Several years ago, I semi-retired from a 30-year career as a commercial advertising and architectural photographer working out of Honolulu and Los Angeles. I still occasionally accept volunteer and paid assignments that are interesting and/or challenging, but mostly enjoy personal work for the love of the craft.

Professional photography has been the longest-running career, but it wasn’t the first or even the second.

Career #1: A part-time evening DJ on the local AM rocker, KSLY, during college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. After school and service in the US Army, it was on to KMUZ-FM in Santa Barbara. Hard not to love that beautiful town.

Career #2: A TV director at KTLA in Los Angeles. I briefly directed two newscasts a day, then became their sports director, having the late, ground-breaking CBS sports director Tony Verna as my mentor. I traveled all over the US (Montreal and Toronto, too) with the LA Lakers, Angels Baseball, LA Rams and both the basketball and football teams of UCLA and USC. During my time at KTLA, I won Emmy’s for coverage of both Lakers and UCLA basketball.

Career #3: Out of the oppressive (at the time) LA smog with a total lifestyle change to beautiful Hawaii. The plan was to run a professional photography business, but in the beginning and to pay the rent, I directed film and video TV commercials for Hawaii Production Center, a subsidiary of the CBS affiliate KGMB-TV. On the side, I was being mentored by Hawaii’s top advertising photographer, David Cornwell. Setting out on my own, the first jobs were the result of “pounding the streets” with a slender but growing photography portfolio. Along this journey, I was always very careful to give nothing less than maximum effort and deliver high quality results to the client on each and every job, whether large or small. As it turned out, living in Paradise and running a top-shelf photography business for 26 years was the stuff of dreams.

Tips for starting/changing a career:  1. Have a plan, not just a goal. 2. Have a high-quality mentor. 3. Always give it your all.

Nowadays, with another change of scenery, I’m totally enjoying the laid-back small-town life “Standin’ on the Corner” in Winslow, Arizona, settled in with good friends, an orange cat named Chessie and a model railroad. A what? Yup, a life-long hobby.