This weekend has been great! Santa Barbara is beautiful.

I learned a lot about David Jay's work flow today. Very valuable information. It has been getting hard for me to take pictures lately because every click of the button just meant I was going to have to spend a lot of time sitting at my computer "editing". Icky the dreaded "E" word. David's work flow and the way he structures his time is very inspiring to me. Gives me a new way to look at things. Thanks David for passing on what you have learned. I plan on doing the same, every chance I get.

I made it to the beach today. Just before dark. It was nice. I am getting up early tomorrow morning so I can spend some time looking around before I have to fly home.

Every time I leave home my world gets a little bigger. For so long my world has been the little area of Northern California that I grew up in. Today I realized it's all my world, it's all my home. There is so much more to my world then I knew, I have so much exploring to do, so many new things to learn, and so many new people to meet. I look forward to it all!

Another thing I got from David and this weekend is some freedom. I have been so concerned with only producing photos that I think are perfect or great, I kind of lost track of the fun part of photography. Of taking pictures of what ever I feel like taking pictures of. I am posting pictures here that represent things I saw today or this one, that represents how I felt on the beach.

I really don't care if it is perfect, or wonderful, or striking. It was fun taking it, and it will remind me of this day every time I see it, and the little bit of freedom I reclaimed today. I reclaimed that with the help of new friends, new places, and new ideas.

I would like to know, why in Santa Barbara with a population of 421625 there are only three Starbucks and in Chico with a population of 75091 there are five (or six, I can't keep up)? That's weird. I was on a "Find the Starbucks" mission and was not going to give up until I found one. I just wondered around until I saw one. Finally I got my fix!!

The view from my room

OK I don't know if you are supposed to post in these blogs two times in one day, but what the heck this is my blog and I'm doing what ever I want.

This is my view from my room. There are weird noises coming from above me. I can hear the wind and rain too. That is kind of nice.

DAVID Jay at Brooks Institute of Photography

Today seems surreal to me. I just spent the day with David Jay
in a workshop at Brooks Institute of Photography.

I was walking to my car after the workshop and it hit me, I am in Santa Barbara, I flew here by myself, I found the hotel by myself, and somehow, I still don't really know how, but I found Brooks. I say I still don't know how, because my map was for the wrong location. I couldn't even find the wrong location but somehow ended up in the correct location...sounds confusing I know. You should have been there when it was happening, that was confusing too.

I walked into the class room and saw David there! So cool. I really learned a lot today from his workshop, cant wait to see what I learn tomorrow. He is a very interesting person. He seems to be a genuinely nice guy, and very smart.

My hotel room is not the most expensive and definitely not the nicest, but it is near the water. I haven't had the chance to go see the water, but I hope to before I leave.

The way my life is changing seems un-believable to me at times. Like it's not really me, but someone else doing all this stuff. I have been in an airplane 3 times now in the past 3 months. I was 10 or something the last time I flew. Now I am a frequent flyer! LOL

It is all such a rush, to met new people, do new things. Very cool!