Looking back, John would have to say that it was all because of Jake. Jake was his freshman roommate, and if they were a little bit closer than most roommates, who was to say anything about it? Jake took photography as an elective, and wanted to do a series of self-portraits for his final project. John helped him out, setting up lights and checking levels; whatever Jake needed him to do.

Sophomore year, Jake found a new roommate and John moved to a basement apartment in town. He took photography as an elective and loved it in some elemental way. After he did a photo story for his final project, he changed his major from business to art and never looked back. He found his niche in photojournalism.

He got lucky one afternoon by following a fire truck to a blazing house. He kept out of the way, but he got beautiful shots of the fire, the EMTs and the perfect shot of a fireman rescuing a kid. He skipped right over the university newspaper and sold the pictures to AP. By the time he graduated, he'd sold them three other photo stories, and they offered him a job.

He'd never even heard the term "embedded photojournalist" until a week before he became one. He packed three cameras and as much film as he could carry and joined the 227th's E Company, the "Darkhorse". He made friends with the pilots, and got closest to Mitch and Dex and Adam, all Captains. When Mitch and Dex went down in the desert, John didn't hesitate to join Adam in disobeying direct orders to go get them.

They left to a flurry of increasingly louder squawks from the radio, and found Mitch and Dex half an hour later. Well, they found what was left. The flight back was tense and quiet, and John couldn't help turning Mitch and Dex's tags over and over in his hands.

On the military transport back to New York, knowing he was going to get booted from AP as soon as he landed, he spared a thought for Jake. He wondered if maybe he should have just done self-portraits.