It IS the camera

As photographers we talk about gear A LOT. We throw out combinations of letters and numbers that sound like gibberish to the untrained ear. “I just picked up a 28-300 3.5-5.6L,” or “Is that an EF or EF-S?” and “Are you getting the D3x or the 1Ds Mark III?”

Inevitably someone always says, “It’s not about the camera, it’s about the photographer.” Every time I hear that, I cringe (and I occasionally want to whack that person upside the head). It’s just not that simple.

My nephew, a rather successful photojournalist, said the dreaded, “It’s not about the camera, it’s about the photographer,” line to me once after hearing me rant about wanting a better camera. Okay, sure, he could out-shoot me any day of the week no matter what camera we each had, but I still think gear plays a very important role in image making. It’s not like you see all the pros on the sidelines at a Super Bowl with a pink Sony ultra-slim Cyber-Shot or a Nikon Coolpix.

I’ve seen beautiful pictures shot with a cell phone camera and I’ve seen horrible images taken with expensive SLRs, even with all the nice lenses. Sure the photographer’s eye plays a huge roll in picture making, but having the right gear in the right hands offers a large degree of control over the outcome of the photograph. There are some photos that would be downright difficult to shoot without the option to choose your focal length, your f-stop and shutter speed. Even the glass inside the lens gives a noticeable difference in image quality.

Okay, even I think that 45 autofocus points are overkill, but I could use camera that had an ISO range of 50 – 25600. I may never fully utilize the 63-zone TTL full aperture metering, but I’d be pleased as punch to have up to 5 custom white balance settings. So please, please, don’t tell me it’s not about the camera anymore, because sometimes it is.

JP's visit

This weekend my friend JP came to visit from New York. He wanted to get away from the cold weather for a while.

We already did the touristy thing the last time he came to visit. This time I wanted to do something a little bit more ‘local.’ I struggled for a few weeks to figure out where I could take him. What did SoCal have to offer that New York didn’t? In the end I decided to take him to one of my favorite spots, Ports O’ Call in San Pedro.

My parents used to take the family to Ports O’ Call when I was little. We would buy some seafood and head up the coast to White Point Beach for lunch. The Port of Los Angeles is the largest working port in the United States. Often, cargo ships would go in and out of the harbor as I ate my lunch. Sometimes I would even wave to passengers on the cruise liners as they went by (usually when Randy wasn’t around because he gets embarrassed when I do that).

My first order of business was to choose a live Dungeness crab for lunch. Vendors around the market place will cook up any of the seafood you buy there. The next stop was for, what I like to call, “tray o’ shrimp”. I can never resist getting it! The shrimp fajitas come with corn tortillas, several lemons, and salsa, but I usually get a side of garlic bread too. To top off the meal JP and I got some Coronas while Randy had a strawberry smoothie served in a pineapple.

After lunch I mentioned that I normally have a frozen banana for dessert. To my horror JP said he never heard of it before. I had to remedy that situation right away! For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s a frozen banana on a stick, hand dipped in chocolate and rolled in chopped peanuts. Yup, he seemed to enjoy it.

After San Pedro we went up to LA for some Thai desserts at Baan Kanom Thai. They have all types of sweets like “kanom buang” and “sai mai”, stuff you normally have a hard time finding outside of Thailand.

Since we were so close, we decided to go to Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I’ve only been there twice, even though I grew up here; the last time was when my friend Kat was visiting. We looked at the footprints in the cement and walked down the Hollywood Walk of Fame to see the Kodak Theater where the Academy Awards are now held. Shortly after that it was time to say goodbye.

I can’t believe we’ve known each other for almost 20 years now.

I already miss JP.

Glue Gun Fun

I bought my first glue gun last week. It’s not the first time I’ve wielded one, it’s merely the first one I’ve ever owned.

I’ve been wanting to “bling” out my camera strap and camera bag for sometime. My friend Craig calls it my "need to bedazzle." My friends know I'm a sucker anything shiny. Heck, I'd hot glue rhinestones to my car if I had enough money to do it. If it's good enough for Liberace, it's good enough for me. Sure it's gaudy, but luckily I stopped caring what people thought about this part of my personality a while ago. I like a little flare in my life.

I’m not done yet, but I wanted to show you what I’ve done so far. So excited!

