What inspires me is ....

I wanted to do something a bit different this time.  I wanted to show one of the images that inspired me to take pictures.  This is one of my favorite images of all time and it is so strong and moving.  The first time I saw this was when I was in band in high school and we watched a presentation on Tiananmen Square, this was the last image in that moving presentation.

Jeff Widener (born August 11, 1956) in Long Beach, CA is the Associated Press photojournalist who took the world-famous picture of "The Unknown Rebel" in 1989 during the Tiananmen Square Protests. The photo depicts a lone protester who halted a column of advancing tanks for more than half an hour.^[1]

Widener took the photo from the sixth floor of the Beijing Hotel, about half a mile away, through a 400mm lens. He was subsequently nominated for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize for "Spot News Photography".

As of 2004, Widener is a staff photographer for the Honolulu Advertiser. ^[2]

Widener has won numerous awards from the local Society of Professional Journalists and won second place for a pictorial in the 2004 National Press Photographers Association awards.^[3]