Long ago and far away, before the notion of launching a marketing communications firm was even a glimmer in my eye, I dreamt of grabbing the action in a breaking news story with my camera.

But how to break in to "newspapering" with no formal training or portfolio of "hot pix"? Beginning in the spring of 1967, I landed in Paris, Chicago, Boston and Bethel, New York, always carrying a camera and taking what now appear to be huge risks to "get the shot."

In those days I had the time of my life, ending up, among other places, in the Grand Theater of the Sorbonne in the middle of a French national strike. I was so green I didn't know my dual-lens Mamiyaflex and SA100 film were far too slow to capture the action in the dark interiors of Paris. It was not until I returned to New York that the frustrated face of a Time-Life editor told me the sad truth; my film was woefully underexposed.

If a young Ted Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey look a bit pensive in a public appearance in downtown Boston, they have good cause. Packing Washington Street to overflowing, thousands of demonstrators were shouting and chanting for "the war" to come to an end. I sensed Kennedy and Humphrey thought they might be coming to an end, too.

While in Chicago to cover the Democratic National Convention, I learned that my press credentials had been given to the children of delegates. It turned out that was OK—the story was on the streets of Chicago, not in the convention hall.

Woodstock was a never to be forgotten story. Twenty-four hours on stage without sleep may have been a bit over the top, but rock and roll history was being made and I wanted to experience every bit of it.
   

Photojournalism 102

Between the gritty street work of photojournalism in the 1960s and the demands of corporate marketing in the 1980s there is a bit of distance. But if the images are more prosaic, the challenges are no less demanding. Capturing the atmosphere of a peaceful condominium community or the interior of an office building require a different set of skills from news reportage.

Since 1984, the Golden Group has been making great images for its clients, then using them to their advantage in a variety of advertisements, collaterals and on the Web.