“My parents took me to air shows and it became sort of my thing. Like a lot of people of my age group, when the first Top Gun came out that fueled the fire even more.”
— Scott Dworkin, professional photographer
Welcome to our latest interview with professional photographer Scott Dworkin. In this four-part series, Scott shares fascinating stories from his unique career, featuring everything from air shows to cycling… and even a mention of Mötley Crüe. Keep reading for more on his intriguing journey.
Scott Dworkin is an aerial photographer, contractor, and photojournalist based just outside Los Angeles, California. With a lifelong passion for both aviation and photography, he spent years refining his craft across multiple photographic disciplines before merging these two pursuits professionally in 2010.Text below transcribed from a portion of an interview conducted by Betty of Cradoc fotoSoftware in August 2025. To view this and other interviews, please go to our Cradoc fotoSoftware YouTube Channel.
The Photography Journey starts with Air Force Dreams
I’m Scott Dworkin. I’m based in the Los Angeles area, a little north of Los Angeles in Ventura County. I’ve been in aviation. I’m a little bit of a “wear a different hat depending on the day” photographer.
I started out as a hobbyist like a lot of people did. The short version of my story is I grew up wanting to be a pilot myself in the military. I was going to air shows from a very young age. My parents took me to air shows and it became sort of my thing. Like a lot of people of my age group, when the first Top Gun came out that fueled the fire even more. So I honed in on “I want to be a naval aviator now.”
When I graduated high school, I went to college in San Diego and I obviously never wanted to go to one of the service academies. I didn’t have the grades anyway, but it was because of the fact that I had no military background. I knew what I wanted to do, but the deal with my parents was go to college. There’s ROTC, there’s officer OCS or OTS, depending on the service branch, which is after college, you get a commission. I made that deal with them that I would go to San Diego and start school, see what it was about. After my first year at San Diego State, I said, okay, I still want to do this. I walked over to the navy; they have an ROTC detachment in San Diego, and I said, this is what I want to do. And they said, okay.
I graduated high school in 1991. I went to San Diego in 1992. That was after the first Gulf War had ended. I’ve told the story in a couple other podcasts, but it kind of creates the narrative that there was no plan for any more wars; there never is. So, the second Gulf War hadn’t happened; everything was hunky-dory, and the military looked at that and it was in a drawdown phase. So at that point the Navy had been inundated in the late 80s with pilot cadets and candidates and people wanting to be aviators, and they were just flat out saying no; unless you were at the Naval Academy with an engineering type of degree and a high grade point average, we’re not even taking anybody into these other programs because we don’t want to have them go through it and then find out there’s no pilot slots available. At that point, there were pilot guys who were qualifying to be pilots, who were getting their commission in the Navy, [they] were being what they call “stashed away.” They were sitting at desks for a long time with the hope that a slot would open up in training. So they just said no to me.
The commander that I met at the time was like, why don’t you go talk to the Air Force because they fly more airplanes; they have a much broader range of aircraft and you might have a better chance. So I did that and I went to talk to the Air Force. They said the same thing, but they said, we’ll take you in the program; we’re not going to say no, because their attitude was, we also need officers in the air force, not just pilots. The air force is made up of a lot of different jobs. So they said, it’s a gamble, but we’ll take you.
And so I did that. I went through the program and I was in a different timeline because I should have joined as a freshman, but I didn’t. I got to a point where they came to me and said, it’s time to sign the dotted line. For a lot of people… there are ROTC scholarships and things like that, where they’re providing money for tuition, and then you’re sort of committed. I didn’t have any of that. I just walked in there on my own volition. I got a uniform, I got some books. I was required to take military classes along with my regular classes, and then also one day a week of marching and doing that stuff. It was just no commitment to them other than hope. And they came to me and said, we need you to sign because you’ve missed the first year and we’re kind of rushing you through. And next summer you’re going to have to go to basic training and we need a commitment. The colonel that was running our detachment at the time said, I’m going to be honest with you; I do not think you’re going to get a pilot slot. There’s just not that many, and they’re really only going to the academy. And the few that are sprinkled around are going to go to our engineering students with 4.0 degrees, and you have a psychology major with a B average. Just the reality.
