Deafened Iraqi boy hears again with implant

This was one of those assignments which stick with you long after you shoot it. 3 year old Iraqi boy Mustafa Ghazwan lost his hearing during an American missle strike in Iraq almost two years ago.



Thanks to the help of the grassroots activist organization Ruth Group of Marin Mustafa was fitted with a cochlear implant, inserted in his ear, at the University of California-San Francisco. The implant will eventually help Mustafa regain his sense of sound.



I couldn't help but marvel taking photographs of Mustafa, who despite being in a completely foreign environment, surrounded by people he hardly knew, engaged with everyone he knew by building puzzles or drawing. I'm sure a lot of the comfort for Mustafa in his temporary home at Ronald McDonald House in San Francisco was because his father Ghazwan Al-Nadawi was always by his side. Mustafa still has at least six months to a year of therapy to go before he return home to an uncertain future. You can read the story here

Tour of California

The Tour of California is the most famous bicycling race in America. This year the race started up in Sacramento and the second stage started in Sausalito, California. I covered the start of the race in a downpour on Monday morning which featured the highlight of watching racing legend Lance Armstrong make his comeback.





Its always difficult to photograph any event in a downpour cause you end up having to cover up your camera gear so it doesn't get damaged in the rain, but you just have to work through the difficulties and get the shots!


You can read the story here

The Great San Francisco Valentines Day Pillow Fight

For the past three Valentine's Day crowds of the disaffected, unattached, or just plain fun-seeking have made their way down to Justin Herman Plaza for the The Great San Francisco Valentines Day Pillow Fight.



The site of thousands of people engaging in a huge pillow fight was a site to behold. I dived right into the mixer and ended up getting hit over the head a bunch of times inadvertently but it was worth it in the end for the photographs!

Westminster Best of Breed Winner

I never thought in my life that I would actually meet any dog that competed in the Westminster Dog Show in New York City. It always seemed in my mind that the dogs that competed on there lived in dog mansions and had pampered lives.

However when I met E.T., a Gordon Setter who won Best of Breed at Westminster, and his owner Carolyn Gold and hung out with them while taking photographs I realized that even show dogs are regular dogs after all the pomp and pageantry of the show.

You can read the story here