Photography is my passion. Flower photography is my art.
Welcome! I completely reformatted the site in 2022, so throughout 2023 and going into 2024, landscape, flower, graphic art, religious-themed, car and other photos will be added back. I hope you find something to inspire you on my website.
I grew up in Freshwater, Calif., and am an alumnus of Garfield Elementary School, Winship Junior High School, Eureka Senior High School and Humboldt State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt, where I was graduated with honors in my major of journalism and minor in The Study of Genocide, which instilled in me my passion of vociferously opposing antisemitism, Nazism and Fascism).
Growing up in Freshwater, cow pastures were where me, my brother Mario and friends played football. You had to be careful where you ran. I also hiked extensively in logged, second- and old-growth forestland in Freshwater and Kneeland with my Irish Setter, Shannon of The Redwoods.
My journalism career began as sports editor/writer at The Redwood Bark at ESHS, as well as chief editorial writer, where I led a campaign to decommission the now-defunct Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant (it took a few more years!). I also led the coverage of the expansion of Redwood National Park.
My professional career led me to the positions of newspaper publisher and longtime editor of both dailies and weeklies in several rural communities on California's isolated, rural North Coast (brief work history is below).
I'm the only North Coast journalist to have worked at almost all of the traditional legacy (pre-1980 that weren't yet closed) print publications in Humboldt and Del Norte counties.
Post-newspaper career, I became known as The Flower Photographer of Silicon Valley. I've been a member of Zenfolio, which hosts this site, since 2012, a member of the Professional Photographers of America since 2011 and, for many years, The Society of Professional Journalists (I still write occasional columns and journalistic articles). I'm also a member of the Nevada Artists Association, The American Dahlia Society, HelpMeFind (roses), and Dave's Garden.
Follow me on eBird, for (mostly) Carson City birding.
Word-of-mouth is my only advertising, so if you could share this website on social media and with friends and family, I would really appreciate it.
My nearly 25-year newspaper career was spent mostly working for one local newspaper chain that was then purchased in bankruptcy by another local newspaper group, after I informed the owner/publisher of that group that the newspaper chain I was a part of was going bankrupt due to Black Monday 1987.
Newspapers where I worked were all in Humboldt and Del Norte counties on The Redwood Coast of California, except for a short stint as the then-Santa Rosa Business Journal editor (the area's housing was cost-prohibitive, so I moved back to Humboldt County).
The newspapers and radio stations were in order worked: The Arcata Union (business editor), The Del Norte Triplicate (editor), The Redwood Record (editor), The Humboldt Beacon (editor), The Ferndale Enterprise (guest editor/reporter) & Sunny 100 (anchor) (both while I worked as recycling manager and then general manager at Eel River Disposal & Resource Recovery Inc.), The Times-Standard, KINS News (I worked at KINS & T-S simultaneously for six years), The Eureka Reporter (co-founded with businessman Robin Arkley II and where I served as publisher for almost three years as first, an online newspaper, and then a thrice-weekly newspaper before going daily and necessitating a full-time publisher), and as a Times of Israel non-paid blogger. The newspaper positions in each chain were all promotions, as I moved to a larger newspaper and/or more responsibility with each promotion. While at each newspaper, I also wore the hats of photojournalist, sports photographer, reporter, copy editor and proof reader.
In my post-newspaper career, I've worked for myself as a photographer and for Star Roses and Conard-Pyle, where I took professional rose photos for ads, publications, a magazine and websites. My photos, including auto photos, have been published from Eastern Europe to the USA.
Glenn is a father, grandfather to almost a dozen grandchildren, and for 20 years happily married to his loving wife Kathleen. They have two dogs, Rosie and Sammy, and three cats, Oh, Sheba and Buddy. This site is dedicated to Glenn's late parents, Helen and Lee.
~ Glenn Thomas Franco Simmons
Carson City, Nev.
2023
(Editor's note: Please note that I use several free and two paid generative AI programs to generate creative content for my website. I usually note where it is being used, but in case I forget, I'm writing this disclaimer.)