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 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.
Investigative Bill’s article resulted in Anheuser-Busch ending grazing of cattle in the California’s Golden Trout Wilderness. His article about cycling and erectile dysfunction was one of the most read articles in the LA Times Health Section. He’s written about the impact of lead bullets on endangered condors that the California Department of Fish and Game tried to suppress. He’s also investigated the use of ski helmets and why the national ski patrol association doesn’t recommend them, despite evidence that they reduce head injuries by 80%.
He’s written about health and fitness and spent a fire season shadowing a Hot Shot crew of wild land fire fighters.
Publications: Bill’s work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Outside Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Men’s Journal, Sport Diver, the Chicago Tribune, the International Herald Tribune, the Daily News of Los Angeles, The Long Beach Press Telegram, Variety, LA Weekly, Horizon Air, Mammoth Monthly, Max Sports, OC Flair, Southwest Fly Fishing, Northwest Fly Fishing, Eastern Fly Fishing, Eastside Magazine, the Oakland Tribune, X Ray Magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Sacramento Bee, Paddler, the New York Times Syndicate, at ESPNoutdoors.com, and other publications.
Bill was 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: Former member of the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the Outdoor Writers Association of California, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Press Photographers Association of Greater Los Angeles.
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, even though he didn’t go very fast. He can Eskimo roll a kayak, well… most of the time.
After a fall in 2011 leading a rock climb at Joshua Tree, Bill’s been in a wheelchair as a T10 paraplegic. He rides on and off road handcycles. Since the accident he’s kayaked the Rio Grande and the Chama Rivers, skied on a monoski at Ski Santa Fe and Crested Butte and fly fished the San Juan in New Mexico and the Kanektok River in Alaska on a fly-in seven-day float trip with his wife Jane.