Jim Bass, Photographer

I am a general assignment photographer working in Ventura County, California.

I have lived in Thousand Oaks since 1987. I photograph business people, doctors, families, kids, products, food, architecture, landscapes, traffic and events.

You name it, I pretty much shoot it.

I took this photograph when I was 10. My father (at right) and I were on a boat en route from the Isle of Capri to the Blue Grotto. I was intrigued at how the pilot steered with his feet. I still remember the moment I took the shot thinking, “This is going to be a cool picture.”

I began taking photos as a kid and never stopped. I graduated with a degree in photojournalism from the University of Maryland and worked briefly as a sports writer/photographer for an afternoon daily newspaper in Montgomery, Alabama.

In search of adventure, I traveled with camera in hand. I was at Wounded Knee, South Dakota during the AIM takeover in 1973, in Tehran when the Shah was still in charge and enjoyed a long stay in beautiful Lebanon. Sad to say, all those pictures were lost.

Then I got married, got kids and got serious. From then on I have been in the communications business — co-owning an advertising/PR firm in Miami, screenwriting, developing multimedia CD-ROMs, working as a copywriter and founding a web business.

Clients hire me to take photographs to tell a story. Having hired photographers myself (as well as graphic designers, illustrators, writers etc.) I know what is needed and how to deliver.

It helps clients to have someone on the team who knows how all the parts fit together.