I am a photographer by default

I am a photographer. The problem with telling people that is that they seem to think that I take pictures for a living. I don’t.

Sure, photography is what I’m trained to do. Every job I’ve had and the past 12 years of my education has revolved around photography. I honestly don’t know how to do anything else. I doubt I have the skills to get a clerical job and I think they would even fire me for being incompetent at McDonalds. Photography is my life – by default.

I never intended to enter this field. I just liked to take pictures – with no intent to make money from it. It was only after being immersed in it for a while that it occurred to me that I could make money from it.

Seriously, the thought of taking pictures for a living makes me nauseous. Don’t take this to mean that I think of myself as an artist – far from it. Calling myself an artist feels just as wrong as calling myself a brain surgeon or a nuclear physicist.

I don’t know what I am. I just know that I’m not that easily labeled. I like to write, but I don’t want to be a writer; I like to create. Then, of course, it occurs to me that I don’t need to be labeled as anything at all. I’ll just do the things I like to do and that’s enough.

Cypress College Bookstore Food

OK, OK. I get it, you’re tired of looking at that blog post of Randy’s finger. I’ve heard from 4 people already that I need to update my blog. Frankly, I’m surprised that there are even four people reading my blog!

Let’s talk about food then – it’s always one of my favorite topics.

Lately, I’ve been buying my food from the Cypress College Bookstore (they’ve been making a small fortune from me) rather than the food service place in the Student Center or places off campus. Yes, it’s pre-packaged food, but I’m telling you that the food from the bookstore tastes better than the stuff they prepare at the food service place, it’s less expensive, and the people in the bookstore are way nicer! My peeps in the bookstore take very good care of me.

I’d like to give a shout out to my homies, The Bookstore Crew! Holla! (I know, I know, I’m not supposed say “Holla!” ever again, but I couldn’t resist.)

Breakfast: Lisa’s Natural Gourmet blueberry and peach yogurt parfait with crunchy granola toppings.

Lunch: Cajun Chicken Sandwich on Pita Bread with aioli sauce, a bag of sour cream and onion Lay’s, and a cherry Dr. Pepper. Oh Yum!

Afternoon Snack: Kosher Couscous Salad with green onions, parsley, bell peppers, tomatoes, olive oil, marinara sauce, and some spices (that is if I can beat a certain buddy of mine to it first).

***An honorable mention goes out to the chicken salad sandwich. It’s also very good.

Randy's Hand Surgery

Good news, the surgery on Randy’s hand went well. He still has all 5 fingers.

Part of the pinky on Randy’s right hand was swollen. He’s not sure what caused it, but thinks a splinter he got in his finger at work a while back might have caused it. After living with it for some time Randy finally asked his doctor about it and his doctor recommended the surgery after seeing an x-ray of the hand. There was no splinter, but something was definitely there that shouldn’t be.

I went with him to Kaiser in case he wouldn’t be able to drive home. I was thoroughly impressed; it was unlike any doctor’s visit I’ve ever been to. It reminded me of checking into a hotel more than anything. Their system seemed to be organized and efficient. We were in and out so quickly I barely had time to enjoy their oh so comfortable waiting room. I even brought two books and a fully charged iPhone in case it took a while. I’m not sure why I had such a bad impression of Kaiser before. It was great!

Anyway, Randy’s hand is out of commission for a few weeks so he’ll be staying home from work until at least the end of the month. He’s doing quite well despite not being able to use his right hand. The anesthesia wore off around 8pm and he started experiencing some pain, but his spirits are pretty high with the thought of getting to take two weeks off of work.

We’ll see how things go over the next few days when he has to take a shower or do just about anything he normally does with his right hand. Somehow, I have a feeling he’ll be able to use the remote control just fine with his left hand.

Beyond Chubby

I’m in shape. Round is a shape.

Over the past 3 or 4 years my metabolism has decided that it’s worked hard enough and it’s going into retirement. I’m now 175 pounds (down from my high of 180).

Needless to say, I’d like to be in better shape than I am now, ideally about 130 lbs. A major part of the reason I want to get in better shape is vanity. I just don’t like the way I look. My belly shouldn’t stick out farther than my boobs, I’m just sayin’.

The other part is because I’m sick and tired of not being able to move the way I used to. I have a hard time tying my shoelaces or clipping my toenails. They’re hard for me to reach because every time I bend over my belly prevents me from going to far.

