Bill Becher
Outdoor Photography and Writing
Email Bill
Experience: Bill Becher sold his first photo
to a weekly newspaper in Chappaqua, N.Y at the age of 12. A long dry
spell ensued while he pursued his education and a business career.
Paddling a kayak from the mainland of California to
Anacapa Island in 2000 led to an article and photos in the Daily News of
Los Angeles Outdoors Section.
Bill is now a freelance photographer and writer on
outdoor topics including fishing, hiking, camping, geocaching, rock and
ice climbing, canyoneering, skiing, snowshoeing, sea and whitewater
kayaking, rafting, scuba diving, spelunking, paragliding, soaring,
hunting, shooting, birding, , 4-wheeling, mountain and road biking, and
conservation issues. He has written about and photographed adventures in
Belize, Honduras, Little Cayman Island, Canada, New Zealand, Christmas Island, Baja California and most of the western
United States.
Assignments:
Bill's work has appeared in the
New York Times, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Variety, Daily News of Los Angeles,
Sierra Heritage, Oakland Tribune, Sacramento Bee, Salt Lake Tribune, Mammoth
Monthly,
Paddler Magazine,
Northwest and Southwest Fly Fishing
magazines, OC Flair and
ESPNoutdoors.com and other publications.
Bill is a field editor for Southwest and Northwest Fly Fishing
magazines, and edited the OUT THERE outdoor and adventure travel section in
the LA Weekly. He wrote and photographed an adventure travel series
called "Extreme
Escapes: for the travel sections of the Daily
News of Los Angeles, Long Beach Press Telegram, San Bernardino County Sun,
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin (Ontario), San Gabriel Valley Tribune,
Pasadena Star News and the Whittier Daily News.
Education: Lawrenceville School, NJ – photo
editor of the school newspaper. BA in History, University of California,
Berkeley.
UCLA Extension journalism program classes in
reporting, feature writing, photojournalism, copy editing and media law and ethics.
Santa Fe Workshop in outdoor and travel photography. MediaBistro writing
courses.
Organizations:
member of the Board of Directors of the
Outdoor Writers Association of California, member of the
Society of Professional Journalists and
member of the Press Photographers
Association of Greater Los Angeles. Stock photos at
Zuma Press.
Skills and merit badges: Bill is an FAA
licensed pilot with single engine land airplane and glider ratings.
He's earned an FAI gold soaring badge with altitude diamond (reaching over
30,000-feet) and distance goal
diamond. He holds an advanced scuba diving certification, and has rescue,
ice, dry suit, altitude, wreck and nitrox diver certifications. He's had classes in rock and
ice climbing, canyoneering, river and ocean kayaking, mountaineering and aid climbing. Bill was a mountain and road bike racer and once even won the Kamikaze downhill race
at Mammoth Mountain in his age group and class. He can Eskimo roll a
kayak, well... most of the time.
Awards
