MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. – Team picture day is something Jon SooHoo has a lot of experience with.
“Okay guys right here, here we go a count of three, one two three, here we go a couple more, one, two, three,” said SooHoo.
He has been covering the Dodgers since 1985, and became the official team photographer one decade later in 1995. Through the evolution of the organization with players, management, and ownership, as well as the evolution of photography, the one constant has been SooHoo.
“I thank God for this because I don’t, I never could’ve planned any of this, it’s a dream come true. I have no doubt his hands are on it because I couldn’t have planned it,” said SooHoo.
He is a fourth generation Angeleno and followed in his father’s footsteps graduating from University of Southern California. There wasn’t a photo journalism program at USC at the time, but he interned at The Daily Trojan, which eventually led to him working with NBA photographer Andy Bernstein. That connection would set him on his career path by photographing all L.A. sports.
“Recording L.A. history is part of sports history, is what I love doing,” said SooHoo.
When he is not shooting the boys in blue, he continues recording L.A. history for other professional and college teams across the city.
Over the years during the entirety of baseball season, he has documented countless moments. The most impactful one that still stands out to this date is Kirk Gibson’s walk-off home run in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
“When Gibby came out of the dugout it was just electric the whole place, it was crazy and then when he hit it, that’s the loudest I remember Dodger Stadium ever being,” said SooHoo.
Back then, photography was different. He shot on film and would have time to process a single photo.
"Shooting so much back in the day on film, black and white film, manual focus, manual exposure cameras, I mean it was awesome," said SooHoo.
In today’s digital world, everything is about speed and immediacy. Despite that, SooHoo says he will never compromise quality.
“If I miss something and I know it’s out of focus, it’s not a good part of the play or it’s not a good image I’m not going to send it, that’s all that’s to it. Whereas you know nowadays people put something on their phone, they all think it’s good and it goes up and what the relevancy is doesn’t matter because somebody is seeing it first,” said SooHoo.
The art of his craft, snapping a fresh captivating photo, is always at the top of his mind. One of his favorites is when he captured pitchers Sandy Koufax and Clayton Kershaw together ahead of the 2015 Old-Timers game.
“I said Clayton I think Sandy wants to get a picture of you, it might be the last time he’s in uniform, I didn’t know if it was going to be his last time in uniform, but I said he’s agreed if you want to do a photograph. So they agreed and when Sunday came and we started walking down the hallway towards the bullpen because that’s where we were going to do the photograph, I turn around and say hey you idiot, turn around this is a beautiful opportunity and this is what came out of it and it’s like my pride and joy because it connects the old and the new,” said SooHoo.
Over the years, he has been with the team through 15 playoff appearances, including the 1988 World Series win. Perhaps this year is the picture perfect one to make it all the way.
No matter the outcome, SooHoo will continue documenting memories to live on long past any World Series celebration, and for this group to look back and cherish this era of their lives.
“It's pretty gratifying to know I've had that kind of longevity in people's lives. As long as I have some sort of impact for our players for our owners, from management, then I know I’m doing my job,” said SooHoo.