For those of you that don’t know me that well, I hate shopping for clothes. I’m still wearing some of the clothes I wore back in high school (much to the disapproval of some of my friends). I hardly have clothes that fit me anymore and if I don’t lose weight, I’ll have to go shopping soon. Eeek!

I’m going back to Thailand this June to visit family and friends and I just don’t want them to see me fat. I want to look good. The last time I saw my mom 10 years ago (too long, I know) she said I looked like a water buffalo – and I was only 130 pounds at the time!

Anyhow, this is me now. Luckily, I don’t have issues sharing unflattering pictures of me on the Internet for the entire world to see. It’ll just make the before and after pictures more dramatic. My goal is to loose two pounds a week until the end of June. If I do, that’ll put me at my goal weight of 130 pounds. Wish me luck.

Yet Another Party

My sister is having a birthday party for Chatchi at the house tomorrow and the food prep begins tonight. Chatchi and my sister are cooking machines! I’m not sure how many people are invited, but by the looks of it there should be enough to feed about 200 people. Knowing that, I’m guessing there are going to be about 30 people or so showing up.

Grammar, pronunciation, and style! Oh my!

A few days ago I was initiated into a group of people who write to each other in order to gripe about the pet peeves they harbor about grammatical, pronunciation, and spelling errors that others make. This happened after I tweeted about how one of my pet peeves is when people pronounce the word “accurate” as “ak-red” instead of “ak-yur-it.” I find it ironic that someone who talks about accuracy can’t pronounce the word accurately.

Ever since I joined the group I’ve been afraid to write anything in fear of publicly committing some (or many) grammatical faux pas; I feel the need to reference dictionaries and style guides before I send out an e-mail, let alone post something on my blog.

There are socially accepted conventions to how we should write and we begin learning these formal standards in elementary school. We’re inundated with rules such as: avoid run-on sentences, avoid dangling participles, and never split an infinitive. What was an infinitive again? Or, for that matter, what the heck is a dangling participle? Yes, my mind just went into the gutter with that last question.

I still don’t know when to use “who” and when to use “whom” or if I’m using a dash, en-dash, and em-dash correctly. I may never figure out when to use a semi-colon instead of a comma. Do I overuse quotation marks? William Faulkner and James Joyce got away with using run-on sentences, why can’t I? Can fragmented sentences be used for rhetorical effect?

There are a few blogs I read from time to time because I know the people that write them. Their writing style makes me cringe. I’ve grown accustomed to those rules for how we should write and deviation from those norms makes their writing tedious to read.

My two favorite blogs are by Max Gerber and Anthony Bourdain. Neither strictly follow the formal rules of writing, but there’s something about the way they write that gives me a sense of pleasure. I can see, hear, and taste the things they write about. I feel what they feel.

Where is that line between bad English and an effective writing style?

Wasn’t one of those aforementioned rules to not have a paragraph consist of only one sentence?

Yes, I make judgments about a person’s credibility by the way they write and I don’t think I’m alone. An article released by The Latimer Group, states, “We all want to be thought of as intelligent. We all want credibility. We all want to be taken seriously. And one of the best ways to do that is to express ourselves clearly and articulately…. The importance of verbal expression, and the way it affects public perception, is crucial for success and has never been more important than it is today.”

I can’t always pinpoint what criteria I use to judge what bad writing is, I just know that I wince when I read it. I expect people to make mistakes from time to time and that’s okay with me, but when someone deviates from the norms of communication that I’ve come to expect, I question what other knowledge they lack – what else do they not know how to do, I question their credibility and ultimately their intelligence.

I strive to avoid those communication fumbles, but I know I still have a long way to go before I can communicate effectively. I toy with different styles and the manner in which I write depends not only on the context of the writing but also my mood. Sometimes I’m feeling serious so I’ll write in a more formal style; sometimes I’m feeling playful so I’ll use more colloquial phrases. Anyhow, please, please, please be patient with me as I try to figure all this stuff out. Correct me when I’m wrong and suggest (as delicately as possible – my ego is easily bruised) how I can improve my writing. Please.

Happy Birthday Andrea

A few weeks ago I got a message on Facebook inviting me to a surprise birthday party for my friend Andrea. Of course I was going to go!

