Citrus College’s current Owl photographer is a jack of all trades, and is quickly becoming a master of photography.
Jordan Carroll is a student at Citrus and is the lead photographer for the Citrus Owls.
He made his abilities known when his ambitious nature led him to his first Citrus College football game on Oct. 14, 2023.
After that game, Carroll contacted the Citrus College basketball coach to offer his photography services, but he was redirected to the assistant athletic director.
“Jordan’s work speaks for itself,” the assistant athletic director, Andrew Wheeler said. “Once I saw it (Jordan’s photographs) and knew he wanted to be a part of the department, it was a no-brainer.”
Wheeler described Carroll as talented, reliable and a hard worker.
Carroll’s career in photography began after he contemplated the viability of his future aspiration of becoming a zoologist in his senior year of high school.
He had talked to a family friend of his and he said it was not a viable future for him due to his grades not being good.
“He (the family friend) actually told me that I should do photography and that’s when I started taking it seriously,” Carroll said.
After this, Carroll began taking photos for anyone he could.
He offered his services for local high school sports games or anyone who would inquire.
“I was so ambitious,” Carroll said. “I would do anything for free.”
While Carroll had decided to take photography seriously in his senior year of high school, he had actually stepped into the photography world in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.
Carroll began taking an online beginner’s photography class in his sophomore year at Duarte High School.
He said he enjoyed learning the photography basics and began to form a close bond with his teacher, Levon Yotnakhparian.
He didn’t take photography in his junior year. He instead he focused on graphic design.
Carroll said he did graphic design work for people’s social media pages, including Twitch and YouTube.
This skill would later complement his photography work at Citrus College.
“I started taking graphics in high school, that led to the career I have right now and I was able to keep making graphics for sports and stuff, like gameday,” Carroll said.
Carroll had an interest in graphic design due to his love for video games. He was so good at video games that he had received a scholarship to play Overwatch on an esports team at the University of South Carolina.
However, he expressed that it was not his passion to pursue it as a career.
He took another one of Yotnakhparian’s photography classes in his senior year of high school, where he got the opportunity to enter SkillsUSA after being encouraged by Yotnakhparian.
Yotnakhparian said he encouraged Carroll because he is a reliable person.
“If he wants to do a job, he will make sure he can finish it, no matter what,” Yotnakhparian said.
Yotnakhparian said he feels proud to have witnessed Carroll’s growth from high school up until now.
Yotnakhparian said that he is losing his vision and with the progressiveness of his disease, he felt it was right to hand down Carroll all his photography equipment.
However, that was not the sole reason. Their close contact and Carroll’s determination and talent made Yotnakhparian’s decision feel good.
Eventhough Caroll is only 19 years old, he has managed to climb his way to big fields.
He has had several big opportunities to photograph major events like a UCLA football practice, a private NFL event and more.
He recently got the opportunity to take photos of the Los Angeles Angels game at Angel Stadium for The Sporting Tribune, a media outlet that Carroll works for.
Though he is young, he has managed to earn his place next to photographers at that game who he described as all being of a much older age.
Carroll attributes his success to those who have helped and guided him throughout his photography career– including his parents, Yotnakhparian and Citrus College.
“A lot of the things I’ve taken photos for, it’s all because of connections from Citrus,” Carroll said. “Citrus helped me gain jobs in the real world.”
While Carroll recognizes the vitality of people’s aid in his career, he is ultimately a hard-working person who dedicates himself to his craft.
“There’s no such thing as playing video games any more, ” Carroll said. “I pretty much gave up everything to do photography.”
Wheeler said Carroll’s photography work gets better after every event and that Carroll’s talent will take him far.
“I know he will go far in the business,” Wheeler said. “We’re just lucky to get to work with him for as long as he will be here at Citrus.”
