In the summer of 1994, as a journalism student and wannabe photographer at El Camino College in Torrance, I made a photograph that was published on the front page of the local newspaper.

The photo was of the 10-foot statue of Mary which is mounted on top of the Mary Star of the Sea tower, her arms outstretched toward the Port of Los Angeles.

A gift from the parish fisherman in 1961, the statue was brought down to earth for restoration, making it available to view up close for the first time in a generation.

I submitted the photo to the San Pedro News Pilot which ran it on the front page of the paper. The News Pilot served the community for seventy years from 1928 until it closed its doors in 1998.

Seeing my photo on the front page of the San Pedro News Pilot made my year and energized me to pursue my career as a photojournalist. A few months later, I photographed OJ Simpson as he fled from police and then the largest great white shark caught off the West coast of the United States, a 17'3, 4500 pound beast. 

Proving my value as a photographer and as a content producer for the community,  I went on to freelance at the Daily Breeze, got my first staff job at a newspaper in Illinois, followed by jobs in Northern California and Orange County, before eventually returning to the Daily Breeze where I spent six years photographing the Lakers, Dodgers, Kings, Angels, the Academy Awards and most important, my community, San Pedro.