The nice thing about it was at the time I’d grown up with this passion. I had airplane pictures on my wall as a kid. I had model kits, I was that guy. We went to Luke Air Force Base as a ROTC group, and he picked 10 cadets to get to fly in F-16s. Now, normally that only went to people who were commissioned, had taken scholarship money, had already signed the paperwork. I was the only one that he picked that wasn’t. It was just because he felt partly, you’re not going to get to do this. I think it was sympathy, like, I want you to at least once see what it was like. And then partly because he thought it would motivate me to stay in and take the chance. And I did it.
I didn’t know that until after he told me after why he did it. He came to me the week after we got back from Arizona from this trip and said, I did this for a reason, and I hope you will stay because whether you’re a pilot or not, you’re the type of person that I would like to have as a leader in the air force. But I need you to go home, talk to your parents. Here’s the type of list of jobs you could get as a commissioned officer, and maybe at some point you can make a transition into aviation. Here’s some jobs where you would wear a flight suit to work every day if that’s what it’s about for you, which it wasn’t; it wasn’t about the look. And I went home and talked to my parents.
It was never, and I have no disrespect to anybody that did this for this reason, but it was never about joining the military for the sake of that. I wanted to be a pilot. I have friends that are in the military that joined because of post 9/11 and the love of country and all these different things. For me, this [becoming a pilot] was my goal. It wasn’t going to happen. So I walked away, turned in my uniform, books, walked away, and graduated college and went into the real world.
Childhood Passions Inspiring Career
I had gone to air shows as a kid. I had my mom’s film camera, took crappy photos at the air shows that I used to take to the photo mart or whatever back in the old days, a little 4×6. And when I gave up that dream, I, for better or for worse, sort of walked away from all of it. I went to work in marketing research for a few years. I was an intern when I moved back to Los Angeles. I was an intern at a marketing research firm and then got a job there after college and did that for a few years. And my dad has been in the textile industry for now going on 50-odd years. At the time, for many years, he had left a company that he was the vice president of, started his own business. And again, growing up wanting to be Maverick, every time he would talk to me about his work, it was like, hey, we live a great life and you’ve provided for us well, but it’s not something I would ever want to do.
When I left the marketing research job and started looking for other jobs, he came to me and said, hey, Scott, listen, I have my own business, it’s just me. I’m going to offer you one more time. Spend three months with me, go out in the car with me, see what it’s about. And at that point, having spent a little time in the real world, I was like, gift horse, you know, I’ve got to be realistic here. So I went out with him and I started working with him. And during that time, I had started dating my wife. At the time, even my parents and she were like, it’s very strange that you had this passion from like five years old, literally model kits and the whole, you name it. And because you couldn’t do this, you took all of that, literally, it was like somebody died and I never dealt with it; I just put it in a box and put it in storage, like literally all the photo albums, everything went into storage. And my parents had said it a few times; it’s kind of unhealthy, but also it’s a little strange. And I said, yeah, but this is just who I am. I can’t do what I wanted to do. Why would I want to be around this? But they sort of made me realize that maybe it wasn’t the right way to go at it.
There happened to be an air show coming up at Point Mugu, which is down the street from where I live now. And that’s the one I grew up going to. And I thought, you know what? I’ll go. Why not? And my mom, again, they had always had a camera in the house, so I took their digital camera. As soon as I got to the air show, it was like, click; it just came all flooding back. And I’m like, you know what? This is still something I enjoy. I mean, I’m the guy that, if an airplane’s flying over, I’m like this still, even at my age. A helicopter flies over, I run outside to see what it is. So I got there, and over time, I started going to a few more air shows.
