Once, I craved regular photographic commissions for payment. I did a newspaper shoot here, a magazine article there. Maybe a print for an admirer to hang on a wall.

I was successful enough and was in demand.

Pay while I crafted, as a way to fund my passion, might advance my craft, and I would become a better photographer over time. I sought a legitimacy and advancement in my art form, and somehow I thought payment for it meant I had arrived.

In short order, photography became a hustle. The people I began to work with only cared for what I could deliver as far as visual documentation. I lost my personal narrative. My passion died. As a result, I withdrew from photography for years.

People asked me why I withdrew from being an avid photographer, and I used the high price of film and equipment to justify my absence from my dear art-form.

Withdrawn from photography, I cultivated other aspects of my creativity. Software development allowed me to create and curriculum design allowed me to teach. I kept the candle lit for photography, but dismissed it as something that would ever provide me with legitimacy.

My software, curriculum and instructional endeavors always seemed to reach an artificial limit, but they paid the bills.

With money, and a lesser satisfying outlet, I was able to purchase photographic equipment and pursue photography in a low-risk world.

With time, being "left alone" and with other creative outlets paying the bills, I experienced a re-birth of my creative passion for photography. I experimented with cinematography. I began to take my cameras on adventures and rebuild my aesthetic. It was wonderful to be back as a photographer and amateur cinematographer.

People started to notice my work again. As before, people would ask if I would accept commissions. I consistently refused as I remembered how that went the first time. I wanted to protect myself, to never again, make photography something other than a muse to myself.

So how did I become involved in this project?

Sitting in a familiar local restaurant, my dear niece loves since she was a baby, I was unprepared to become involved in the owner's discussion of a local artist's vision for the restaurant. The owner of the restaurant only knew me as a loyal patron, and a photographer; I enjoyed the compartmental aspect of that.

As the owner talked about what was going to happen to his restaurant "make-over", he wanted to know what my opinion was, of his understanding of the artist's vision for his restaurant. The owner talked about how the artist was going to focus on the "arts" and have photographs and paintings for sale interspersed throughout the restaurant. As I sat there, the owner asked if I could meet with the artist and maybe contribute some of my existing images to the make-over.

Befuddled, now included in a project I did not solicit for, my private equilibrium was thrown into chaos.

Because I was in a favorite restaurant, I could do nothing except say "Sure".

I met the artist in the restaurant around closing time. The artist turned out to be a man with a string of successes and a larger-than-life personality. "Tattood Bill" has been involved in the local art scene for years. As we talked about his vision, I quickly realized that my existing imagery would not fit with what he had planned.

As I sat talking to "Tattood Bill", I started to let the conversation wane and die. I figured I would be heading home within a minute or so after a handshake and goodbye.

I began to think about my niece, and how she had been coming to this restaurant since she was a baby. How my niece would sit in these booths, order her food, and I'd watch her eat. I sat there and looked at the spacing on the walls where the pictures might hang. What if I made new images? Instead of hanging some of my existing work, what if I made new art that would fit "Tattood Bill's" vision?

My niece would LOVE to see my work hanging on the walls of her favorite restaurant!!!!

Without missing a beat, I instantaneously got back into the conversation. "Tattood Bill" must have thought he said something prophetic, as I re-engaged into the conversation. I started to listen again, and I started to contribute to the vision Bill was putting forth. Now that I was listening, the entire project sounded much better. The conversation changed tone, as I realized that I would love to collaborate with Bill.

I had a vision, and a commitment for nine images by the end of the following week. The theme was "retro, 1940-1950s, small town Florida with the local icons, in black and white".

These are the images I felt would work with Bill's theme. I shot them over the course of a week, in the depths of a hot Florida summer. Some nights I was up until 3am. I even brought my own oranges to a local citrus plant, as there are no oranges in Florida in the summer!

Not all the above images are going to be initially printed and hung, as the restaurant has limited space, but the owner and artist want ALL of them. They have not stopped talking about how much they like them.

So here they are, a reluctant return to the world of comissioned photography that I left years ago. A triumph to staying true to my aesthetic while understanding another's vision and being woken up by the whims of a six year old niece.

I hope you like them. Enjoy.

Jan. 2020 Note: Three owners of this restaurant have come and gone. My images still hang.