What is your current position and who is your employer?

I've been shooting for The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, CA for about 22 years. I'm the last of an extremely talented photo staff that used to have 18 shooters and five photo editors. The Southern California News Group (SCNG) bought The PE and The OC Register out of bankruptcy in 2016.

When did you become a PPAGLA member?

I'm not exactly sure when I became a PPAGLA member, but I think it was in 2003, and the rest is history, as they say!  Ha! Now that's a load of crap, LOL, but it has been a fun ride so far.

I remember attending my first PPAGLA award banquet and sitting with 7-time PPAGLA POY winner and "Golden Boy,” Wally Skalij. I won an HM Portrait and he tried to get me up to the podium, knowing that there was no certificate given, but thanks to Hans, who let me know that Wally was pulling my leg, I kept my seat. Wally is always looking for a laugh when he isn't making award winning pix. I've been attending the banquets for about 20 years and winning a few awards and cameras along the way. Thank you, PPAGLA.

How long have you been a photojournalist and how did you get started?

I was first bitten by the photo bug as a high school sophomore, when I watched a documentary called "The Shooters”. It featured the works of five of the top shooters in the world back then: Neil Liefer, David Hume Kennerly, Mary Ellen Mark, Eddie Adams, and Douglas Kirkland. I saw what they could do with a camera and thought to myself that maybe I could do that, too.

As a junior, I took my first photo class: basic Black and White Photography. In my senior year, I became a photog for the Fresno High School student newspaper, The Owlet, and have never stopped. I put in my time at junior college and at Fresno State, and completed a summer internship at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, in Wisconsin.

My first full-time shooting job was at Neighbors newspapers, four weekly zoned editions of The Fresno Bee. The Gilroy Dispatch called and I started covering the Garlic Festival, pro sports, and local events. I then moved to SoCal, and began shooting for the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin with the NC-2000e, a digital camera converted from a Nikon N90s body, while still shooting film cameras. The converted digital cameras were around $16,000 back then. I think they were 2.4 mgs an image. That brings me to The PE, for just over two decades now.  

Please share some career highlights: 

One of the biggest highlights is the people that I meet and talk to for an hour or two, while making a portrait of them. If you get to know your subject, they get to know you. Trust between subject and shooter will help make a portrait informative and eye-catching. If that doesn't work, bring out all the lights and color gels and make art, LOL.

Some of my sports highlights include shooting and traveling with the Los Angeles Lakers when they made the playoffs between 2004-2010. Also, the GrandDaddy of them all, The Rose Bowl, National Championships, and Dodgers and Angels playoffs in Philly and Boston. UCLA basketball through March Madness and one UCLA in one final four are part of that list. One of the best assignments was going to Calgary Canada for a week to shoot a photo story of Gilroy's own Jeff Garcia, quarterback for the Calgary Stampeders. I spent a week with the team and access to his family was great back then.

Shooting breaking news has also been a big career highlight. Wild fires top that list, the first big one was the Old Fire in 2003, and there have been way too many to count since then. San Bernardino's terrorist mass shooting in 2015 was another one.

There have been many more highlights, but I can't remember them all. Winning PPAGLA POY a few times is right at the top.

What advice do you have for students and those hoping to become photojournalists?

"Get ready to collect food-stamps!!!”

Pennies are being pinched all over and most newspaper owners are now hedge funds who prioritize profits over great news coverage. It's not for the faint of heart, some assignments will rip your heart out, while others will make you feel like you were put here just for this career. Being a shooter is not all unicorns and rainbows, but sometimes I wish it was.

Death will cross your path many times over in this career. Funerals, murders, accidents, mass shootings, etc... Being able to deal with death is a make or break moment in a career. You will be able to take pictures or you won't.

Learning the law could save your life and help with access. Start with memorizing Penal Code 409.5 because it could be your best friend when dealing with overzealous Sheriff's deputies and police officers at fires.

Laughter is the best medicine, if you have time to talk with them, but spot news is a beast that you must get to and make pictures. We must be able to do our jobs as well... It's funny how some law officials forget that we are first responders too. We are there to record history, we are the public's eyes and ears. I say again! PC 409.5 or become a PPAGLA member and it will be on the back of your PPAGLA ID badge!!!

What is something you know now that you wish someone had told you when you were starting out?

Cliche alert: "It's a marathon, not a race," "Rome wasn't built in a day,” and sometimes you have to make chicken salad out of chicken s**t. If you work to be the best, you will get there someday. It may not be the first year, hell, or even the first 20 years, but with time, dedication, and a love to help tell people's stories, you will be a success.

You must be happy with both yourself mentally and with your work before you will ever be a real shooter, like fellow Fresno State Bulldogs alumni Robert Gauthier of the LA Times, Robert Hanashiro of USA Today, and John Walker of The Fresno Bee. If you get a chance, look them up. Their careers make me look like a beginner.

Use professional organizations for help, like PPAGLA and NPPA. There is a vast amount of knowledge at the tip of your fingers.  

What is your favorite part of being a PPAGLA member?

Meeting other PPAGLA members and becoming friends over the years! Even though the number of shooters has declined over the years, the PPAGLA family is still strong! The award banquets have been great fun, but PPAGLA night at the Dodgers was tops. I like meeting up with fellow shooters and their families to boo the Dodgers or cheer for them. To each their own, but Go "Big Red Machine!"

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