2011 marked Jan Tiura's 35th year working aboard tugboats. Born in Berkeley and raised on the San Mateo County coast, she was always fascinated by water. Sailing a small sailboat to the Galapagos Island in 1972 ruined her for conventional life ashore. But until joining the Inland Boatmen's Union, she was unable to find work on any boats. Instead, Tiura free-lanced as a photographer and mountaineer. When she finally broke into the all-male ranks of tugboat crew, Tiura started out as a deckhand, and then quickly rose through the hierarchy to become the first woman tugboat captain on San Francisco Bay. Although Tiura made and sold photographs throughout her maritime career, it was the advent of small, high-quality digital cameras that enabled her to capture the work on the bay while doing it. (San Francisco, California)