My story

After graduating from Liberty High School in 1989, I studied to become a graphic designer at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, Calif. While there, one of my instructors—who was the photo editor of a local newspaper called the Ledger Dispatch—asked if I was interested in working part-time as a photo tech. The job was challenging, filled with tight deadlines and late hours. After three years of watching the staff photographers race in and out of the photo department, I was invited to tag along on a breaking news assignment: a driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into a flooded river. From that moment on, I was hooked, and my career in photojournalism was sparked.

I spent the next couple of years working tirelessly to learn everything I could, eventually landing a part-time photography role at the LaMorinda Sun in Lafayette, Calif., covering local news and sports. In 1997, I was hired full-time back at the Ledger Dispatch, where it all began. By 1999, photo editors at the Contra Costa Times in Walnut Creek took notice of my work. I made the move to the “Big House” (as we called it), traveling to cover major news events and local professional sports teams. During my first year there, the Society of Professional Journalists Northern California chapter awarded me the 1999 Outstanding Young Journalist award for my work in Mexico, El Salvador, and California. Later that year, I was accepted into the highly coveted Eddie Adams Workshop in New York.

Our paper was later purchased by Digital First Media and renamed the East Bay Times. In 2017, I was proud to be part of the East Bay Times team that won the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news coverage of the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, honoring the reporters, photojournalists, and designers who covered the 2016 tragedy that claimed 36 lives. Toward the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, I served as a judge for the 2021 Pictures of the Year International (POYi) competition. While I learned so much from the experience, I only wished I could have judged in person in Missouri rather than from my home office.

Over the course of my career, I’ve been honored with numerous awards and invited to speak at workshops across the country. However, when my dear friend Bert Hanashiro invited me to guest-instruct at his "SportsShooter" workshop in Southern California, I truly fell in love with teaching. That experience led me to become an adjunct professor of photography at Las Positas College in Livermore, Calif., where I’ve taught general photography and photojournalism since 2023.

My goal now is to pay it forward. I aim to help students become the best photographers they can be—teaching them to tell stories through images, use color and balance to engage the eye, wait for the decisive moment, and know when not to press the shutter button. Above all, I encourage them to make mistakes—lots of them—because making mistakes is the best way to learn and grow. I also advise aspiring photojournalists to find a mentor whose work inspires them. As my priorities have shifted over the years, my main focus remains clear: to have fun making photos while empowering the next generation of photojournalists to change the world through their lens.