This is some of my life;
My life began as an Air Force brat, living in England until 1966 at RAF Bentwaters. My father was a fighter pilot and flew F-4’s in Vietnam. My mom loved the Beatles and other music coming out of London. This gave me an early appreciation for rock ‘n roll and fighter jets. We then moved to Arizona for a year before settling in New York.
My family had a farm and this is where I developed my work ethic. I went to college and was in the military myself for 8 years. I was a C-5 Loadmaster in the 105th Military Airlift Wing and also worked as a photographer. As a loadmaster and intrepid journalist afterwards,I flew to and travelled around more countries than I care to count. (42)
My profession is video journalism and professional camera operator. I currently shoot video as a freelancer for large production venues such as concerts, awards dinners etc in the New York area for clients such as PRG/VER, NEP Screenworks and more. Just prior to Covid, I was on the road for a month with Bryan Adams and Billy Idol while they toured the Northeast US. I shot long lens and handheld, on stage camera for the shows. In the last few years I have also shot 'star cam' long lens for Jumbotron displays at the "panorama' and "Governors' Ball' concert series in NYC. For my video journalist half of my CV is that I have worked for years at NBC Nightly News,Today Show, and MSNBC. I also work occasionally for ABC News Good Morning America (GMA) and last but not least ,I work at FOX News Channel where I shoot studio camera for all news shows. I have also worked for Metrovision production services, shooting for clients that include theBBC, PBS, FOX News, APTN, NASA, Bloomberg TV, Con Ed and many more.
I have also field produced and shot two documentaries for the History Channel. The first was ‘Return of LST 325’ about a crew of WWII vets that refitted an old LST and sailed it back to the US from Greece. The second was ‘Inside Baghdad’ which was a look at Iraqi civil society one year after the US invasion. I am working on more...
To get started in the business, I needed to put together a portfolio of work. In 1993 during the height of the war in Bosnia, I took my tax return check and bought a ticket to Croatia. With my backpack and Nikon I travelled throughout Croatia and Bosnia taking photos of the tragedies unfolding there. I returned in 1996 with a local news crew from a station called RNN (Regional Network News) to cover the fragile peace.
In 1999 when the war in Kosovo was at its height, I again took some savings and travelled to Albania in order to cover the refugee crisis. After this I went on a humanitarian mission with a European NGO called Aktion Hungerwinter that provides medical supplies and food to the poorer regions of the former USSR. We drove five tractor trailers through Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Georgia and finally Armenia.
The ‘Return of LST 325’ was the most inspirational project that I have worked on. The average age of the crew of 29 men was about 78 years old. (When operated by the Navy the ship required a crew of at least 150 men.) The 325 had seen action during the invasion of Normandy and was sold to the Greek Navy after WWII. It was stripped to the bone and in pretty bad shape when these intrepid veterans began to prepare her for the voyage home.
My home base for most of my life has been New York City
