My Biography
DEAR FRIENDS
My 25-plus-year career as a photojournalist has allowed me to do a lot of great things. I’ve covered four US presidents and two Mexican presidential campaigns. I’ve turned down two breakfast dates with Laura Bush and I’ve asked Hillary Clinton what she keeps in her fridge. I’ve been invited into people’s lives for no other reason than I had a slip of paper with their name on it.
My newspaper career ended in March 2009 when the economy started it’s plummet. After almost 10 years at The Fresno Bee, where I was Director of Photography, I was laid off. During the following period I have been fortunate to regain and refocus my love for hands-on visual storytelling as opposed to sitting on the sidelines as an editor. I picked up my tools and started making images again. By luck or fate this coincided with the birth of high-definition cinematography being done on the very camera I used for stills. I had already studied video storytelling under Time Magazine White House Photographer Dirk Hallstead the previous year and now the sky was the limit. In 2011 I transitioned primarily into high-definition, cinematic video production.
So in April of 2011, while sitting in service at my church, I watched a presentation about their mission work for orphans in Kenya and India. I saw the images they had and it was like the light went off in my head. I had been blessed with a talent for telling people’s stories and a desire to serve others less fortunate than myself. I was still unemployed but knew that I was being called in that direction. I could follow others who’s talents and skills were to directly work with these people and I could tell their stories. I could put that human face on what was just a statistic.
So two months ago I started working with MEDICAL MINISTRIES INTERNATIONAL to tell the story of their work. MMI collects surplus medical equipment and supplies and ships them in huge containers all over the world to those in need. They follow after the container bringing doctors, nurses, dentists and people who just have it in their hearts to serve others. My job is to tell the story of what MMI does and the people that they serve.
So I’m going to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
MMI works with doctors in two remote villages in DRC where they operate with no electricity or running water. The operating table is placed at the window for light to work. There they will be treating patients, helping rebuild a hospital abandoned when the Belgians left, drilling wells for clean water and helping women start a small sewing business. I will be producing a documentary of this work and providing MMI the expertise and materials to use this to bring greater awareness of these situations and their part in helping.
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Specializing in multi-platform storytelling for print, broadcast and the Internet. Documentary still imaging and video production.
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