Behind the Camera

My name is Lee Perkins and East Beach Photography is my personal website.  Much of my life has involved traveling.  I surfed my first wave when I was five years old at Barbers Point on Oahu, sailed with my family from California to Hawaii on a 41-foot sloop, drove (with white knuckles) over the 7,000 foot high Tizi n’Tichka pass in Morocco, and in 1972, I sat in the captain’s dining room aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Eagle talking to Alex Haley about the book he’d just finished writing called, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. 

Along the way, I earned a master’s degree in geography from Arizona State University and spent the last 36 years managing the natural resources for the City of Norfolk, Virginia.  During that time, I also had a blast running a professional photography business.  I absolutely loved photographing weddings and events.  Each one was unique and gave me the same rush as each of my life experiences detailed above.  Yes, I took a few wipeouts and there were a few "white knuckle" moments along the way!

But now, in that wonderful period of my life called retirement, my wife and I are looking to put my geography degree to work finding great places to travel to, surfing everyday, practicing hot yoga, and perhaps reading a few of the books I never had time for when I was working for a paycheck.  I'd also like to grow my photography skill-set and finally learn the advanced features of Lightroom and Photoshop CC.  And to make it even more challenging, I just switched from all Canon camera gear to Fuji and now have to learn anew!  But I'm retired, so what else do I have to do?

So welcome to my website.  Some new Panama galleries have been added with more to come.  Namaste and Aloha!