4. Did you have to work a lot of weekends, evenings and did you have to miss some very important milestones in your family life?
When my son was two, he developed a tumor that was severe enough that we had to take him from our home in Nevada to UCLA Medical Center where he was operated on and fully recovered.

During recovery, my wife needed a lot of help. My photo editor felt that the best thing for my family was to put me on nights and weekends. When you’re the new guy, you get nights and weekends.

The great thing about nights and weekends is that is where you can shine. It’s all you!

You are a visual problem solver and you are making news content decisions regarding the next day’s paper. Many industries have night and weekend shifts.

Learn to suck it up and pay your dues.
Continue reading Meet photographer Tony Blei Part 2 →

I hope it will be apparent why I chose to ask Tony the following questions:

1.How important is a formal education in photography?
I am absolutely 100% self taught. I did go to a trade school, but it was more of a diploma mill (and they’ve gone out of business). I’m left with a meaningless “diploma.”

However! Schools provide insight and ways to go further, faster. As you’ve pointed out, PJ School taught you things like law and ethics.

I’m grateful that I had a pretty good moral compass that allowed me to avoid the obstacles that citizen journos will trip over (lawsuits).

While I’ve been competitive, the one thing I noticed about my college-grad counterparts is their network of contacts.

This can be very important, especially if you are working freelance and need a helping hand — or someone to vouch for you.

My advice: Go to school. The School of Hard Knocks is just that, hard. When you graduate from a university, you will enjoy the benefit of credibility.
Continue reading Meet photographer Tony Blei Part 1 →