Awesome Photos

My very first art shows were at the Santa Barbara Art Walk in my hometown of Santa Barbara, CA.  I was still making my living as a bartender when I began selling my art to the public and, as a long-time bartender usually does, I always worked the weekend shift.  It so happened that the SB art show was bright and early on Sunday morning.  Actually, the show began at 10 a.m., but in order to get a good selling spot I needed to show up at 5 a.m.  I was not a morning person, as you can imagine no person could be when they work to 3 a.m- much less working that late for three nights in a row.  But, I was determined at all costs to stop bartending and be a successful photographer full time and, well, I had to start somewhere.

So, it was after a particularly rough weekend of a bad music, patrons screaming at me and a one very drunk woman almost punching me in the face( after I told her she was “cut off”) that I found myself painfully exhausted and barely awake on Cabrillo Blvd. in Santa Barbara at 5 a.m.  I had gotten maybe 3 hours sleep the night previous.  I was hurting.  And, I was wondering in that moment what in the hell, exactly, had driven me to try and be a professional photographer.  After all, I was pushing 40 years old and it felt a little, well…late to be starting a new career.  Feeling a wave of depression I almost packed up in that moment.  The depth of fatigue I was feeling wasn’t helping me feel any sense of esteem.  I felt I would always be a bartender and never be able to pull off my dream.  And then, the sun began to rise and the image you see here appeared in front of me.  I ran to my truck to grab my camera.  I am no longer a bartender and I’ve done hundreds of SB beach shows since that moment.  (And “Santa Barbara Sunset” has sold many times over.)

This image was shot with my Pentax 6×7 and the new Velvia 100 (which I thought performed almost as good as Velvia 50).