Well I couldn’t just scuba dive and hang out at the beach every day meeting tourists, as fun as it sounds, it is.
I had an accident that limited what I could do (drive), I had been a carpenter but I wasn’t up to that anymore.
So, I used an old mainland phonebook as a search engine, I went page by page, occupation by occupation wondering how I was going to survive without a job in Kona Hawaii with no resources.
I got as far as the P’s in the Yellow pages and thought “Oh boy I’m running out of options” and then photographers showed up, “I loved photography” by the way everybody says that. So why not, the next day I ordered business cards.
I knew one thing about photography just the tried and true “PASS method” which is “POINT AND SHOOT STUPID”.
I applied at Kona Photo Arts that day and the next thing I know I’m at the Hyatt Regency Waikoloa, (Hilton Waikoloa Village today), up to my arm pits in a lagoon filled with frisky young dolphins and tourists, trying to “get the shot”.
This was pre-digital, we developed and printed everything in the hidden tunnel under the hotel, then rushed it back up within the hour.
My job was to shoot the guest interacting with the dolphins. On my first day, the trainer says whatever you do don’t look the dolphins in the eye, no bonding. So, there I am Nikon to face wading in the lagoon focusing on a dolphin trainer when a 500-pound dolphin gracefully glides between my legs forcing me to stare straight into her big beautiful soulful eye. I was hooked, that was 28 years ago.