Growing up in the Westside. My home was modest and simple. We were surrounded by good neighbors. Behind us were the Japanese families. In the front were the folks from Oklahoma they called themselves "Okies". Then the remainder were Hispanic families. The "Okies" were named the Allan's they used to call our neighborhood the United Nations because of the different folks living there. We got along just fine, we learned about different styles of food and styles and pictures.

In these memories I remembered my Mom always taking pictures. She would take all kinds of pictures of us kids. We  have  pictures from infants to graduation and in between all of those years. Whenever we traveled to New Mexico to visit the relatives she was creating a lifetime history of the family's. Often as kids we would ask to look at the box of pictures to find out our relatives and who they are. My Mom used a Kodak Box camera, it was square and handheld. That's what she used to capture these moments.
With these memories in my head off I went to school. In high school I thought of playing sports then I got a genius moment, it dawned on me what happens when you get injured and those injuries plague you for life. So I changed my tune and took a photography class. This changed my path completely I became an outstanding photographer. Took all kinds of sport pictures and worked on yearbooks. Some photographs were featured in NEA teacher magazine still got the copies.
I began to expand my work and started to take wedding pictures as a business. Then I became police crime scene photographer, did that for a few years and moved on. When my first son was born I did a photography experiment I photographed him every week for 1 year. Just to record the difference in time. So I continued that quest of recording all my children I've taken lots of pictures.

These are memories they take with them in history of life growing up in a good and stable family. On that note, I once had a brother in law who passed away. Often whenever folks and family came by to visit I always had a camera ready to take their picture. I took his photograph with his girlfriend and he asked why do I always take pictures I responded perhaps one day you might be gone and I would always cherish the last picture I took of you. They did perish in an accident. We still cherish that picture in our home and hearts.