The End of an Era
Saturday, December 3, 2011 at 09:52AM 
It’s been a year and a half since we first released “The Dogs of 30A,” and I have to say, I never imagined what this book would mean to the amazing community of 30A. What started as a tentative idea almost two years ago created an upwelling of pride and joy up and down Florida’s favorite section of their beloved Emerald Coast: Historic 30A.
I remember the first day I decided to “go public” with my idea and photograph some of the local dogs for my book. I was a nervous wreck, terrified to approach people for permission. The plan had been thrown together so quickly that it would be an overstatement to say we were prepared. Rob dug through our office supplies and found an old clip board, we grabbed some of his business cards (the only ones we had….which had nothing to do with our project), scrounged a pen out of the console of the car, and headed to the beach to start a project of which we had only conceived a few days before. On the way there, I furiously scanned through the owner’s manual of my new camera, trying to learn some more about it before we got to Grayton Beach.
I felt like some sort of stalker, trying to sit casually on the chilly beach with my camera, scanning for dogs. They started arriving after four in the afternoon, it was a gorgeous sunny day, and it was New Years Eve, 2009. Talk about dumb luck…we just happened to land at he one place where everyone (and their dogs) would be bringing in the new year!
The first dogs to arrive came in an antique orange convertible Bronco, making for some great shots as they drove in. Once they hit the beach, I used my zoom lens to get some more shots. But what I really needed was permission to put these pictures in my book (or at least I thought I needed permission, I really wasn’t sure, never having done anything even remotely like this in my life.) Rob urged me to go introduce myself and take the clipboard with the release form over and simply ask them for permission.
“Are you out of your mind?” I quipped, gulping my beer. “They have no idea who I am, what if they say no?” Rob’s an extrovert, but I lean toward introversion, and in an unknown situation like that, I tend to freeze in terror. We both knew where this conversation was headed.
“You want me to do it?”
“Yes!” I happily handed him the clipboard and sat down to look out at the ocean. I couldn’t even watch.
He walked over to the family, talked to them, came back smiling with the release form filled out. “They’re all yours.”
I started photographing their adorable white boxer, Roxy, and then the craziness began. The owner’s little girl started running up and down the beach to the other dog owners, telling them I was photographing for a new dog book about the dogs living on 30A. Suddenly instead of being the stalker, I was being stalked. I felt like some sort of celebrity, with people approaching me and introducing themselves, showing me their dogs and asking to be in the book. Some people even left to go home and get their dogs. I couldn’t believe it, not only were these people willing to allow me to photograph their dogs, they were actually thrilled and excited to be a part of my project!
I filled every memory card I had that day, taking about 900 pictures, dozens of them good enough to be in the book. (I learned a lot about my camera that day, too!) That evening, I went home to download the pictures and stayed up until 3 am editing them. I don’t really remember anything else about that New Year’s Eve, but needless to say, I was hooked on this project and loving it!
Of course photographing turned out to be the easy part, and I won’t bore you with the trauma and drama that was the difficult part! Suffice it to say, we got through all our hurdles and published our book just about the time the little amber globs of oil hit the beach: July 8th, 2010.
Fast forward to today: only a handful of the original 1500 books remain, and, sadly, we have no plans to reprint. It was a wonderful project, long overdue, and it paid homage to a group of people who deserved recognition for the dog-loving community they’ve lovingly nurtured through the years. It’s tough to say goodbye to this project, but it’s been a wild, crazy, ride and I dare say I’d gladly do it all again if I could.
What’s next, you ask? Well, I’ve been thinking, and I have to say, I’m drawn back to the beginning. I still love dogs, I still love photography, and I’m still madly in love with 30A. Right now I’m trying to figure out if there’s some way to have a viable dog or pet photography business…but that’s another chapter yet to be written!
