When I first asked my friend and roommate Russell Conroy to pick up his camera for an lbpost.com story, it was for an early-morning assignment at the Aquarium of the Pacific. Russell had just taken the wraps off a brand new Canon Rebel XTi and was eager to try it out. I needed an extra hand for the day, and the photos that Russell had shown me from his high school photo class had always seemed pretty good-looking to me, so we headed off. “Here goes nothin,” he said.
More than two years, tons of credit card bills worth of photo equipment and thousands of images later, Russell and I have teamed up to cover more stories throughout Long Beach than I can remember. He was always willing – whether it was a march down Broadway or a boring old press conference – and always came through with the images we needed. Over the years, his skills improved and his knack for capturing the moment became unparalleled. The upgraded equipment helped, but Russell’s desire to learn more drove him, and soon he was shooting alongside professionals at every event. He became a student of his equipment, and dove into magazines and collections of his favorite photographers – this while completing a Mechanical Engineering degree at CSULB. He was also a main photographer for the Union Weekly student newspaper. Not bad for never having taken a college photo course.
Last weekend, I said goodbye to my friend and partner-in-crime as he embarked on the journey of a lifetime: a two-year commitment with the Peace Corps to teach math and science in a small, east-African nation. And yes, he brought his camera.
We covered breaking news, hundreds of sports games, feature profiles and community events. The one that stands out now is last November’s march down Broadway as Prop 8 protesters staged a peaceful but spirited demonstration. There was hope in the crowd, and happiness, and anger, and so many other emotions that were difficult to see. But Russell saw them, and captured them, and our readers saw them too. When we returned from the march to work on the article, Russell showed me twenty of his favorite images – it was some of the best photojournalism that I had ever seen. “Ok,” I joked, “But where are the good photos?” Without missing a beat, Russell replied, “Oh, I sent those to the good writers.”
Here now are some of Russell’s best.
