Watching The Hunger Games

Paul and I finally watched the long delayed The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013).

It was a tense movie: characters, like in any sci-fi film, are always on the run, hunted and haunted by their hellish worlds. Because of her sympathetic tendency towards the downtrodden, Katniss and her partner were thrown into a demonic forest, attacked by burning clouds, fictitious animals and countless sufferings to stay alive until she shot into and broke the artificial dome of sky (reminding us of scenes in The Truman Show).

It is also an extremely successful movie. The two and a half hour running time did not seem long at all. When the end came, it was almost a relief, as one would wake up from a torturous nightmare, to know that the revolution had earnestly begun, and District 12 no longer existed. Probably this is where the attraction of the sci-fi genre lies. The mashup of spectacular Roman chariots and the Third Reich's Nuremberg rallies flanked by those vertical banners designed by Albert Speer, plus District 9's story, have totally dazzled newer generations born and living in cyberspace. The eternal worship for love and youth have also captured older generations nostalgic for their fleeting days. No wonder by the end of October 2012, 327,000 visitors had flocked to Hendersonville, NC to experience Hunger Game's forest and DuPont's High Falls after the first Hunger Games came out.

Where Was I on October 17, 1989, 5:04 PM?

Every time when I say that I came to Santa Cruz in 1989, I will inevitably be asked where I was on October 17, 5:04 pm, when 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake occurred in northern California, the same way people born before November 1963 will be questioned where they were on 12:30 pm, when JFK was assassinated.

Unlike many locals who performed extraordinarily heroic feats by rescuing earthquake victims, or properties that day, I had a very ordinary experience, watching Stanley Kubrick's 2001: a Space Odyssey, as one of the Film Experience Class students at the Science Building of University of California, Santa Cruz. The film was not finished until months later. At 5:04 p.m., the earthquake struck the moment a scientist from the film started to speak: his voice not only boomed through the whole building, but shook the cement ground under our feet and broke many window glasses.

I had just started my American college life then and ignorantly skipped many extracurricular activities, such as group discussions and evaluations. When gathered on the lawn opposite to Porter College, I made a special effort to turn over a new leaf by asking my TA (Teaching Assistant) if we should go back to our classroom to evaluate the film. "Absolutely yes," she replied and told me and the rest of class to wait for the shaking to pass.

We never resumed our post-film discussion that evening as my TA estimated. Very soon we realized that the shaking was more serious than she expected: we lost electricity, saw smoke and fire down in the city, and chaotic traffic on Bay Avenue.

There was no city or school bus for me to leave the university to return to my home at Live Oak Avenue. For the first (and last) time in my life, I learned to hitchhike, and a passenger car transported me to downtown Santa Cruz, not far from where Paul lived. On seeing him standing at the back of the house on Clay Street, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Travel Photographers' Forum with Wallace

On September 26, 2014, I attended Paul's Travel Photographers' Forum, with a digital slide show and discussion moderated by Wallace Baine. It was a collaboration with Cabrillo College Photography Department, Parojo Valley Arts Council (PVAC) and Santa Cruz Sentinel.

It was a well-attended event, room 1001 was packed with students, teachers and photography enthusiasts. There were five photographers whose works are still being exhibited at PVAC and the five Santa Cruz County Banks. Paul is one of the five presenters. The following notes were taken at the event.

Wallace: Travel photography is a way to capture one's experience. Travel to capture sounds (for Wallace).

Presenter 1: Shmuel Thaler
A photographer since 1987 Sentinel
As a conversation
Two parts
1. Personal Favorites. No difference. Composition and content together. Connecting people with what they do, as a geometry, landscape, color. Putting people in a place. Things just happened. Always be prepared. Context

2. Seeing things in a different way. Some kind of perspective, with landscape. We are doing things entirely new. Eye and brain, not really equipment. Highlights universality of human beings. Being aware of what is going on.

Likes to shoot with his iPhone, seeing what is going on. Going to some place entirely new. Through light, about seeing and feeling. Not let equipment get in the way.

Never shot B&W, unable to put colors in.

Presenter 2: Mary Aliter
For the last 35 years, Been to over 100 countries. Interested in tribes
Wants a flow of things. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

Has covered
SE China
Colorful opportunities. Egypt. Try to see a personal in a background. Synchronicity of background. Pageantry of colors.
Her favorite places:
Bali,
Papa New Guinea,
Dead Sea, Jordan,
Masks,  India, Peru
Vietnam,
Mali,
Morocco,
South America,
Bhutan,
Ethiopia,
India.

Presenter 3: Elyse Destout
People are very important
Show fun with the people you love
Been to China 2010 and 2012
Learn about china, rich in color and culture
Solemn moments in front of temples
Flea markets
Beauty in little things
Drawn to people as a portrait photographer
Sounds, smell in 老北京爆肚味 (Old Beijing's deep fried foods)
Night scene in forbidden city.

Presenter 4: Paul Titangos
Has covered
Paris
Romania
Greece
Poland
Sudan south, north photography permits
New York
Forth Worth
Santa Cruz
Shanghai
Beijing
South West of China
Howra
Calcutta

Presenter 5: Carol Trengove
Has covered
Death series
Maui
Hellhole
Nevada
Africa
Lighthouses along the coast
Grand Canyon
Yellowstone

Q&A
1. Criteria for the images you took?
Variety
Different images say different things, broader spectrum, scattering

2. Shooting people the protocol
How to approach?

Digital makes it very easy. Showing people what you have shot. Asking or being aware of
Asking for permission, as an exchange or communication
Shmuel: catching the moment, esp. With the long lenses
Paul: agrees

3. Transition from Film and Digital Photography?
Elyse: Very reluctant to switch from film to digital so does Mary
Shmuel loves digital: speed, noiseless, transmission

Hassle with film photography
B&W not ready in digital?

4. Double exposure with Mother Teresa?

5. Vellum photograph
Shades of grey, and light

6. Shooting more or less
Your confidence to catch the moment before and after for Shmulel

7. Film makes a better photographer
Digital makes a different photographer

8. Prepare for a  trip
Three bodies, card readers,