First Photo Assignment and Critique

Last week was my first photo class assignment and critique. We were told to take a range of photos fitting different types of shots.

___From a bird’s eye view

____From a lizard’s point of view

____Of something blurred

____Where only one thing is in focus (Shallow Depth of Field: Selective Focus)

____Where everything is in focus (Great Depth of Field)

____That is vertical for a specific reason

____That is horizontal for a specific reason

____Of a friend

____Of a stranger

____Of abstract forms

____That combines words and an image

____About myth or ritual

____About where you live

____About a special, personal place

____About sexuality

____Of a created still-life

____That tells a story

____Of something that is overlooked

____That reminds you of childhood

____That reminds you of a movie

I took the majority of my shots on two separate days. Both of those days, were extra special because my parents were visiting with my grandma. The weather was excellent, with beautiful sunlight that offered great lighting as well as comfortable atmosphere for taking photos.

This is a picture of various letters from my Grandfather from a POW camp in Japan. I arranged them in a random way with a black background that allowed emphasis on the text itself. 

I liked this picture because of the natural saturation. The red of the sign especially was appealing to me. I also liked the irony of the warning sign juxtaposed to the surfer taking off on a wave.

In this picture we see two figures in the distance on a hill overlooking the ocean. In this case the random figures are my grandma and my mom. I liked this photo because it reminded me of pictures I've seen of the scottish hill or irish cliffs.

This picture actually was a sequence of the three photos. The large cement structure is a plug or cork of sorts meant to keep people out one of Santa Cruz's natural ocean holes. It had vents that would allow the ocean water to expel towards the sky when the waves crashed against the cliff.

Even though photographing spider web is a tad cliche. I really like how the lighting turned out on this one. 

The winding of the path and the lighting made this photo catch my eye.  The rendering onto my blog may have altered the color a little because it looks a little bright.

I didn't include this in my photo presentation in class but I  liked this one because it has my dad in it. 

Again with the path right? I really liked the angle and thought I could get a better affect with the blurred image.

The wide shot of this seemed to best to me. I like the calm, yet still breaking ocean in this photo.  Also the mother holding the two children reminds me of my childhood and the relationship between me and the ocean. 

I took a risk shooting this photo with so much negative space but it turned out to be very popular in my class.  I like how the contrast in the sky turned out, even though its black and white.

This random photo of a stranger was a favorite of mine. Even though they both are not facing the camera,  the dog seems to have noticed and stared straight at me. It reminds me of being at home and watching the waves with my dad. I also love the way the background turned out.

Slightly hipster or over artsy, but walking along the beach I couldn't help but photograph a picture of  a lonely guy reading a book beneath the perfectly cropped words, "I need a miracle." Take what you will from it :)

      It was a great two days to take some photos along the beach with my family and I really enjoyed the experience of actively taking photographs to express myself. It was also a very educational experience to have my work critiqued by my peers and I really hope to improve and become better.

Continuing Family Ties

     With the groundwork information gathered from Uncle Chris in Santa Cruz an opportunity presented itself to visit my Aunt Lynn in Rancho Murieta, California.  Using the experience in Santa Cruz as stepping stone I decided to make same changes to how I would conduct myself. Most obviously.. I would write questions and tape the interview. So with my cheap camcorder and notepad I set out.

      Traveling out to  Rancho Murieta from Santa Cruz with my friend Jean, who had a potential job interview in nearby UC Davis Medical Center,  we arrived late in the night. Early the next morning Aunt Lynn, Uncle Bill and I spent time talking about her memories of her father.
     As the oldest child of the Dollar family talking to her would be an interesting perspective on the life of her father that would be essential to understanding Clyndon Dollar better.  This was also the perfect excuse to catch up with my aunt and uncle, who I have don't really have an opportunity to see that often. Aunt Lynn's recollections largely focused around what her mother had told her about first meeting my grandfather. It was very interesting to see the view point of my grandmother, who was married to my Clyndon for nearly 45 years. Aunt Lynn recalled hearing my grandmother talk about my grandfathers personality and the PTSD episodes that would occasionally surface. Hearing about the dedication, loyalty and love my grandmother had for my grandfather through all his trials was very heart warming. My aunt's stories of her own memories of my grandfather in particular were also helpful in furthering my visualization of what living with a PTSD victim could be like. Often she referenced incidents of "acting out" by my grandfather, but similar to my dad and uncle there is a reserved sense of respect that limits the level at which they would discuss such matters. I wouldn't be able to get a concrete example of what sort of behavior this entailed until I talked to my Uncle Norm later in the year.

