 |
| Jack at work as WGAN-TV cameraman |
For the anniversary post of my Dad, Jack William Siulinski, who passed away six years ago today, I would like to honor the passion he had for his work and his love of photography.
Yesterday, I delivered a speech to a large audience of genealogists at the San Mateo County Genealogical Society in California. The speech was persuasive with a focus to promote blogging as an excellent platform to share and preserve the writing of one’s family history.
For this event, I opened my presentation in a different way. In preparing for this event, I came to recognize that my father and I shared similar passions; that of storytelling. He told stories with the images he created in his photography and film work. I tell stories through my writing with careful selection of images. Although, I don’t have the added talent that my Dad had for painting and drawing, I consider that when I am writing a blog post, I am working on a different kind of canvas. Here are three examples of the creative talents of my Dad's work:
 |
| Portland Headlight image taken from a small chartered plane |
 |
| 1963 Christmas Photo Card |
 |
| A simple but beautiful drawing... |
Jack's love of photography began
before his formal training at the Rochester Institute of Technology where he received an Associate in Applied Science degree in 1953. That I know because I am in possession of his carefully created photo albums that document his military life from enlistment to discharge. He would learn the technical skills of the craft after his days in the Navy. Here are just a few of the photography tools that were used by my father back in the day:
 |
| The author posing for the artist |
Part of the legacy Jack left to his family are numerous portraits that he took of us during our childhood. He was precise in the framing of his subjects. I believe he really enjoyed the tangible aspect to the craft when he was able to physically create prints from the filmed images he took. His work for the studio involved countless assignments on the road to cover news stories and special events. He also filmed several TV commercials often using his children as subjects eager to see themselves on the big screen! My favorite event that he filmed was a whale watching excursion in Casco Bay in Portland which was made into a television program.
For this event, I opened my presentation in a different way. In preparing for this event, I came to recognize that my father and I shared similar passions; that of storytelling. He told stories with the images he created in his photography and film work. I tell stories through my writing with careful selection of images. Although, I don’t have the added talent that my Dad had for painting and drawing, I consider that when I am writing a blog post, I am working on a different kind of canvas. Here are three examples of the creative talents of my Dad's work:
