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The eye behind the lens

From celebrity interviews to crime scenes, student captures all for local TV news

May 3, 2010
by Anthony Nathan | Guest Writer

Local Fox 40 News cameraman and City College student Joseph Huerta serves the public by informing the people. Photo by Vincent Fernandez

From crime scenes and child prostitution to Bon Jovi concerts to one-on-one time with Flava Flav, this young photographer and City College student has seen it all — and has captured it for the world to see.

Joseph Huerta, 23, is the youngest photographer at Fox 40, and might be the youngest in Sacramento. His job at KTXL television has enabled him to go around northern California, being what he calls a “public servant,” informing people of what’s going on.

Huerta got into film at 16, shooting his friends skateboarding around the Sacramento area. He took on the responsibility of being the guy who captured the latest tricks, but like any hobby, he started at with basic camera equipment.

“My first camera was a JVC Hi-C,” Huerta says. “Over the last weekend, I heard some people call JVC junkie video camera. But there is a tape that you had to put in a VHS tape in order to play it.”

As his passion for filming grew, so did his set-up. At the peak of his skateboard filming he had two Sony VX cameras, with accompanying fisheye lenses that allow the shooter to get more in the shot within close range, a staple in any skateboard photographer’s arsenal.

“I wanted it because I wanted good quality videos, so I bought that when I was 18 years old,” Huerta says.

Huerta’s ability to translate skateboarding into good footage, then into good video, prepared him for a job he wasn’t expecting: working for Fox 40.

“I think filming us skating definitely prepared Joe for filming for Fox,” says childhood friend Will Grayson. “Skateboarding is very high paced and fast and requires a lot from the filmer. They have to be aware of their surroundings, aware of what they are shooting, have a steady hand to actually film, and also be able to react quickly. Joe had all of these skills and was able to transfer them over onto his job at Fox 40.”

His first day on the job as a photographer, he says he was sent to film a dead body being pulled from the American River. Since then, he has filmed around 30 bodies for the news. Fox has put Huerta in situations that some people will never experience or want to experience, like going undercover with the Sacramento Police department to film prostitution.

“They’re pulling this girl over, but I can’t be seen, so I’m hiding under a car and I’m shooting it, and I guess her pimp came from behind and asked me what I was doing,” Huerta says. “I blew him off or whatever, but my reporter told me he had a knife with him, and I guess he left after he saw the FBI truck looking at him.”

Huerta’s job has also taken him to the most exclusive of places — movie premieres, concerts and even one-on-one with celebrities.

“Flava Flav will always stick out,” says Huerta, reminiscing on his celebrity encounters, “because that guy was cool as shit.”

Even though he works 45 plus hours a week, unheard of to many young men his age, he still finds time to go back to his roots and skate with old pals from his teens. “Joe works more than anyone I know and he still finds time to go skate and hang out and go to parties,” says childhood friend Pedro Silva. “I don’t know how he does it.”