     After talking with my uncle and aunt, we toured around the Rancho Murieta community. It turned out their house was in a large gated community that had many sprawling lakes. The picture above is one of the lakes that is actually in their backyard. The tree in the picture is a special pine that was originally rooted in the Dollar's childhood home in San Clemente. Evidently the original pine was enormous and towered over the house, eventually cracking neighbor's paved patio or driveway. Somewhere along the line my Uncle Bill had saved a seed from the tree and brought it along to raise another tree. Because my grandparents house was sold and consequently torn down, after they died, my uncle took it upon himself to raise the tree with plans to disperse new saplings to the six Dollar brothers and sisters. My uncle informed me it was a species of Japanese pine which made the tree all the more compelling.
      Ending my day with my Aunt and Uncle I began the journey home with my friend Jean. During the drive home I couldn't help see the parallels between the tree and my grandfather. A towering figure with in the family's memory yet a Japanese past  intertwined in its identity. The trees enormity eventually creates cracks within the lives around it, but the memory lives on through the saplings it produced.

Next Post: I'll have a briefing on what I learned from my Uncle Norm.

Family Ties

     After declaring my thesis my next move was to search out potential leads from my family members. My grandfather had six children and the memories were valuable to me on a personal level of knowing more about my own grandfather. On the academic level the memories my uncles and aunts have serve as an awesome primary source for understanding not only what my grandfather went through but also what it was like for children to live under household of a war survivor. Seeing the value of the individual interview that was so heavily utilized in my Nagamine Project experience I found that I had the confidence to undertake information gathering through talking to my relatives.
 
    With this in mind I first went about to talking to my Uncle Chris who lives in Santa Cruz. Bringing some of the historical pieces my grandfather had saved, we looked through them in an effort to bring to light potential ideas for future research.  Together with my two cousins we looked through the material telling stories and memories as we went along.



The first impression of talking with my uncle reflected the earlier conversations I had with my dad about my grandfather. Both had a reserved since of respect for their father, which would be expected. However given the nature of some of the stories my uncle told me some additional speculation by Uncle Chris and father, as to why my grandfather acted the way he did would be expected. The major summarized point I found from talks with my Uncle Chris was that my Grandfather was very reluctant to talk about his experiences on Wake Island. It seemed that when he did talk about it, the after affects were largely negative.






My uncle described incidents where my grandfather would walk around the house and street late at night "on patrol." My uncle seemed to believe these stories were linked to conversations earlier in the day about his experience as a prisoner. Its my guess that if this happened today, my grandfather would probably be diagnosed has having post traumatic stress disorder as a result of his imprisonment during WWII. Given the state of most returning soldiers after war it would be no surprise that the terrible conditions of Japanese prison camp had a traumatic affect that would haunt him for the rest of his life.






It was great having my uncle and cousins in Santa Cruz to talk with. The interest they showed in our family's history furthered my resolve to continue looking into this story so I could have more to share with them. The bonding we had looking at items from our common history was a great experience and made us a lot closer. With these thoughts in mind, I made a goal to talk with my relatives to share our history and also expand my research network.

An Undergraduate Thesis

 Where I am .. Academically?

