Photography has been my passport to meet movie stars, presidents, Nobel Prize winners and many other extraordinary people. Elizabeth Taylor was the most charismatic woman I have ever met and photographed. Ronald Reagan was one of the nicest guys I ever met, even though I hated his politics. Jimmy Carter had a great sense of humor. When I took a group picture with him in it he deliberately had me back up into a tree. Bill Clinton really knew how to work a room, and picked out the most beautiful women in an instant.

Most of the money I made over the years has come from photography. I started as a newspaper photographer then worked as an itinerant county fair portrait photographer. I freelanced for magazines and other media in Europe and the US. Eventually I turned to corporate and PR work and worked nearly a decade for UC Medical Center where I photographed J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus on the morning they received news of their Nobel Prize in 1989. During the 80s and 90s I also freelanced for AFSCME, the national service union, which gave me access to the White House and Capitol Hill and lots of other interesting people and places.

I have only a few regrets. One was when I was with Martin Mull and his fiancée in the green room just before I appeared on the David Letterman show.  Martin asked if I would photograph their wedding and I said I didn't do weddings.  What was I thinking?