1-2: The wonderful Jennifer Dorn (photo director, Los Angeles Magazine) asked if I'd be willing to shoot this story and to feel free to say no if it's not in my wheelhouse, which is usually when I say yes. The story by Robert Ito profiles a basketball league founded more than 5 decades ago for Japanese American kids. We shot about 35 portraits that day and had a pretty damn great time; it took me back to when I played basketball as a kid with my mom telling me I'd get taller if I jumped more. Pfft.

3-4: It's not every day you photograph a hero whose name you did not know prior to the assignment. I'm honored to have photographed Ahilan Arulanantham, legal director of the ACLU of Southern California, for Los Angeles Magazine. As we were shooting some posed portraits, phone calls would come in about immigration cases, and seeing him in action beat a pose any day. That being said, there was a large legal pad hanging on the wall that I just couldn't pass up for an "outtake."