Photographer or Surgeon?
Okay, so today I embarked on a new journey... through a hospital. Last week, I met a Dr. Hoang, who may be the most interesting person I have ever met. To give you a back story: Dr Hoang fleed from Vietnam after the war I think, and became one of the people known as the "boat people." He literally just got on a boat and travelled to the Phillipines. He stated that he felt he had no future for him in Vietnam and wanted to change that. What was supposed to be a 4 or 5 day boat ride, turned into 28 days. After 7 days, they ran out of water and food. The boat ride cost him his two cousins' life, and almost his life. He came to the United States at 24 years old in 1982.
Long story short, he came to the U.S and only wanted to get a job and send money to his family but now he's a heart surgeon. Super awesome story.
Anyways, I took some photos of him just in an empty surgery room (like an evironmental portraish ish) and they were super super boring. But, then I got the opportunity to catch him in action in an actual surgery operating on someone.
Hence, my journey began as I woke up at 7:00 a.m. this morning to get to the hospital.
Long story short, he came to the U.S and only wanted to get a job and send money to his family but now he's a heart surgeon. Super awesome story.
Anyways, I took some photos of him just in an empty surgery room (like an evironmental portraish ish) and they were super super boring. But, then I got the opportunity to catch him in action in an actual surgery operating on someone.
Hence, my journey began as I woke up at 7:00 a.m. this morning to get to the hospital.
I had to put on what was called a, "bunny suit." It was like this white jumpsuit thing that zipped up. I had a thing on my head (picture on the right) and little booties for my shoes (picture on the left). I also had to wear a mask over my mouth. Very fashionable.
After waiting for the patient to be dressed out for surgery I entered the operating room.
It was interesting. I had never been in an operating room before. This might be too graphic but the only weird part was the smell of the patient being cut open, but other than that everything was fine. It was a little challenging because I had to be a certain distance away from the "blue drape" because I could contaminate important surgery stuff, but that also meant I had to stay farther away from them operating.
Anywho, here are some of my pictures. I'm hoping they're good enough to be put in a portfolio.
ISO: 800
Aperture: 3.5
Shutter: 1/640
ISO: 800
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/250
ISO: 800
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/640
Dr. Hoang operates alongside peers on Tuesday, August 1, 2017 at CHRISTUS St. Michaels. Cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr. Thomas Hoang has been working at CHRISTUS St. Michaels for two months now. However, behind the scrubs reveals a compelling story. Hoang felt he had no future growing up and eventually decided to become one of the "boat people" fleeing from Vietnam to the Philippines where he could learn English and western culture. He came to the U.S. when he was 24 years old in 1982 with the only goals of finding a job and sending money to his family. Now, some 35 years later, Hoang is a respected heart surgeon from the Dallas area with his own success story.
I regretfully admit that yes, I almost decided not to go because I had to be there at 7:30 a.m. But, I decided to go because this was probably a once in a lifetime photo opportunity. Although I'm a tad bit tired right now, I think these pics are decent and in general the experience went okay.
I think the most important lesson I learn out of this experience was persistence. I had to contact the person to set this up multiple times, and if I hadn't been persistent then I'm not sure I would've been able to shoot this today.