Forty-eight years as a photojournalist with forty-seven of those covering Yosemite National Park, and I had never photographed the Bracebridge Dinner. Not because the event hasn’t been around – it’s over 80 years old. More because when I think about Yosemite the images in my mind’s eye are Half Dome and El Capitan erupting from […]
As part of former Alabama Governor George Wallace’s bid for the U.S. Presidency in 1968, he attempted to get on the California ballot as the candidate of the recently formed American Independent Party. His campaign included an appearance in Modesto on November 22, 1967. With this blog I will add George Wallace to my PhotoShelter […]
Famous Faces is a new gallery I just started on PhotoShelter. I needed a place to organize the images of famous and infamous people I have photographed during my career: George McGovern, George Wallace, OJ Simpson, Joe Louis, and Ronald Reagan to mention a few. In 1975, recently retired US Senator Sam Ervin was on […]
Less than two months after the infamous Detroit riot of July 1967 in which the Michigan National Guard was called out, I was assigned to photograph California National Guard riot training for the Modesto Bee. At the time, I was still learning how to be a professional photojournalist, dealing with law enforcement and government agencies […]
In the middle of June 1975, Laurelei Mullens, Modesto Bee features editor, sent me to south Modesto to photograph Jess Tharp, an 80-year-old cowboy saddle maker. Mullens was doing an advance story for the big Modesto Independence Day Parade. She wanted to do the story about Tharp because he would be the oldest rider in […]
The Acorn Fire was well on its way to burning out 26 homes near Markleeville when I got a phone call from a forest service dispatcher telling me that the Stanislaus Hotshots had left Mi-Wuk Village on their way to the fire. It was about 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, July 30, 1987. By the time […]
When I heard that Muhammad Ali was going to speak in Modesto, I immediately started asking Darell Phillips, the Modesto Bee’s Sports Editor, to give me the assignment. It wasn’t until the next day that I checked the photo schedule and saw I was on nights that week, so the assignment would be mine […]
Last week I blogged my 1968 experience with national politics and campaign trains in my blog “Robert F. Kennedy 1968.” A little more than two years later, I got the opportunity to put into action what I had learned when I was given the assignment to cover 1970 U.S. Senatorial candidate John V. Tunney. […]
In March of 1968 I had been on the Modesto Bee photo staff just under two years and had long since earned my stripes with the editors and photographers, so I was given my first big assignment of national importance: to photograph Robert F. Kennedy at the Senate Hearings in Stockton, California. As a lifelong […]
