Summit Sports - California

Jean Fruth

Photographer Jean Fruth does more than take pictures.  She tells stories — of vibrant personalities, local cultures, and distinctive communities.  From a small darkroom to the most iconic stadiums flooded with lights, Jean’s trajectory as one of photography’s preeminent visual storytellers has taken her on a round-the-horn tour of the world’s most indelible landmarks – from the world of baseball to the world at large.  Sports have always been Jean’s most compelling subject, and from her earliest days in sports photography, she covered everything from wrestling to sailing to basketball — and on any given Friday, she could be found taking full advantage of those Friday night lights, shooting northern California’s storied football rivalries.

Soon Jean was called up to the big leagues herself, as she spent nearly a decade shooting the crown jewels of Bay Area sports — the Giants, the A’s, the 49ers.  Her portfolio quicky expanded when she was invited to Cooperstown and the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, where she helped build the museum’s archive and bring to life the story of baseball.  America’s most eminent historical institutions – including the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and the Smithsonian — have featured her work.

What drives Jean now is to serve communities through her storytelling – as the co-founder of Grassroots Baseball, a non-profit that promotes participation in baseball at the youngest levels, and as a traveling photographer for La Vida Baseball and La Vida Sports, digital media companies that shares the stories of Latino sports around the globe.  As one of Sony’s select Artisans of Imagery, and through her popular workshops, she shares her techniques, her insights, and her love of images — both the power of pictures and the stories they tell.

Jean’s first book, Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin, was released in 2019. Her latest, Grassroots Baseball: Route 66, will be published in spring 2022, with proceeds benefitting the non-profit program.

Thearon Henderson

Thearon has been shooting sports for 40 years.  As a self taught professional, he brings a critical element to the Summit Family.  Having been in the shoes of the students and finding his way is what we all aspire to.   Thearon is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.  In 1980 working in a health club owned by the orthopedic surgeon of the Golden State Warriors, he gained access to shooting NBA games and has since been shooting as a freelance/contract photographer for four decades.  He has worked for Topps Trading Cards, The Sporting News and currently Upper Deck since 1990.  Thearon worked for the AP as a stringer from 1998-2010 and is currently a stringer/contributor for Getty Images since 2010.

Suzanna Mitchell

Suzanna Mitchell is the Photography Manager of the San Francisco Giants, a position that spans shooting action, portraits and events while also managing the photography team and the entire Giants digital archive.  A graduate of the photojournalism department of San Francisco State University, Suzanna worked for Alameda News Group before joining the Giants in 2008.  Now as the leader of the photography group within the Giants marketing department, Suzanna blends the storytelling of photojournalism with commercial photography for one of the Bay Area’s greatest sports franchises.

Brad Mangin

Brad Mangin is a freelance sports photographer based in the San Francisco Bay Area where he has been shooting professional sports since 1987. After graduating from San Jose State University’s photojournalism program in 1988 Mangin began his career as a staff photographer for the Contra Costa Times before being hired by Neil Leifer to become the San Francisco-based staff photographer for The National Sports Daily in 1990. He started freelancing for Sports Illustrated in 1992 and recently landed his 10th cover for the magazine.

Mangin published coffee table photo books about the San Francisco Giants after they won each World Series Championship in 2010, 2012, and 2014. In 2013 Mangin published the book Instant Baseball: The Baseball Instagrams of Brad Mangin with the foreword written by Pedro Gomez. He recently served as picture editor on three book projects: Letters to 87: Fans Remember the Legacy of Dwight Clark, New York Times Best Seller 24: Life Stories and Lessons from the Say Hey Kid and Remember Who You Are: What Pedro Gomez Showed Us About Baseball and Life.

Over the years Mangin has photographed 20 World Series, numerous All-Star games, Super Bowls, Breeder’s Cups and the Olympic Games. He documented many golf tournaments for the PGA TOUR with his iPhone. In 2006 he was named the Ohlone College Alumnus of the Year and in 2008 he judged the 64th Pictures of the Year International photo contest in Columbia, Missouri.

Teaching photography is big passion of his, as Mangin has lectured at The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, Western Kentucky University, The Olympic Club in San Francisco, The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, The Apple Store San Francisco, The Apple Store SoHo, The Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar, Rich Clarkson’s Sports Photography Workshop, The San Francisco Bay Area Press Photographers Photo Night, ASMP, Brooks Institute, San Jose State University, Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, University of Nevada and Stanford University.

A lifelong San Francisco Giants fan, Mangin still has his ticket stubs from the Giants Mike Ivie grand slam game in 1978 and the John Tamargo game in 1979. And oh yes- he also has his ticket stub from the Dwight Clark Catch game in 1982. He can PROVE he was there.

JC Carey

Joseph “JC” Carey is a lifetime image maker that like many photographers was terrified of lighting until he was gifted with a class in 2007. The class wasn’t very informative with too many of the “recipes” that people love to share rather than teach how to light, but it lit a fire that has never stopped burning. That gift changed everything. It transformed him from someone that barely took pictures of people and knew nothing about lighting into someone still trying to figure out how to light everything. 

The last 14 years have passed with him being blessed with a daughter, a career doing what he loves, multiple magazine covers, and with meeting amazing people and trying to create great images of them. The art of photography and taking pictures is his passion but the ability to make his vision a reality in a photograph is what truly drives him. 

JC has taught all over the US including being part of the Faculty at Summit Workshops. 

JC joined the FJ Westcott Company in 2020 as their Eastern Accounts Manager and also works as a professional photographer.  

Follow his Instagram at JCPhotoMedia

Andy Kuno

Andy Kuno is a San Francisco based sports photographer. He cut his teeth in the 90’s freelancing for wire services and newspapers which eventually lead to his position as the team photographer for the San Francisco Giants (1996 – current). The native San Franciscan enjoys capturing action, emotions and portraits while continually chasing light.