When I was born, both sets of my grandparents were sharecroppers in Wapanucka (Johnston County), Oklahoma. Soon after my birth, my parents and paternal grandparents and several uncles and an aunt headed west to Paradise. California, that is. Santa Paula (Ventura County). Indoor plumbing and electricity. Flowers and orchards, mountains and the oceans, . . . and jobs. They thought they had died and gone to heaven.

After World War II, my father went back to farming. First, just west of Santa Paula. Then about 15 miles east of Fillmore, Calif., on the Newhall Land and Farming Company's land ("Newhall Ranch"). Then he worked on the Edwards Ranch near Fillmore and just a mile west of Piru.

I graduated from Fillmore Union High School in 1959. Got married to Miss Peggy Ruth Allen of Ventura, Calif., in 1962. We boogied 1,500 miles east and in 1965 I graduated from Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. Then in 1968 I received my M.A. in Speech Communication from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.

I spent some 10 years in ministry as a preacher, during which time I had three religious books published. I also worked many years in sales, and was an administrator of a mental health center in Texas and another in Oklahoma, and had a morning talk show on radio in Snyder, Texas. I also worked as a newspaper reporter, photographer, then as a newspaper editor. , . . . and more. And by June 1, 2022, I had published my 38th book of my career (many of them are on Amazon.com; or just google "Books by Stan Paregien").

Enough of that. I have loved writing and photography for most of those years.

So here are over 40,000 examples of my photographic interests. Thanks for stopping by.