About Grain & Waves

The process of becoming a photographer, plus the work of creating a life around the ocean. I started in my 30s, alongside a career as a surgeon. For people building a second act and an artistic practice on their own terms.

Why this, why now

I'm a surgeon who picked up a film camera years ago and started dismantling the assumption that your healthcare career has to own you. Along the way, I met others who also built a creative business where they had what their day job didn’t give them - ownership and creative autonomy. Grain & Waves is a field journal of doing that in real time. I share the actual mechanics of becoming a photographer with no formal training and joy of doing that in the Central Coast of California.

What you get

Weekly, in your inbox:

Honest notes on creating the portfolio from scratch - building income and an artistic identity outside of healthcare, while avoiding LinkedIn gloss (I’m more like LinkedOut).
A shoot breakdown - what worked and what I’d do differently. I focus on finding opportunities in photography and sharing how I did it.
Photo essays — I’m based on the Central Coast of California and also love to visit surf-based destinations. My essays center on coastal portraiture, because I think meeting new people is the most interesting part of travel.

What won’t be here: gear reviews and listicles. What matters to me is the work and people behind a camera.

Who this is for

Photographers. Surfers. Anyone quietly running the numbers on their time from a career that doesn’t entirely fit, who wants real-time proof that an artistic business is buildable.

Not for you if you want gear-review churn or an influencer story. This writing is slower and more specific than that.

About me

I’m Clara — a surgeon and photographer on California’s Central Coast. I moved from Philadelphia (Go Birds!) and am now based in beautiful Pismo Beach. A year ago I didn’t know anyone here, and now I’ve built a community from my workplace and meeting people while surfing. You can find me in the ocean before operating and getting back in with water housing at sunset.

Contact

Shoot a message to share your own creative journey, or if you’re in the Central Coast area. I’m always looking to shoot, surf, and connect.

More: @claracoastal · clarazhu.me

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I'm a Philadelphia transplant and self-taught photographer. I write about building a creative practice alongside a demanding job in healthcare, progressing in photography, and life on California's Central Coast.