Celeste Gaiera // San Francisco, CA

When I found out Celeste had plans to be in the Bay area for the summer, I thought it would be great to combine a trip to visit my brother and the City of San Francisco. Celeste and I had photographed a few times over the years for Hasselblad Ballet, and I always loved our images. Despite our first shoot being a ruined as a result of a batch of faulty film, Celeste was gracious enough to shoot again… and again… and again. Like all our other shoots, this one too was exciting and with not without hiccups.


Upon deciding on a location (Baker’s Beach), and a time (6:30am), we met in the parking lot, exchanged pleasantries and hugs, and proceeded to lock BOTH our phones and keys inside her vehicle. What were we going to do? We could not believe our luck. Thankfully, right next to Celeste’s vehicle, an old fisherman arrived in his Mercedes, and offered us a ride back into town where he could get cell service and call Triple AAA for us. With just a license plate and his own AAA account, we were able to secure some help.

After he returned us to our car, we wrote a note on a newspaper on the dashboard, alerting AAA that we would be on the beach, and to honk 4 times upon their arrival, and we could come running. Thankfully I had my Hasselblad and light meter in my hand, and we were able to at least start the shoot… albeit without my digital Polaroid camera to proof the images, and without any change of clothes.

Not one to let a good opportunity by, we decided to laugh at our situation and chalk it up to our history of stuff happening, and make the best of the situation.

July 8, 2022