This is now when digital cameras had come out, obviously, in that timeframe. And I started seeing the things that I used to hate about it when I was younger, going to air shows was you have to show up super early. There’s throngs of people there. You’re in the crowd, you’re shooting the back of heads. You get good shots. You can’t weasel your way to the front. And, for better or for worse, air shows, by two o’clock in the afternoon, people have had a few beers. They get obnoxious. They’re spilling beers everywhere. And I’m just like, I want to be in the front. So I started noticing when I would go to these shows that there was like a media tent there, and it was always at the front. And I started talking to the other photographers: how do you get here? How do you get in the front? Well, you have to be credentialed. So again, shortened version of all this was I was the guy that would just start asking questions and I started making friends with some of these photographers.
There were a couple of websites at the time where people would post their photos, and this was a little bit pre-Facebook even, but there were two aviation websites that were pretty well known. And, people would post their photos and either critique them or just show them off and say, I was at the show, I went to this place. I joined one of the groups and met a bunch of cool guys. We started going to the shows together and meeting up at the shows together. And through that affiliation, we were invited to a couple. The goal for all aviation photographers is not an air show, right? You want to be invited to the base and sit on the side of the runway when they’re really working, not doing a demo, that kind of thing. And we got invited to a couple events.
Aviation, Music, and Cycling
I was never into photography just because of photography. I was doing photography that I liked the subject matter of. So for me, aviation was number one. Number two was cycling. And number three was music. I’ve always been into music. I’m kind of a hard rock, heavy metal guy. So I go to the bike races with my buddies and I see photographers there. I started asking them how do you, you know.
And the cycling organization in Thousand Oaks found out that I was at all these races and they asked me to become their photographer. And 14 years later now I’m running the whole team. I don’t even do photography anymore. I run the whole organization from a financial standpoint. I do all the social media and marketing for the team budget. So I don’t know how that happened, but I started doing cycling and it coincided with the time of Lance Armstrong. So cycling in the United States was pretty popular. And because of our affiliation of our team with Amgen. Amgen was the primary sponsor of the tour of California for years, which was one of the biggest pro races in the United States at the time. So because of that affiliation with Amgen, we were invited to go to the Tour of California and shadow the pro-racers to represent part of what Amgen, as a pharmaceutical company, called Breakaway from Cancer. Patrick Dempsey was their spokesman for many years, and so I was fortunate enough to be able to hang out with Lance Armstrong and other professional cyclists around that time. And so then the magazine started finding that out and I started doing work on the cycling publication side. I started reviewing products occasionally because I was also riding my bike. So if they sent me a helmet, I would ride and wear it and write a short little review. At the time, unfortunately, because of the way the industry was to my wife’s chagrin, they would pay me in the helmet. meaning like the payment was the helmet, which I love, but my wife’s like, we can’t pay the bills with shoes and helmets and bike jerseys.
So then the third one was music. I was really into music. I was going to concerts from the time I was a little kid. And I kind of thought the same thing; I’d show up at these concerts and I would see in the front row, there would be photographers there with these lenses. And I go, well, how does that happen? And I’m the guy that, as crazy as it sounds I would pick a band that I liked and I would do an hour’s worth of research on Google and say like who’s their publicist. I went to a couple magazines and the magazines were like we don’t know you so we’re not going to hire you but you. But they were kind enough to at least fill me in that in the music world, in the live music world especially, the way you get the access to the concerts is you have to get published. You have to be there. The bands and the band’s managers and publicists want the publicity for their band being in L.A. on a tour. At the time there were a lot of web-based publications. This wasn’t like I was going after Rolling Stone. Most of the live music reviews, like a band comes into L.A. and plays at the Crypto.com center, Staples Center. I still call it Staples Center. The band might be the biggest band in the world, like Metallica, but they still want coverage. So the publicist is like, we need a review of the show and we want photos, but we’re not just going to let you in. So I said, I don’t know what to do with this information because I don’t know any of these publications, but I found a few online music publications.
