Before that he interned at the Appleton Post-Crescent and the Palo Alto Daily News. He has also taught photojournalism at ASU.Michael graduated from UC Santa Cruz and took photojournalism classes with Ken Kobre at San Francisco State University. He is an active member of AAJA, and has sat on the board of the local Arizona chapter for seven years. He has done freelance assignments for many magazines and newspapers across the country. In 2005 he attended the Eddie Adams Workshop and won the Sports Illustrated Assignment award.