Award-winning filmmaker, and independent photojournalist Alan De Herrera has always been fascinated with the technical and artistic process of creating powerful images. His vast array of work over the years is impressive. Alan has writen, photographed, and produced three documentaries on sea lions and the Channel Islands. As an underwater camerman, he's filming great white sharks off Guadalupe Island for an LA Times article, photographing doctors on a humanitarian journey through the mountains and jungles of Ecuador, embedding with the US Navy and US Marines in Haiti, photographed giant green sea turtle research for E-Magazine, worked with the US Army in Nicaragua documenting their veterinarian and humanitarian work and recently interviewed and photographed the US Navy Blue Angels. Alan approaches each and every project with passion, solid planning, creative improvisation and boundless imagination.

In 2010, Alan earned the privilege to work along side of the US Marines and US Navy on two humanitarian missions to Haiti just after the devastating earthquake in January of that year. While there, he photographed military operations at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, aboard the USS Iwo Jima, USS Bataan, and USNS Comfort where he was awarded a "Certificate of Appreciation" for his documentation work on the Continuing Promise 2010 humanitarian mission. In November of 2010, he took a third trip back to Haiti to independently cover the devastating cholera epidemic in the rural northern plateau. While in Haiti, Alan also had the opportunity to document the security and humanitarian efforts of the United Nations Stabilization Mission, "MINUSTAH," and was embedded with the Nepalese Army, Brazilian Army and Jordanian Army. Just recently, Alan joined the crew of Continuing Promise 2011 in Nicaragua where he documented the work of US Navy, US Army and several NGOs.

In 2011, Alan also directed, edited and shot a feature-length theatrical documentary titled “Seal Island”, which was recently narrated by legendary actor Edward James Olmos and will be distributed into theaters in 2012. In 2009, he directed and photographed a 40-minute documentary about the eight Channel Islands off southern California, which will also be completed in 2012. Alan's first film "Sea Lions," narrated by Hollywood actor Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), won two film festival awards in 2005 and is currently in national DVD distribution. In addition to those film projects, Alan has spent the last three years photographing the desert environments of Death Valley, Joshua Tree and Anza Borrego for an upcoming book in addition to photographing and publishing his first cookbook in 2011 with two cookbooks that will be published in 2012. Alan is independently producing a travel/cookbook on post-earthquake Haiti, which will be published in 2013.

"I have always been fascinated with nature, travel and humanitarian projects," says Alan. " Anywhere I can use my skills as a photographer and filmmaker to protect the environment and/or bring more awareness to hardship and suffering, I'm there. Photographs and documentaries are powerful tools for getting important information out to the masses.