Up till a couple days ago, I have to admit that my blogging has not been up to the vigor that it should be. Ive been inconsistant and have gone months without a single upload. I can only imagine that thousands of my imaginary followers have been fed up with this behavior and have no doubt moved onto to other blogs about historian, amateur photographers/ cartoonist lifeguards. For those that stuck around.. thank you :)

My Inspiration: 
The new portion of my blogging will now be occupied by documenting the ongoing research and progress of my thesis. Last quarter I decided, that rather than taking a one quarter seminar to finish my degree, I would instead write a 40 page thesis on a topic of my choosing. Why would I enact such a punishment on myself?  A good question, since the seminar is much easier and fulfills the same Senior  graduation requirement. I chose to take up this torch from inspiration sparked during a class I took with a Pacific Asia Historian, Prof. Alan Christy


Nagamine Project

The class was called the Japanese Empire and took on a more experimental/new approach to upper division history.  It relied upon passionate students to take up their own research within different subjects. However rather than just explaining dates and pictures, we were given a foundation, with in the story of a former Imperial Japanese soldier, Mr. Akira Nagamine. The story he told us in class allowed for us to see a first hand visual of the Empire of Japan and thus have a better starting point in constructing what exactly we needed to know in order to tell the story better. This interview and primary source heavy approach to history made us feel like real historians.. because we were. Rather than just spitting back information in essay form, we were allowed to follow our own leads under the grand purpose of making a multi-media website that would tell Mr. Nagamine's story.

 The freedom Prof. Christy's class provided allowed us to explore many different forms of primary source, and inspired me to tackle the mysterious of my own grandfathers WWII experience on Wake Island. Bringing different historical pieces to Prof. Christy and later our archival assistant Tosh Tanaka, I became increasingly impassioned to pursue further research on my own grandfathers experience. I'd never considered writing a thesis on anything but given my connection to the subject, the historical documents and pieces I had already, I had to go for it.



      The Japanese Empire class made me refocus myself on what originally drew me into history. The story of my grandfather and his experiences as a prisoner or the Japanese made me feel a connection to events that happened in the past. Since my grandfather passed away when I was around five years old his experience on Wake Island became intertwined with what memories I had of him. Now being in college I have been looking at my grandfather from a academic stance, in the larger picture of my family and history.

  
Refocusing on Wake Island:


   Ive boiled down why I feel this story needs to be researched to the following:  Clyndon Dollar was a civilian plumber working on a island he'd never heard of for a war that was coming more rapidly than anyone expected. When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor they 


also begin a bombing campaign on Wake. After nearly a month of bombing the Japanese take Wake Island. Clyndon Dollar is placed in a prison camp where he survives brutal conditions as a slave laborer in China and then Japan.  My questions becomes, What conditions allow for an American citizen to be  placed within that situation and what policies were in place (if any) to ensure their safety? Im sure many Americans are unaware or hadn't considered this circumstance, however, the fact that the Federal Government had to deal with this situation is unprecedented in US history.

The other point is found is in the post war story. After WWII many soldiers come home with psychological damage from war and imprisonment. The 1,200 civilian on Wake Island were just as equally susceptible to damage, yet are treated differently from the returning soldiers, in eyes of the federal government. Again we see an unprecedented situation that the Federal Government is forced to deal with.

     

    The nature of this story seems to get its value from the uniqueness of the government's role and I really feel it will be a good direction to follow. I'm optimistic that I will be able to finish this thesis and do justice to the civilian internees of Wake. Already Ive interviewed my own Uncles,  Aunts, and even some survivors themselves.  I'll give a summary of my findings in my next post.










"When the god's of war are released, men can not be faulted for their actions."

-Clyndon F. Dollar

Lights out in San Clemente

My last night in San Clemente was supposed to be spent playing some Trivia at Molly Blooms ( a local bar/ restaurant) However, to my surprise a the power went out all over San Clemente and the surrounding area. Apparently, San Diego Gas and Electric tripped a wire somewhere in Arizona that took out power in not only San Diego but parts of Mexico and Orange County.  This meant no electricity.. which evidently powers a lot of things, including bars. Making the lemons of our situation into lemonade my friend Ryan and I embarked on a night time adventure to photograph what we could. These are some of the pictures.

Starting out in my backyard. There was an amazing sunset

Walking along the streets it was pretty strange to have no street lights

Even with the power out many people were still enjoying the  moonlit night.  Lots of people were sitting on their balconies  and porches drinking and hanging out. 

