About Debbie Stock

• Born in the Midwest (Illinois)
• Raised in Liberty, Missouri
• My dad worked for an airline so we got free travel benefits!

Lived in Lawrence, Kansas; Appleton, Wisconsin; Lisle / Naperville, Illinois; Quincy, Illinois; Kansas City, Missouri; Lafayette / San Francisco / San Jose, CA; Huntington Beach, CA; Orange, CA;   spent time in Zurich, Switzerland; Santa Maria, CA;

Education

• Graduated with honors from the University of Kansas, William Allen White School of Journalism, B.S. in Photojournalism and minor in Advertising
• Studied under Rich Clarkson, known for Sports Illustrated and Olympic Games

I can laugh about this now: In the early days of modern photojournalism there was no politically-correct treatment of girls & women. I was the only female out of 20-30 students in most my photoj. classes where locker room jokes were the norm. Camera equipment was heavy to lug around and assignments could be brutal (below-zero cold, fires, floods, winds, accident scenes, disasters, death, danger, and no cell phones)

During college I worked on the Daily Kansan under the name and by-line "Debbie Watts". After college I moved to Chicago with my computer science husband, Reid Watts, and served as Chief Photographer for a newspaper. 

As luck would have it, I faced the record-breaking, coldest winter in 100 years. A defining moment was driving down country roads in my Toyota Corolla, slipping & sliding next to 5-ft. snow drifts to find airplane wreckage and a body half-buried in snow. As I spent time alone with the accident victim, assigned to photograph the corpse and wreckage at every angle, I realized that chasing & taking pictures of death was not what I wanted to do or be. It's not me.

I walked away from everything and started a new life in California as a freelance photographer, picking and choosing my assignments - minus the ambulance chasing and horrid weather.

Highlights:

• The goat ate my assignment - back in the days when assignments were written on paper, a goat I was photographing ate my next appointment right out of my camera bag!
• My story for the Orange County Register on J.J. Maloney, an ex-convict reporter who coined the term "Freeway Killer". Maloney published a personal appeal to  serial killer Richard Bonin, hoping to get a response.
• A story / photos on famed psychic, Peter Hurkos, who helped solve the Manson family murders and the Boston Strangler case. Some said Hurkos was a phony but the things he predicted in my life proved 100% accurate years later.
• Assignments from mentor Tom Self, a former Newsweek reporter & editor. He sent me all over California taking pictures and writing stories about famous & beautiful people for Executive magazine. 
• Though our public utilities are often taken for granted, the underbelly of our water, electric and phone services can be fascinating to see & photograph. On oil platforms in the ocean, in manholes underground and up on telephone poles with the pole climbers are few angles I've checked out and documented in creative ways for news publications.
• Hollywood fame - fans clamor to see stars, but when you have inside access to photograph big name actors, singers and performers you must follow certain rules or be forever banned.
• My partnership as a writer-photo team with Craig MacDonald, winning countless awards for "the phone company." He taught me about localization, a method of getting stories into just about any publication, anywhere. He and I became life partners till he passed away - we turned every adventure into a story.

Internet

One of my favorite industries to work with is tourism where "on the road" assignments to California's theme parks, attractions and  popular destinations (as well as destinations elsewhere,) have exposed me and other travel writers to the best foods, restaurants, hotels & attractions to be had! Web publishing has made it possible to make a decent living doing something that's pure fun. Unfortunately, we get spoiled and begin complaining about too many wine tastings or gourmet meals served back-on-back. Some websites I've founded (and/or sold) include californiabeaches.com, californiatravelnews.com, vacationtravel.com & seecalifornia.com

Clients

Fortune 500 firms such as AT&T, Edison, Toyota, Chevron, and dozens more. Print publications & television: National Geographic, Good Morning America, Time, Motor Trend, Sunset, Los Angeles Times and more.

Contact: PO BOX 947, Sunset Beach, CA 90742