Letting Casey Christie go out and explore was always the right call

A screen shot of a flower photographed by Casey Christie during a trip to Death Valley.

As a manager, I'm a big believer in letting people pursue their intellectual interests or passions as part of their work, because I ultimately believe it makes for great content. Fortunately at The Bakersfield Californian, I had three magnificent photographers in Felix Adamo, Henry Barrios and Casey Christie. Each had their own unique gifts and areas of interest.

Adamo loves motorcycles and Bakersfield and he channeled those interests into a motorcycle journey across America to visit towns named Bakersfield. Barrios is brilliant at capturing people and when he's tasked with a project he would give it 100 percent and more.

Then there was Christie, who is retiring this year, and he loves photographing nature. Casey would frequently come into my office and say something like: "I was driving down the (Kern River) canyon and I shot this bobcat and I got this." He would then hand you a gallery-worthy collection of pictures that needed to go into the paper at some point. Prolific is what best describes these men, and giving them the opportunity to do what they love was always important to me.

So, when Death Valley was awash in blooming flowers, I said to Casey Christie why don't you take the day and get out there and shoot. He did. Some may question the value of sending someone so far to take pictures, but I believe it's an important morale builder. Journalists are curious and passionate people and letting them explore what interests them (within reason) makes sense to me. It has to have some benefit to the company, the community and our audience. With that, Casey drove out to Death Valley for a Super Bloom and came back with stills and video. A true master. Here's one of my favorite projects that he produced during my time as his boss at TBC.