I grew up loving Motley Crue. I saw that they were playing at the Hollywood Bowl and I found out who their manager was. And just through, I guess, digging, sleuthing, whatever you want to call it, I found his email. I emailed him and I said, I really want to shoot your guys and I grew up loving them, and a couple of the guys lived near me when I was growing up. I used to see him all the time when I was in high school. It’s like I feel a kinship to this. And hereplied back to me, how did you get my email? The guy’s the manager of Motley Crue, he’s been their manager for decades and I said I found it, and he wrote me back and said, I can’t let you in to shoot the band just for the sake of taking photos for your own portfolio, it’s just not something we do. But again he said the same thing; he goes because you were perseverant and you figured out how to get in touch with me. I will give you media passes or press passes if you can find a magazine to put them in. So I just went to one of those online ones that I had been following, and I said, if I can get in a Motley Crue at the Hollywood Bowl and the guy replied, the editor was like, yeah, do it. So I emailed this guy back and I said, this is the magazine. He goes done.
How Curiosity and Strategy Led to Photography Opportunities
Then the coastguard found out about us, and in some of their training events, they said, hey, we need good photos to hang in the hangar, in the hallways of our offices. And if you guys would come out and share your photos with us, we’ll open the gate and let you out to the training area that we’re going to use, which is on this cliffside in Palos Verdes by the water. They do hoist training. So, during the time that I was meeting all these photographers and understanding how to get the media access, I also started remembering the books that I had on my bookshelf growing up and the books that I started buying again in my twenties, and the magazines that I started buying again; I would read all the articles and look at the photographers names and understand that these were civilian names. It wasn’t lieutenant so-and-so took the photo. A lot of the articles will say U.S. Navy photo or something like that. I started seeing the same names over and over again. And it was a lot of the same names that I grew up reading. So when I now went to the air shows, I was very strategic and I would talk to the pilots and I would say, I know your sister squadron did this. How did this happen? How did that guy get to fly in this helicopter or this aircraft? A lot of the pilots would say, we don’t know but give me your email or your phone number and we’ll find out.
The fact that I had that one F-16 flight in Arizona to a lot of the photographers, it was like, whoa, we want to know what it’s like too, and you had that chance. But a lot of the military guys are like, look, you tried; a lot of people don’t get to do it, but you tried and you’re still here and you’re still enthusiastic. So they were kind of receptive to my conversations. A handful of them would be like, give me your phone number, we’ll find out.
It was the Coast Guard that really was the one that when we were out at one of these training events, they were hot-seating the helicopter. So pilots would get multiple evolutions in this training. One of the pilots, when he was sitting there and we were literally sitting at a table eating lunch together, I said, Lieutenant, I’ve seen photos of postcard Los Angeles helicopters in this magazine. How did that happen? The photographer is part of our group, how did that happen? And he said, well, I happen to also be the collateral, which means like the pilots will have other jobs in the squadron. He was the collateral public affairs officer. So it was like, I know how it happened. And I said, really? So that was like door open. At the same time, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department and Fire Department have a joint helicopter unit, they do law enforcement and fire. They had put out a fire in the hills behind my house and I had trudged out there to the corner of my street and took some photos of them dropping water and their facility is 20 minutes from my house. I went and enlarged a couple of the photos and knocked on their hangar door and one of the guys in the flight suit answered. And I said, I live in Lang Ranch and Thousand Oaks; thanks for saving our neighborhood. I made these posters for you guys. This was you dropping water on the fire. And he’s like, this is great, thank you. And he’s like, you want to see our hangar? And I said, sure. And I did the same thing to him; I said, do you guys ever fly? I want to do something with this. You know, I’m back into photography, I buy these magazines. Like, how does this happen? And he said, well, we don’t fly civilians in our helicopters, I mean, it’s not something we do. However; I can introduce you to our captain and you can tell him what your goals are.
