Long afternoons of working tirelessly on his dad’s pirate-themed boat business on Stearns’ Wharf gave Donnie Hedden the time to contemplate his future and the will to work for his dreams in multimedia.

“I feel like if I had never gotten that manual labor and that time to be alone as a kid and be comfortable with myself I wouldn’t be focused on my goals,” Hedden said.

Hedden has a plethora of talents including photography, digital art, web design, and musical entertainment.

“I am very into context-based photography,” Hedden said. “We call it contextualized imaging. And I really like having a very elaborate context for what I shoot.”

A Santa Barbara native, he attended Santa Barbara High School and then transferred to the Multimedia Arts and Design Academy-MAD Academy-his sophomore year. There he learned the entry-level behind-the-scenes technicalities of all things media.

“That whole program just immediately opened the door to all that mysterious web-design and film production,” Hedden said. “That was really the catalyst that made me start.”

Sharing his accumulated knowledge of media arts, he tried out teaching. Hedden returned to the academy for a semester to teach students and was hired for an afterschool program for students who were struggling in school.

Now, Hedden is hired through word-of-mouth photo shoot opportunities even claiming a taste of the “good life,” he said.

One of his favorite opportunities was shooting a handful of gorgeous models at a Los Angeles mansion thinking, “I could live this life,” while lying out by the pool.

Hedden, however, has looked through the lens of a different world. He witnessed the lives of Rwandan natives on an abroad trip in Summer 2009 hosted through the City College.

He took over 5,000 photographs on his trip and taught basic English at one of the schools. He taught in Rwanda because of his background in teaching at the MAD Academy.

The abroad program gave documentary film credits and it also served as a teaching internship for Hedden.

“My roommate and I taught a class of thirty Rwandan women that were a little older than us. It was like two young guys teaching a group of forty girls,” Hedden said. “So, it was definitely a conflict of interest.”

But weekends served as great photographing opportunities for Hedden in Rwanda. His eyes lit up when he remembered one of his favorite photographs he shot.

“I remember I took this one shot. And it was just down this dirt road that went on forever in a plantain orchard,” Hedden said. “And there were all these little kids running around and the city life. If I think of Rwanda that’s what I think of because it captures the Third-Worldliness of it.”

He is transferring to Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn. The school has a major called Entertainment Industry Studies that encompasses all his hobbies.

“My dream career hasn’t really shown itself yet,” Hedden said. “But I know it’s going to be lending a hand in the production of some sort of mainstream media whether it’s music, film, or photography.”

Moving to a city that is notorious for its musical heritage, Hedden feels he will do fine in his chosen major, surrounded by entertainment inspiration. And he says he loves Elvis Presley’s work.

Whatever he chooses, whether it is a film producer or artist’s agent, he wants to spread wholesomeness.

“I want to spread wholesome nature to people,” Hedden said. “If I’m going to make an impact, that’s the one I want to make.”