Doug started college as a mathematics major with an emphasis in computer science but graduated as a photojournalism major. During those formative years he worked four consecutive summer internships at National Geographic (reason for change from math to photography) advancing his career up from the photographic labs to being one of the picture editors of their World Magazine for children that also included photography for the publication.

          Immediately after graduating he became the team photographer for the California Angels Baseball Club and freelanced for AP, UPI, Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register and other publications, as well as being a staff photographer at a couple of newspapers.

          After 30+ years with The Associated Press, Doug has started his own business — Pizac Photography LLC — that includes corporate, editorial, PR, special events, documentary, creative services and more.

          While at AP, his work has appeared in hundreds of publications across the globe including Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, People, USA Today, NY Times, Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, etc.

          Over his career he has won several awards for photography and was recognized by the National Press Photographers Association for his work in creating its first online jobs database for news photographers. He was also given an "Outstanding Performance by an Associated Press Staffer" award by AP for the intermountain region he covered.

          Doug has made photographs from the routine to major events including but not limited to portraiture (executives, celebrities, etc.), major disasters (Los Angeles and San Francisco earthquakes, firestorms, etc.), historical (space shuttle landings, military rollouts, Johnny Carson’s last two television shows, etc.), world leaders (presidents, kings, queens, prime ministers, top business CEOs, etc.), politics (local, state and national campaigns including presidential), sports (local, state, summer and winter Olympics, World Series, Super Bowls, etc.), and hundreds more.

          His extensive knowledge of photography ranges from 35mm to 8x10 film and print work to present day digital. He is also proficiient in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, WordPerfect, MS Word, Excel, Quattro Pro, Paradox, Photo Mechanic, Acrobat, Powerpoint, FTP, programming, and more.

          Doug has routinely worked on extremely tight deadlines in numerous situations in a wide range of locations (from media rooms to tarmacs covering presidential arrivals to on the side of the road in his vehicle during disasters). Over the past 15 years he coordinated assignments, handled budgets and freelance photographers between the Arizona and Canadian borders for his AP bureau as well as working with global media staffs for more than three decades.

          His work and trust has given him White House and DOD clearance since the Nixon administration for coverage of events from presidential and world leader visits to work on military bases and in sensitive facilities.