Tea Fire Aftermath...

So one week ago the "Tea Fire" came barreling over the hills surrounding Santa Barbara.

I went out yesterday to shoot some of the devastation... what I realized... there is a reason I am a wedding photographer. I couldn't bring myself to shoot images of someone else's heartbreak... what right do I have to make art out of some else's pain when I can go home to my house which was untouched and my office (which was close . . .sooo close . . . 400 feet close) but still untouched. My heart ached for these neighbors as they stood in the middle of a pile of rubble which once was their home. I drove up one street and was shocked by the indiscriminate path the fire took... one house would be burned to the ground... and the next door neighbors' untouched.

I was also moved by the sense of camaraderie on the streets. . .as I stood on a eerily quite ledge photographing the canyon... a truck stopped and with a heavy heart asked what my relation to the fire was... turns out he had built most of the homes in the area and was driving to see how many were detstroyed... his eyes teared up as he told me his very favorite was now just a chimney and ash. As I drove down a street that was once a normal neighborhood I saw people helping out everywhere. . .I saw a group of kids sitting on a sidewalk taking a break from helping a teacher pick up the pieces. It was these images that I couldn't photograph but will forever be etched in my mind.

I think yesterday just solidified more that I will stick to the happy moments in peoples' lives. . . the joy, the laughter, the moments that people really want to have captured. The images that in times of sorrow can serve as a reminder of what's important in life... the joy they once felt and will most likely feel again.

Love,
A

(here are just a few images... they really don't it justice this is just the sight... but there was also the the warmth of the air, the smell of the smoke... the sound of the firetrucks all still hanging on in the area from last week...