23 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0500

didn’t expect too see as many kitties as we did, so it was a nice surprise! i hope they are doing okay :) the video i took is super adorable, definitely worth the look!

ricoh gr iiix (positive film effect) + iphone 16 pro

work trip to boeing — bellevue, washington

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 19:00:00 -0500

fun little work trip to seattle! learned a lot, made many friends, and just had an enjoyable experience! no photos at the everest and renton factories ofc and my camera/photography is simply subpar in low-light environments T.T

visiting a former student at udub — seattle, washington

Sun, 02 Nov 2025 12:05:00 -0500

i’ve been meaning to visit one of my tutorees at his new chapter in life: udub for undergrad! luckily, work lined up perfectly with a trip to seattle, and i was able to arrive early enough to stop by! what a gorgeous campus—truly.

yokohama marathon — yokohama, japan

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0500

decided to stay in yokohama with my parents flying over as it was simply more affordable (stayed at the hyatt regency and it was pretty solid and very well situated!). it’s always nice to explore a new area too! did not mean to but stumbled upon their annual marathon as we were here, and it was pretty cool! it was kinda cold, so kudos to everyone for pushing through and all their hard work going into it :) 頑張れ!

ricoh gr iiix (positive film), recorded on iphone 16 pro