Day-At-A-Glance

Back when I first decided to quite my day job as a wholesale wine sales rep 1980 to 85.    I was obsessed to fallow my dream of becoming a professional photographer.  Frustrated with how hard it was I decided to do a portrait of myself to illustrate how I felt.  I used a 4X5 camera with Polaroid type 55 film. My friend Dave Nations (RIP) tripped the shutter. It was a collaboration of sorts where he asked me to exaggerate my movements. It worked out and this was the result. The photo was made south of Phoenix, Arizona on the Gila Indian Reservation.  Thinking back I’m glad we didn’t get caught trespassing by tribal police.  So here I am portfolio in one hand, day-at-a-glance appointment book in the other marching along ready to start my new career but not knowing where to go.  The photo was taken in 1985.  I was photographing as much as I could trying to get better and gain some experience while trying to get freelance work.   It was a slow process but I believed if you want something bad enough it will happen if you work hard and stick with it.  In the beginning it was a fake it till you make it. Practice makes better.  It would be three more years before I got a full-time job at the Scottsdale Progress Newspaper. Three more years I went onto the Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper Mesa Tribune for a total of 20 years as a photojournalist. Laid off January 1, 2009 I then transitioned to 11 more years as a freelance commercial photographer. In the beginning we had very little money making many sacrifices for my quest to be a photographer but in the end I was so fortunate to find a job that was made for me.