Love at first sight with a Canon Rebel XS turned a high school wrestler into a photographer.

At 17, he became the first photographer to ever win the $3000 Best of Show prize from Santa Barbara Art Scholarship Foundation.

“You’re inundated with so many pictures, so many videos… nowadays that sometimes things just pass you by,” he said. “With my photos, what I would hope and try to do is make somebody sit for that extra couple of seconds and really think about the photo.”

Gabriel Knapp, 19, majors in photography at City College. Although he’s still a freshman, Knapp tutors for Elizabeth Amidon’s class, PHOT 109— Photo I, and interns for the graphic design and photography department.

Knapp works at a checkout station in Occupational Education Room 184 and takes care of thousands of photographic gear in a cage of 20 feet wide by six feet tall. He also helps students set up their studios. He refers to this area as his “dojo”—a place for training.

“[Knapp] is super helpful, super enthusiastic” said lab technician Arthur Skiles, Knapp’s supervisor. “His enthusiasm is a real asset not only to the job that he does here but what he does professionally as well.”

Knapp’s talent was discovered and nurtured by his Dos Pueblos high school teacher Jacqueline Kelemen. He described Kelemen as “the most influential part of my entire experience with photography.”

During his junior and senior years of high school, Knapp was the photo editor for “The Image,” a national award-winning yearbook staff. He won first place in five categories at the national Yearbook Camp.

Also at age 17, he won first place from the Photography Tri State Scholastic Press Association.

Congressman Das Williams awarded Knapp an honorable mention during the Santa Barbara Channel Keepers Art Show.

For the $3000 scholarship, Knapp defeated all forms of artists from painters to sculptors with four photos printed on foam boards. They were each six feet wide by four feet tall.

He said one of the photos was taken out the window of a moving car down a desert road. It perfectly captured a run-down old shack.

“He focuses on every detail and works to carve out a really elegant quality of life,” said Linda Lowell, photography department chair.

Most recently, he won the Editor’s Choice award from ViewBug, a worldwide online community that holds photographic contests. Knapp didn’t even submit photos to the contest.

“I think Gabe is an exceptionally hard worker as an individual,” Lowell said. “He’s growing as a creative photographer. His work ethic is superb.”

Lowell described Knapp as “an emerging master of lighting skill.”

Knapp’s forte is portraiture. He aims to create not just “cookie-cutter” but “honest and unique” portraits for people, he said.

His dream is to earn a bachelor’s degree from Brooks Institute, open a studio and become a photography teacher because he loves teaching kids, he said.

Knapp’s known among his colleagues as a food lover.

“Any food you put in front of me, I’ll eat it,” Knapp said. “I’m one of those guys who have to try it once before [saying] ‘no’ to it.”

The photographer said he once mistook Lush, a cosmetics shop, for a vegan store and ate a disgusting cookie there. He later found out the cookie was a soap.

For that, everyone in the department now calls him “Bubs” (short for bubbles).

Find his work at gabrielknapp.net