Eventually made our way to the pier which also had its lights off

Cars were still out and about, but were moving cautiously because of the lack of light

The near full moon made a very ominous affect on the ocean

     After visiting my friends at their candle lit apartment on the north side of the pier and playing some glow in the dark frisbee in the streets we headed back along the coast towards home. Along the way we noticed that at the base of the pier a set of flood lights had been set up, that were being powered by a generator. Two Amtrak workers were there with radios to let people know when trains were coming. Evidently they were going to be there all night but were being paid double overtime, so weren't in too bad of spirits. The light from the floodlights made for a pretty rare sight.

View from the end of the pier

Front of Fishermen's restaurant 

View from south of pier at tower #3

Having the lights out for one night made us appreciate not only having electricity, but also the natural beauty of our city at night. 




"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."
  ~Vincent Van Gogh

Hey Fall 2011

Another great summer is over and I'm back in Santa Cruz for my final two quarters of undergraduate education. The basic summary of my summer can break down to this:

                                            Taught Junior Guards three days a week

I worked around 2 or 3 days in the towers

The truck I bought after three years of no car was totalled by a 16 year old driver. No one was hurt but it was a little depressing, since I had just got it in January.

Competed in the first annual City vs State vs County lifeguard competition (The Trifecta). City ended up winning overall and I won overall for individual. There was a really fun mixer party at the Dana Point Yacht Club

Competed in Lifeguard Regionals in Seal Beach. My favorite race was the Surfline Rescue (pictured) We placed fourth in it. Some other events were the run swim run and rescue relay. Also beach flags were a lot of fun. Just by luck I ended up placing tenth in that, which was pretty funny

     Swam for San Clemente City in the Taplin Relay. Going out in Hermosa Beach after the race with all our LGs was super fun                   

Completed a run/swim/rock climb from SC pier to Balboa Pier (the Quest). Which ended up being way more running then expected... 20 miles is about 6x has much running I've ever done in one day..EVER

Went to Outsidelands music festival in San Francisco. Muse and The Decemberists were probably the best

Organized our SCSLA end of the year banquet. It was Southern themed. I won Most Inspirational


Finally with my insurance check finally recieved...
I bought a new used truck (same year) and a new computer (Mac)! woot woot

 That was my summer. Insert stories and random points, including my most life threatening rescue ever. Lets just say it involved a sail boat and the tail end of a swell.
Amidst all this, I also found some time research my thesis topic, which I will tell you about on the next post.

“Sun is shining. Weather is sweet. Make you wanna move your dancing feet.”
-Bob Marely

Some Expressing

One facet of myself Ive come to discover over my college career is the power of expression. Up till now I've thought of art as it effectiveness as a product. You make art for people to enjoy and its value is found from the positive reaction of people. Yes this is probably how most successful and well fed artists are able to survive, but Ive come to see it differently. Part of my relationship with the world involves a healthy expression of what is going on internally. Recently Ive found photography as an awesome art form to express my love for where I am and wanting to share the beauty with everyone. However, I also enjoy in drawing, writing, and the occasional non rhyming poetry. So in an effort to give an introduction to myself Ill post some of my work.

My first love would have to be drawing. I love to doodle and it probably takes up way too many of my notes from class but sometimes I cant help it. Over the course of my development in cartooning Ive become better at expressing things. Im still along way from Marvel or awesome graphic novels like Craig Thompson's Blankets but it makes me feel fulfilled.

 My freshmen year I took a class on Comics and Graphic Novels. One aspect of our final called for us to make a comic about our personal life. I chose to make a comic about my start in ocean lifeguarding, which I consider to be a major role in shaping who I am today. This is one of the excerpts..

Now with some of my free time Ive developed confidence enough to make my own mini comics that are roughly based on experiences Ive had.  I realize their appeal is limited to lifeguards, but I think average people can understand their contents too. Hopefully one day I'll master this art form and be able to tell a deeper stories but as for now these comics are something that make me happy.