It's In My Blood

Trying a cleaner looking layout, more up-to-date picture, etc. It's definitely easier on the eyes.

I took this new picture tonight. Something I want to work on in the coming months (and, you know, forever) is improving my digital picture quality. For years I shot film, I even took a photography course to learn how to develop my own film, process negatives, create a photograph from beginning to end. I feel like using digital these day, a lot of technique is lost because you can take unlimited pictures and pick the very best. In film, you are more careful, more precise, more planned.

Both of my grandfathers were photographers. My mom's dad, Grampa Clark, did it as a hobby. He had a dark room in their house, he belonged to a couple camera clubs, and he was...phenomenal. He just had it. He always had a camera with him, and he knew how to work any kind of camera, old or new, fancy or a pinhole box. He also explored drawing and painting. I have several of his pieces, both painting and photography, hanging in our home. I love being surrounded by his work; it gives me a feeling of peace and serenity. It also is a daily reminder to be the best person I can be, because he believed in me, and he always made me feel like I was worthy of whatever I wanted in the world.

My Grampa Trask was a professional photographer. He worked for the Boston Herald for years, and has 2 photos in particular which were impacting on our familiy history and our country. THe first is the Andrea Doria:


The Andrea Doria collided with the Stockholm of the coast of Martha's Vineyard on July 25, 1956. My dad was just over a month old, the oldest of 7 kids, and my grandfather took this picture just before the Andrea Doria sank. You can get a more extensive history of this event here or do a Wikipedia search. He won a Pulitzer Prize for this, and my sister, the oldest granddaughter, is named Andrea Doria.

The second photo of notoriety is this one:

In 1967, irate race official Jock Semple tried to forcibly remove Kathrine Switzer from the then all-male Boston Marathon simply because she was a woman. Luckily for Switzer, Semple was bounced out of the race instead by her boyfriend and she went on to finish. Photo by Harry Trask for AP Images.

GRampa captured this moment on film, and Kathrine remembers him and thanks him in her book, Marathon Woman, as that was a pivotal moment that changed her life, and many others. On Marathon Monday in Boston, this photo series usually pops up in newspapers, magazine, and one year when I was in school in Boston, I was switching over from the Red to the Green Line, and these photos were featured billboards in the Park Street Station. It caught me completely off guard, but it was a moment that made me truly appreciate my grampa's accomplishments.

So, as you can see, this is a huge part of my family. We have all dabbled in photography, and I want to return to shooting for quality, not quantity. A woman I work with belongs to two camera clubs in the area, and she has suggested I join her for a few meetings to see if I like it. I want to invest in a better camera too. I have a Canon Powershot, which is nice and small and good for on the go. But it is very automatic. I want to feel more in control of the quality of what I'm shooting.

I will try to get decent pictures or scans of Grampa Clark's work to share with you soon.