Menu
Jay Sousa has been a fulltime professional photographer for thirty-five years and a Professor of photography at Merced Community College for the past seven years. Jay began his photography career at the Merced Sun Star newspaper in 1980 after majoring in Photojournalism at Fresno State University. During his time at the Sun Star Jay photographed President Carter, the Queen of England, Ansel Adams and several large news stories including the Steven Stayner kidnap reunion in which Jay was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in spot news photography.
For the past thirty years Jay, along with his wife Diane have operated Jay Sousa Photography, a high-end photography studio specializing in custom portraiture, commercial work and fine art landscape photography. Jay has had numerous gallery shows around Central California displaying his landscape images, which mostly focus on Yosemite and the High Sierra. Jay feels fortunate to have sold many of his landscape images to private collectors and individual families around the country.
Jay has had an addiction to Yosemite and the Sierra for the past forty years. He and his wife are avid backpackers and have hiked hundreds of miles of trails in Yosemite and the Sierra over the years, including a long stretch of the John Muir trail in 2014. Jay also was a dedicated rock climber and snow and ice climber for many years. He has summited Mt. Rainer, Mt Hood, Mt Shasta and many of the high peaks in Yosemite. He has made a winter Trans-Sierra crossing on cross-country skies from Lee Vining to Yosemite Valley, which he photographed for a newspaper article.
In addition to his teaching load at Merced College Jay has taught numerous landscape photography workshops in Yosemite. As a photography instructor, Jay is patient, passionate, and has a great ability to explain even the most complicated concepts so they are easily understood. When not behind the camera, in front of students or in the mountains Jay enjoys playing his guitar, trout fishing and sailing.