As the day of the party drew near, I realized that Randy wouldn’t be able to go with me because of work. I knew I was going to the party no matter what, but there was a part of me that didn’t want to go to a party alone. Well, yes, I would know Andrea, but I knew she would be busy talking to all the other guests, and I didn’t know if I was going to be stuck alone in a corner for most of the party. In a last ditch effort, I called up my friend Tanin, someone I knew from RIS (the high school I went to) and invited him to be my date, my wingman, at the party.

Tanin and I hadn’t seen each other since he graduated RIS back in 1995, but thanks to Facebook, we reconnected a few months back. I figured this party was a great excuse to see him again AND I wouldn’t have to be alone.

So, this was my first surprise party. All the guests arrived sometime before 6:00pm, when Andrea and her husband Michael were due back home. The text message came telling us they were on their way back. The lights went off and we all got into position. For the next 7 minutes all I heard was “sssssshhhhhh……ssssssshhhhhhh!” Everyone tried to get everyone else to be quiet. Oh damn! Her dogs were outside and barking! Were her dogs supposed to be outside? Would she notice? Nope! SURPRISE!!!! Success! She didn’t suspect a thing.

I met Carol, Andrea’s best from RIS at the party. She remembered me, but I didn’t remember her. That’s always an awkward situation, but it quickly passed as we chatted about our days back at RIS. Yes, we both loved going to school and we both loved the cafeteria food.

As Andrea greeted her other guests Tanin and I snuck out to the back yard (where the smokers were). We caught each other up on our lives since RIS and it was great remembering old times.

I also met Michael’s grandmother. Normally, I feel the need to be prim and proper around anyone’s grandmother in general, but something about this woman who sat outside chain smoking with us made me feel… comfortable. I could be my semi-crude self and she would just chuckle along with us. I could never imagine either of my grandmothers ever being like that. For a moment, I was envious.

I met all of Andrea’s friends and family and I have to say, everyone was, well… cool. Normally there is the one weird person in every group. Since I couldn’t spot one among them, deduction meant the strange one was me.

Cake time came and oh, it was it beautiful! Andrea beamed at the cake her husband picked out and her friends singing happy birthday to her. Tears welled up in my eyes as I saw how happy she was. It was a perfect moment.

After Andrea opened her gifts we all helped clean up the house and got to know each other even more. Michael told me how they loved photography and talked to me about art. Andrea danced for us in her living room. Yup, she still has her moves. The night ended and I didn’t want it to. I loved these people. I hugged Andrea and Michael gave me a parting bottle of wine. I loved these people even more. We agreed we would have to see each other more and hugged again. Fantastic night with old friends.

Happy Birthday Andrea!

New Year's Dinner

My sister invited Randy and me over to the house to have a New Year’s dinner. As always it was a fabulous meal. I was stuffed silly.

Lobster, steak, and Dungeness crab, oh my!

Normally I avoid the whole Dungeness crab because it’s a pain in the butt to get the meat out, but I was feeling daring today and dug in, ripping off legs and breaking them open. It was my first time. Normally I give my sister or Randy puppy dog eyes until they dig out the meat for me. I don’t know why, but crab always tastes better when you have to get the meat out yourself.

Thanks to my sis and Chatchi for making a fab dinner as always.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year! Welcome to a new year as well as a new decade!

Truth be told, I wasn’t all that into celebrating the New Year this time. I would have rather sat home in front of the computer with my headphones on, sifting through images from 2009. But off to celebrate I did.

The family partied at the A Boys’ newly remolded house this year. As usual, there was a ton of people and nearly as much food. In the end, I’m glad I went. It was nice to be with family and friends.

I have high hopes for 2010. 2009 was a difficult year as learned to balance a social and family life with work, school, and dealing with the death of two very close friends.

I’m not making any resolutions this year. I was never a big fan of them, but that doesn’t mean I don’t plan on some changes in my life. As some of you may know, I’m nearly obsessive about cleaning and organizing. I’m a happy camper if I could just have my pine sol and pledge. A lot of my frustration in 2009 came from disorganization, which is why I spent so much time cleaning. I plan on being more organized so that I can have more time to do the things I want to do.

I hope that 2010 will bring you whatever makes you happy, be it an organized life, or just one in which you find contentment with the things you have.

