I'M FREE!!!

Today was my last day at work, and tomorrow is my first day at work. That might not make sense, but it will in a minute. Just hold that thought.


When Ellie spurred me on to get the job at the Marbella Apple store I was a little apprehensive. My Spanish was so/so. I knew a few cool tricks with the Mac, but honestly didn't even know how to change the memory in a MacBook. Pitifully, I didn't even know how to reinstall a system, or even start from the install disk for that matter! These things had never occurred to me as necessary or interesting, but that didn't matter to the man who hired me. He was looking for someone passionate and interested in Apple. I was hired, and I jumped in head first. Before long I was learning everything from the most basic diagnostics to how to solve kernel panics and replace components. My job was getting interesting and I was learning and growing.

I met some really interesting people in the following months, some of whom I have become friends with, and some I will collaborate with on future ventures. The most interesting characters I met in my two and a half years at Benotac were the ones who make their living from what they see in their viewfinder. Every week some photographer would come into the store asking me about some program, or a memory upgrade, or to invest in a new workstation, but for every question they asked me I would fire back two more. What did they shoot, how did they do it or if they'd seen 'x' photographer's work. It became clear to me that, although I really loved (and still do love) the Apple scene, my real passion was for creating images. Apple computers and the Mac OS are fun and a joy to work with, but holding a camera in my hands inspires me to seek new boundaries. It's not that I want people to see what I see, but to see what I can shape though my lens using light, reflectors, depth, aperture, shutter speed, angles, point of view and texture.

Taking pictures has become my new mission. Work can be anything you make of it. Taking the fucking rubbish out is work. It's what you make of that work and how you present it that matters. I want what I create to matter. I want my work to influence. I want people to see what I do and laugh and smile and think, "That guy has a great job!"

That job starts now.