Where:  Santa Barbara, CA

Between Meeting:   After a Brooks Institute Advisory Board Meeting

When I was a student at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara I rarely noticed the immediate area.   I would often drive 2.5 hours to my native LA to do assignments because I thought Santa Barbara was where the action wasn’t.  My long term photographic sights were on Chicago then New York and even London.  Over time, I did Executive work in the business schools of Harvard, UVA and Michigan. For the most part, my world was East of the Mississippi.

When I went back to Santa Barbara recently as a member of the Brooks Institute Advisory Board, I was shocked at how beautiful Santa Barbara really was, and equally shocked that I never noticed this when I was a teenager.

So after one of the Advisory Board meetings I set out to capture the beauty of Santa Barbara I missed as a student.  I failed.  All I was getting were postcards.   So I settled into my comfort zone of shadows and contrast and found a skateboard park.  While the park was within sight of the Pacific Ocean, I focused on the shadows of skateboarders and bicyclists.  I cropped out the palm trees, got the shot and then like old times, drove 2.5 hours to LA only this time to catch the red-eye to New York.