Fresno Wedding Photographer Craig Kohlruss » magazine

Inspirational story

Craig — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:44:12 +0000

Pha Mouvangsou’s life was a tough one from the get-go. As an infant, his mother (photographed with him and two of his sons here) smuggled him and any other surviving family members to Thailand from Laos where his family was being hunted down by the Viet Cong. HIs father, who was fighting with the Americans had already escaped. In a Thailand refugee camp for four years, young Pha was fed mice to keep his protein up. Eventually the family was re-located in Fresno where Pha lived in poverty and soon got mixed up in gangs. After becoming a father, it was his own son, Sebastian, who got his life turned around. Pha enrolled at DeVry University and earned both bachelors and Masters degrees. Today he works as a branch manager at Consolidated Electrical Distributors and also teaches at the Institute of Technology, influencing young adults who were very much like him. He supports a family of four boys, his wife, mother and other family members. I photographed Mouvangsou for Link Magazine, a publication from the Career College Association which will publish the story soon. Can’t wait to get a copy of that. What a wonderful story.

Pharmacy Today

Craig — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:17:32 +0000

Jose Carranza for Pharmacy Today Magazine. Owner of Carranza Pharmacy, Hughson, CA

Jose Carranza will be featured in the American Pharmacy Association’s Pharmacy Today magazine. Carranza and his family run a pharmacy in the small farm town of Hughson, CA near Modesto.

Teen going green

Craig — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:56:01 +0000

I spent a day off from The Bee last Friday on a freelance assignment for Scholastic News, you know that little newspaper we used to look at as kids in school. I drove down to Bakersfield to photograph a teenager who helped organize an awareness campaign about a scrap metal plant polluting the environment when he lived in Oakland. Heavy metals in the air caused major problems with his asthma. He led a press conference that drew attention from local media and city council members and got the place cleaned up. Juan even ended up in Newsweek for his efforts. What’s even better for Juan is that his move has helped him turn the corner on his original problem – getting mixed up in gangs. My son reads Scholastic News in his sixth grade class so I’ll be interested to see how he tests on that quiz.