Photo gallery: Lilac Fire growing fast

John McCutchen grew up in East Peoria, Illinois, where he got his start in newspapers at 9 years old as a paperboy for two newspapers.He started photographing for the weekly paper when he was in high school and hasn’t stopped since; covering daily life, political campaigns, fashion, the military, professional sports and his favorite –Friday night high school football.John joined the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1988 and has worked as a photojournalist, picture editor, assignment editor and, currently, as the Director of Photography, he is firmly convinced that covering San Diego is the best job on the planet.

Howard Lipin has been a staff photojournalist at the U-T for more than 25-years, capturing every type of news and sporting event that has shaped San Diego County and Southern California, receiving many awards for photojournalistic excellence along the way.He was the co-creator of the Internet radio shows, PhotoTalkRadio.com and Shutterbug Magazine Radio. He has also been featured on the San Diego County Education Television Network, and a guest on the morning news at the Fox News Channel in San Diego.Howard began his career at the South Lake Tahoe Daily Tribune where he was the youngest photographer ever hired. He then moved to Southern California and the Whittier Daily News, and Orange Coast Daily Pilot before joining the U-T in 1986.

K.C. Alfred has been a staff photographer at the Union-Tribune since 2001. Prior to the U-T, K.C. was a staff photographer at the Ventura County Star. His photographs have been published in newspapers and magazines worldwide. During his career, he has photographed four Olympic Games, along with countless NFL, MLB, PGA and NCAA sporting events.

Staff Photographer Charlie Neuman started working at the U-T in 1985. His newspaper photography career begin in 1976 working part time at the Carlsbad Breeze weekly newspaper. Full time jobs began in 1978 at the Whittier Daily News, continuing at the Vista Press and the Oceanside Blade-Tribune. He’s lived mostly in North County, graduating from Oceanside High School in 1973. He speaks Spanish. Charlie has won many awards for his photography during his career. He lives in San Marcos.

Hayne Palmour IV has been working as a newspaper photographer in San Diego County since 1986. During that time he has covered most of the major news and sports events in San Diego County. In between 2003 and 2005 he went on three separate trips to cover the war in Iraq as an embedded journalist with Camp Pendleton Marines. In 2003 the North County Times published a book of Palmour’s photographs, along with text by reporter Darrin Mortenson, on the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq titled “A Thousand Miles to Baghdad.” Hayne has an associates degree in photography from Chowan College, in North Carolina and a BA in psychology from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. He joined the U-T in 2012. Hayne lives in Encinitas.

Gina Ferazzi grew up in the small New England town of Longmeadow, Mass. She has been a staff photographer with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. Her photos are a part of the staff Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News in 2016 for the San Bernardino terrorist attack and for the wildfires in 2004. She’s an all-around photographer covering assignments from Winter Olympics, presidential campaigns to local and national news events. Her video documentaries include stories on black tar heroin, health clinics, women priests and Marine suicide. A two-sport scholarship athlete at the University of Maine, Orono, she still holds the record for five goals in one field hockey game.

Robert Gauthier has been with the Los Angeles Times since 1994. He was the photographer for a project detailing the failings of an L.A. public hospital that won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for public service. Before The Times, Gauthier worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, the Escondido Times-Advocate and the Bernardo News in San Diego County, his hometown.

Eduardo Contreras has been a staff photographer at the U-T since 1994. Previously, he worked at the Chicago Tribune and as a freelance photographer in Orange County, California, where he grew up. Contreras has traveled extensively throughout the U.S. on assignment as well as internationally, reporting from Cuba, Canada, and Mexico. Contreras was member of the U-T staff that won the National Press Photographers “Best Use of Photos” honor in 1998. He is a graduate of UC Santa Barbara and has been working as a photojournalist since 1984. He has been married since 1989 and has three children.

I work with San Diego Union Tribune photo department to ensure the timely completion of high-impact video stories. I schedule/assign and facilitate creative treatment, copy-editing, writing and final review projects. The result is a successful delivery throughout all our media outlets. I create news style video segments/packages also traditional documentary style photojournalism, telling stories visually, using digital photography, video, photo and video editing and photoshop.

Paul Sisson covers health care for The San Diego Union-Tribune. He is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists. In his spare time, Paul enjoys photography, home brewing and following orders from his two young daughters.