After dabbling in photography for the last few years, I founded Judson Photography in the Summer of 2009.  I was an English major at UCI back in 1987 and taught English at Bellflower High School for ten years (1994-2004), so it may seem like a stretch to go from Hemingway to Ansel Adams, from Jane Austen to Annie Leibovitz but surprisingly, it was a natural transition.  I was an English major because I loved stories- reading them, writing them, and most of all telling them.  Photography means "writing with light" from the Greek photo(light) and graphia(writing).  So these days I write not so much with a pen but with light (and with the help of some pretty cool gear).

What I loved best about teaching English was telling stories and I miss that a lot- but now I get to tell stories through the medium of photography.  In writing, there's fact and fiction, prose and poetry- likewise in photography, the genre and style range from photojournalistic to editorial- from practical to the experimental- and I've come to appreciate and embrace the different genres and styles.  Sometimes I'm just there as an observer or reporter- capturing the moments as they unfold- other times, I like to invent, create, and exercise a little creative license.

For my full time job, I'm still a high school teacher, but now I teach photography, video production, and web design.  So yes, photography is only an optional, part-time job, but don't let that part-time status fool you.  If you see me on a shoot, you'll think that my next meal depended on it- that my kids would starve unless I got the shot right.   I don't do anything half-heartedly, and  I definitely don't know how to tell a story half-heartedly because such a story is not worth telling.

So if you have an expression worth capturing, or a milestone that needs celebrating, we would love to be there to help tell your story- for generations to come-  because with photography, a mere mortal is able to freeze time (if only on this side of eternity).  That particular expression at that particular moment in time and space will never be again.

T.S. Eliott said that "writing is a raid on the inarticulate."  If so, then photography is a war on the inexpressible.  Writing is painstaking- at least good writing is.  It requires a lot of wrestling with thoughts and words.  Likewise, good photgraphy is painstaking- it requires precision, artistry, and dedication.  Well, you're not hiring a poet but a photographer so enough with words- I'll let my photos say the rest.

Joon Kim