Maybe he watched a little too much TV growing up.
Stan was nine years old, sitting on the floor in the family room, watching a press conference on the local news with the Mayor of Philadelphia speaking at the podium. As a matter of habit, he got up and flipped the dial, from 3 to 6. Same press conference, only a different angle. "Hmm," Stan would say, "I like this a little better, but the sound doesn't sound so good, Let's see what channel 10 has." The knob turned again, CLICK, past the static of 7, CLICK 8, CLICK 9... CLICK ah, channel 10. "Well this sounds better, but it sounds like it's a few seconds behind channel 6. Let's go back there."
CLICK 9, CLICK 8, CLICK 7, CLICK 6...
Back and forth, channel to channel. No one in the house would end up following what the Mayor had to say, but at least they were guaranteed to have the best live shot available. Thanks to a persnickety pupil of the School of Television Obsession.
Stan's first job in broadcasting was at the age of 16, working as a board operator on Sundays at a small daytime only radio station in his home town of West Chester, PA. After graduating High School, he earned a degree at the University of Dayton in Ohio, and was an intern in the sports department at WHIO. That's where he first got his hand on a Betacam. "Oh, you're going to be a photog, aren't you." said one of the other interns. It stuck with him.
He worked in Dayton for a year at WKEF, and worked for five years in Richmond Virginia at WTVR, where he first became a Chief Photographer. That's where he was working, when he attended the NPPA Workshop as a student in 2000. A few years later, when there was an opportunity to work in Baltimore with his mentor Scott Livingston, he jumped.
Today, Stan's the Chief Photographer at Fox 45 in Baltimore. It's a great place to be, with "all of the big- market news, none of the big market traffic" as he puts it. He met his wife, a reporter Kathleen, and his stepson Taylor there.
Stan's won a few awards along the way, including the 2005 NPPA Ernie Crisp Television News Photographer of the Year, and the Region 3 Photographer of the Year honor twice. He enjoys teaching, talking shop, and sharing ideas on how to tell better stories. This is his third year on the Workshop faculty.
And occasionally, whenever there's a big press conference, he's been known to flip between CNN, Fox News and MSNBC. It drives everyone else crazy.