Here’s to a new year and a fresh start… again! May friendships and days of auld lang syne be remembered. Surely you’ll buy your pint and surely I’ll buy mine.

Note to self: drink less beer, shoot at a higher ISO, and squeeze the shutter.

Phillip Stewart Charis

For as long as I can remember my parents have had these two portraits of themselves hanging in our house. My father kept them lit under spotlights in our living room. Over the years I’ve watch them slowly fade the way old photographs do. Faded as they were, there was something that had timeless, elegant, and yes, a certain dignity about them. I figured the portraits were at least 25 years old and there was little to suggest that those photographs were shot in the 70s or 80s, except for my father’s glasses that may have hinted at the decade. There was something about them that looked liked they could have been created yesterday.

It occurred to me a few years ago that I should try to figure out who took the shots to see if I could get reprints. I had hoped there might be a label on the back indicating who the photographer was. This Christmas I noticed that they had been moved from their usual location to a place I could actually get to. I looked at the back... nothing. I was a little disappointed, but that was pretty much what I thought I would find anyway.

The pictures had faded so much that it became obvious where the image had been retouched since the pigments they used hadn't faded nearly as much as the photographs themselves. Back in the day, before I discovered Photoshop, I did my retouching with paints and pigments too, but that was almost 10 years ago. I stood there and noticed where some of the pigments were applied with a paint brush and saw the areas where an air brush was used. I was studying the technique. The area around the sleeves of my father's jacket and the area around my mother's hair had been painted in with a brush. An air brush was used to darken the right side of the image. I imagine it was a vignetting technique. My eyes followed the line made by the airbrush all the way to bottom right-side of the portrait and it was there that I noticed a faint signature. "Charis ©1979". I looked closer. Event fainter: "Phillip". I couldn't make out the middle name, but I hoped I had enough.

I grabbed my iPhone and typed it in. The first entry on the list: "Charis Portraiture - Phillip Stewart Charis". Wow, that was easy. Had I thought about it longer I would have had little hope that a photographer working 30 years ago would still be working today and have a web site, but there it was.

Today, I called the number listed on the site. I told them that I believed that Mr. Charis had photographed my parents back in 1979 and asked if they might still have the negatives and if it was possible to get reprints. The person on the phone, a very kind sounding woman, said that it was very likely that they still had the negatives and should the negatives be found, it’s still possible to get reprints. She also told me that at 92, Mr. Charis is still alive and working.

Charis’s site described him as a master of photography. Was it true or was it just another photographer tooting his own horn? I decided to google Mr. Charis. Perhaps he wasn’t tooting his own horn after all. He was given a five-minute standing ovation as he stood to speak at the Professional Photographers of America (PPA) annual convention, Imaging USA in 2006, Epson features Mr. Charis’s work on their site, and he was written about in the Los Angeles Times. Some of the people he’s photographed include Nancy Reagan, Joan Collins, Henry Mancini, Michael Landon, and Engelbert Humperdinck

I wonder what kind of photographer he was back in 1979. Was he as renowned then as he is now? How did my parents who had only immigrated from Thailand a few years before find him.

I called his studio again, this time to ask how much a commissioned shot would cost. Prints start at 16x20 and cost upwards of a thousand dollars. Somehow I wasn’t surprised. Maybe, one day, I’ll sit for him too.

Dancing Christmas Robots

Ever want to see a bunch of tiny robots synchronized to dance to Christmas music? Yeah? Me neither. Here it is anyway.

Synchronized Robot Christmas Dance - Watch more Funny Videos

Soju Bombs

My buddy Kenny is mighty fine photographer and the videos he shoots are pretty amusing too. Here is a video of the boys drinking Soju Bombs. Pretty impressive.

Thank You!

I am blessed to have not one, but two Thanksgivings: one with my Thai family and one with my Filipino family. One of these days I’ll have to work out a way to have a third one with my photo family.

The first stop for the evening was my sister’s place for some deep fried turkey, a sinfully delicious cut of prime rib, and a table full of Thai food.

Manny and Debbie even came over before heading over to the Filipino Thanksgiving after tempting her with a chance to meet up with her friend Diana and a plate full of my sister’s oh so spicy raw shrimp.

The next stop was back home, where, I swear, there must have been 30 people in the living room. There is a tradition where we all stand around the table together, hold hands and say a prayer of thanks and one I didn’t want to miss.

