I Lost My Heart To My Wife 56 Years Ago, Now I Am Losing A Photo Contest to Her By Photographer, Author & Contributor Don Hurzeler
Something you may have suspected by now (if you have read any of my previous articles in the Palos Verdes Pulse), I was always the first one in any of my classes at Malaga Cove to raise my hand when it was time to share. I love sharing my photos with you.
In those articles, I always mention my wife…barely. However, the worm has turned and it is now time for me to push her out front. Not that she wants to be out front…she does not…but current events have forced her hand.
Quiet, beautiful, behind-the-scenes Linda has taken to beating the daylights out of me in photo contest after photo contest. Her latest win ranked her as The Top Travel Photographer in the USA…men and women. I know this because she has now mentioned it to me a dozen times or more.
Linda is a full partner in Lava Light Galleries, Inc. in Waikoloa, Hawaii…along with C.J. Kale and myself. She has been for many years. While C.J. and I do our best to drive some publicity for the gallery, she quietly just puts up her photos and they sell very well. In fact, she is happy to mention that one of her photos was the very first photo to sell when we opened the gallery. Given that C.J. and I are both very competitive people…that is just a fact that we have to acknowledge, but not necessarily like.
Here is her photo career story…
Linda was raised in Southern California, in the Valley and at Malibu. We met at Chapman University, fell in love, married 54 years ago and then lived all over the USA. We now live in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.
On just about our first day in Hawaii in 2008, we went out by boat to view the lava flowing into the sea. We loved it. Next night we hired a guide to take us out to the place where the lava was flowing over the cliff. That guide became our business partner, CJ…and he took this photo of us looking into the lava (and scared half to death). That photo became the cover of one of my books.
The above turtle shot is Linda’s best seller and one of the best sellers in the entire gallery. She stood on a rock for 45 minutes waiting for that turtle to come out of the water. I had wandered off and did not get a decent shot that evening.
She and I took up photography late in life…in our sixties. It took us years to learn our trade. In doing so, it has changed our “retirement” years into a grand adventure. We travel the world, risk our necks and look for that one unique shot that might sell in the gallery or possibly do well in the few contests we enter.
Enough about her…I would like to mention that our various adventures have caused me to write a new book, out later this year. The working title is The Geezers Guide to Adventure. In it, I will share what Linda and I have learned about putting away our fears, pushing our limits and enjoying all the beauty that the world has to offer…safely, economically and with a fair amount of comfort.
To give you an idea of the variety of places and settings we explore, here are a few of her photos from around the world…
The Big Sur
Tanzania
The lava cliffs of the Big Island of Hawaii
A fisheye look at the top of Mauna Kea
Whale shark of Isla Holbox, Mexico…with a large cobia riding the pectoral fin.
A pueo (Hawaiian short eared owl) near our home.
Java sparrows in our backyard.
This last photo won her a prize in another contest a few months ago where she was named the number four female landscape photographer in the USA and number two for wildlife.
And I will wrap this up with a bit of a surprise. I’ve done some photography for a wonderful swimwear company out of Newport Beach, California…Slipins. They sent me two dive skins that looked like whale shark markings and asked me to photograph them with a model I work with, Alysha Cooper. Not wanting to put the second swim skin to waste, I asked Linda to try it on…after all, she did some modeling back when we were first married. Here is the result…a photo that Slipin was able to use…making Linda a swim suit model at age 70 something. I’m kind of proud of her for that one…something we would never have imagined as we grew old.
Having the shared passion of photography in our retirement years has made these years the best of our lives. I have that wish for you…to find your passion…put away your fears of failure and of looking foolish…and live life to its fullest. I know it is hard to leave the beauty of Palos Verdes…but it is a big world out there and I hope you get to see it all.
Aloha.
Don and Linda are “lucky to live Hawaii” for the past fourteen year and claims to have never experienced an unhappy day on the island.
However, he does admit that he thinks of PV often…as it stands today and as it was. And what he misses most from those early days on the hill are growing up with a great set of friends and neighbors and the unimaginable freedom enjoyed in those days. He claims that he was raised like a free range chicken, able to hitch hike to get around town, to go out in surf that would scare any parent and to carry around a bow and arrow or small caliber gun to protect himself from rattle snakes when he hiked the canyons…not as a highly trained, accredited, licensed gun owner…but as a 12 year old kid whose dad treated guns like tools…there for protection and to be treated with respect and care.
And the best part of his freedom, no cell phones. Don was basically on his own and no one could track him or reach him until he decided to come home. Don always knew when dinner was served and he made sure to sneak in the door a few minutes prior. And, get this, dinner always included beer for Don…from about age 9 on. Or a milkshake made using 31 Flavors Baskin and Robbins ice cream from the Hollywood Rivera store mixed with crème de menthe. His dad felt the alcohol would whet Don’s appetite and help him grow from the skinny kid he was in those days. That did not work, but it did make him (temporarily) unafraid of orcas.
You can catch up with Don Hurzeler on Facebook. He is also on Instagram @donhurzeler. His book writing website is donhurzeler.com and his photography website is lavalightgalleries.com.
For a kid who grew up on the mean streets of Palos Verdes Estates, parented in a way that would land everyone in jail today, but supported, coached and loved…Don came out alright. A PV boy who fully understands how lucky he was that his parents built their dream home on a hill with a million lights sparkling below…or a fog bank a thousand feet thick.
