Jess and Amber at the Marin Headlands

I got into photography because I had managed to get my hands on a digital point and shoot that my mom won at a raffle for a conference her work sent her too.  I didn't grow up in a very artistically inclined family.  Really I didn't grow up in a very artistically or culturally inclined part of the country.

But I was a kid in a punk rock band how had managed to get his hands on a camera in a town where most kids didn't have one.  So when my band played shows I would bring it along and photograph the other bands playing.  I felt trapped by Pennsylvania...most of us felt trapped by Pennsylvania.  We covered Dead Kennedy's songs about Jerry Brown, California, and most specifically Marin.  

"The crowded future stings my eyes
I still find time to exercise
In uniform with two white stripes

Unlock my section of the sand
It's fenced off to the water's edge
I clamp a gas mask on my head

On my beach at night
Bathe in my moonlight

Another tanker's hit the rocks
Abandoned to spill out its guts
The sand is laced with sticky glops

Oh, shimmering moonlight sheen upon
The waves and water clogged with oil
White gases steam up from the soil

On my beach at night
Bathe in my moonlight

I squish dead fish between my toes
Try not to step on any bones
I turn around and I go home

I slip back through my basement door
Switch off all that I own below
Dive in my scalding wooden tub

My own beach at night
Bathe in my moonlight

There will always be a moon over Marin"

Its weird for me. 15 years later, I stand on the edge of the Pacific Ocean just outside of San Fransisco looking down the coast of the Marin Headlands.  My camera has taken me from where I grew up to the places we sang about.  Those places seemed like dreams then, and even now that is still true.  

Amber.  Jess , and I walk down the beach, scurry over some rocks, and find a safe place away from the weekend crowds to shoot in some beautiful soft light.  The thing that I was looking for when I was a kid is pretty much the same thing I look for now.  A safe place away from the people where we can feel free to create something.

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