I want to let you know what I’m thankful for this year. I’m thankful for my families: the Thai family, the Filipino family, and my photo family. Yeah, sometimes we’re a bit dysfunctional, but it keeps things interesting. No matter what, we love each other. I’m thankful for my friends who are just as much family to me as the ones connected through blood, who are there for me when I laugh and never leave my side when I cry.

A special thanks goes out to my best friend, the love of my life, Randy. Thank you for all the years we’ve had together. Thank you for letting me follow my dreams and supporting me without question. Thank you for all the little things you do for me. I know that bringing me home a Slurpee on a hot summer day means I love you. Thank you for knowing I’m not the flowers and jewelry kind of girl and new desk chair for my birthday will make me smile. Thank you for putting up with my constant, horrible singing in the car, thank you for buying the NyQuil when I’m sick, thank you for giving me the good jacket on cold winter nights, and most of all, thank you for loving me.

Downtown Disney with Andrea

Andrea and I have known each other since high school, but we lost touch for almost 10 years. Although I’m not sure how, we found each other again a few years back.

Truth be told, Andrea and I hardly knew each other in high school. I was a year (or maybe two) ahead of her so we never really had class together. She also had a signing career back then (see video below), so I don’t remember her being around too much. We would occasionally pass each other in the halls and say hi. The only meaningful conversation I remember having with her was when I got out of math class one day and she sat in the hallway trying to pull out the braids she had in her hair. I sat down beside her and helped her pull them out and we went our separate ways. That was the last time I remember seeing her. Over dinner a few years back she told me that she had moved from Thailand back the U.S that year.

I don’t know why I feel so close to her now. Perhaps it’s that common background of having gone to RIS, having someone else around that knows about that surreal life we had back Thailand. I suppose if we told the stories about what life was like going to RIS, and living in Bangkok, most people wouldn’t believe us. We went to school kids who had more money than most people here would make in a lifetime. Having drivers and maids were the norm. At 14, going out for drinks at the clubs or the bars along Patpong, the red light district, was socially acceptable.

Every time Andrea and I see each other we say that we should meet up more than twice a year, but so far, that’s a pattern that we have yet to break.

Our biannual get together led us to a late lunch at Dave and Busters and then a photo excursion at Downtown Disney. I handed my camera to Andrea and she was the photographer that night. We walked along the shops at Downtown Disney, stopping at a store that sold nothing but mismatched socks – yes, my friends, such a place really does exist.

A quick stop at the candy store to watch some cast members make chocolate treats and to pick up Randy’s favorite sour apple candy.

Anyone that knows me knows that I have a thing for the Disney Channel. Okay, so I watch Hannah Montana, Wizards of Waverly Place, and the occasional episode of Jonas. How could I not try rockin' the Hannah Montana guitar purse?

Last but not least was a stop at Sephora. How can a girl resist?

These days Andrea works as an attorney. Yup, she’s beautiful and smart. Hopefully we can find more time than twice a year to hang out. Hey Andrea! How about another dinner date after my finals are over?

Note: all photos from this post are courtesy of Andrea. ☺

Broken Window

We had a little bit of excitement in the Photo Department at Cypress College last night. When Jonathan Fletcher and I walked into Studio 2 to put some frames away I noticed a few pieces of “something” on the floor next to the window. As I moved closer I noticed that it looked like glass and not from the frames that were nearby. Hey! That glass looks suspiciously like the kind in the window!

Jonathan and I open the blinds to find that the window was cracked from floor to ceiling. I quickly called security to let them know about the window and then raced downstairs to let the automotive instructor and students working directly below the window know about the situation.

After a few phone calls to and from the powers that be, it was determined that the window needed to be broken out completely since it could fall at any moment. The area directly below the window was blocked off with caution tape while students and staff were cleared from the area while the window was being broken out. John shot photos from below while I remained in the studio.

Serendipity saved the day. If Jonathan had not needed the cart which the frames were on, I probably wouldn’t have walked into the studio that night and discovered the window. Luckily the pieces of glass that had fallen out of the window fell inside the studio and not out onto any students or staff working below.

I’m glad the situation was quickly resolved and action was taken quickly by all parties involved. Thank you to the security staff, the evening Dean, and the automotive instructors who worked quickly to make sure everyone was safe.