At the same time that this Coast Guard thing had happened, this Ventura County thing had happened. And he introduced me and he walked me into the captain’s office and said, Scott knocked on our door. He brought us these posters, which is nice. Tell him what you want to tell him. And I said, sir, I want to get into these magazines and I don’t know what to do. And he said, here’s the bottom line. I can’t just fly you on a helicopter because you want to take photos. As much as we appreciate great photos, I can’t just do that. Nobody will approve that. What I can tell you is as a sheriff’s law enforcement and fire department air unit, we have one of the biggest items in the line item budget for the county every year. And when I have to go and ask for something from the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, they know I’m the captain of the air unit and they’re going to say, of course you want the newest computer. You want this? You want it? He wasn’t even buying helicopters at the time. It was like equipment. And he said, as crazy as this sounds, there are three or four publications that are in the helicopter business that if a civilian writes the article, I take that with me and I can present it as a non-biased opinion, and I show that to the politicians in a sense and say, why don’t you read this? It explains what we do. And it helps. Every little bit helps me get my mission accomplished. So he’s like, the bottom line here is if you can write an article for one of these magazines, I can fly you and I can get that approved. But I can’t just take you in the helicopter to take photos. And he said, I appreciate the fact that you spent your own money to blow up these photos and have them framed for us, so I’m going to do you a favour. And he wrote down three magazines and he slid it across his desk and he said, you get in one of these magazines and I will fly you.
I went home that day and I emailed all three [magazines], and the first one that replied was like send me some of the photos you’ve taken at air shows, just send me something. I sent her a few photos. She’s like the photos are fine; I need 1200 words; we haven’t worked with Ventura County in years so that’s great. I need 1200 words by this date. I drove back over to Camarillo a couple days later knocked on the door again and said hey captain, Airbeat Magazine. He goes, you want to go right now? I mean, literally, he’s like, do you want to go fly right now? And I said, I don’t have my camera. And he goes, then tell me when you want to go. Most people, he said, would have run for the hills at this point, and you didn’t.
Then I went back and I emailed the lieutenant from the Coast Guard. I said, do you know what Airbeat magazine is? He goes, no. I said, well, it’s a law enforcement association. It’s a foundation, basically. And I had emailed the editor back and I said, do you have any interest in the Coast Guard? I mean, I know it’s a law enforcement foundation or publication, but she goes, oh, we do a Search and Rescue specific issue every fall. You can get in with the Coast Guard? And I’m like, yeah. And she goes, give me 1200 words. So I went to the lieutenant and I said, listen, Airbeat. He goes, I don’t care what it is; I told you if you get me published, we can get it approved by the Coast Guard. And he says, you want to come next week? So that’s how I started.
I mean, and I always… understood this, that what I saw in these magazines with the guys that I respected and looked up to was a lot of the fighter jet stuff. And I knew going into this, there’s no way that I’m then going to go from this to this right away. So I built into it. And I started looking at other military units, what you don’t see typically in the magazines. You don’t see a lot of airlift, air refueling, transport, things like that. It can’t all be, you know, as much as I love my fighter pilot buddies, it’s like they don’t need that much press, they get it.
The Photographery Journey
It’s always fascinating to learn about how photographers made photography a career. Here’s a blog – How I Turned Photography into a Career about a photographer who started off her career young. And read one of our blogs – Interview with Jonathan Kingston- Starting out as a Professional Photographer about one of our other interviewees and how he became a photographer.
About Scott Dworkin
Scott Dworkin is an aerial photographer and photojournalist based near Los Angeles, California. Since 2010, he has combined his passions for aviation and photography, with work published in international aviation magazines. He has documented missions with every branch of the U.S. Armed Forces, including aeromedical evacuations in Afghanistan. One of few civilians to fly in high-performance military aircraft, Scott has also served as a Flight Test Photographer for the 412th Test Wing at Edwards Air Force Base. He is trained and qualified as aircrew through both U.S. Air Force and Navy aviation programs.
Website: https://www.mach91aerialphotography.com/about
Copyright: All images belong to Scott Dworkin used by Cradoc fotoSoftware with permission of the copyright holder. Use of images or content by any person or entity other than Cradoc fotoSoftware for any purposes is expressly prohibited.
See other great interview transcripts:
- Todd Bigelow
- Jonathan Kingston
- Julie Bidwell
- Steve Whittaker
- Scott Dworkin
