Journalism is all about relationship building. You'll hear that 1,000 times throughout J-School, whether they're talking about building relationships with clients or relationships with story subjects.

What they don't often talk about is the photographer-reporter relationship. It can make or break a story. Whether it's an in-depth piece of reporting where the two of you must walk a delicate tightrope together with the subject, or whether it's just being able to feed off a reporter's story and deliver photos that both complement the work and help it grow into something larger.

Over the years, I got to walk this tightrope many, many times with my friend and colleague Rob Davis. He began reporting at Voice of San Diego when I was still an intern there and had barely ever touched a camera. He helped me craft my first cover letters and dragged me to environmentally sensitive sites that through runoff had become virtual toxic dumps. We drove along highways for hours together on an investigation listening to The Doors and chugging Redbull. And he gave me an informal, annual performance review at The West End over glasses of cheap whiskey. That's where he had first pulled me aside when I was hired as a photojournalist and told me that under no circumstances should I screw up this opportunity -- that there were too many solid photographers waiting in the wings who would kill to be in my shoes.

So, it seemed only fitting that when Rob penned one more story in San Diego before taking a job at The Oregonian, that I would get the chance to shoot it. The story was a good one. It followed the narrative of Diana and Carolina Valdivia, two young immigrants who had crossed into the United States from Mexico with their parents right around the time they became teenagers. The two are undocumented immigrants who are currently staying in the U.S. on two-year deportation deferrals. They're very accomplished women and are Dreamers. Both have Master's degrees from San Diego State University, where I photographed them.

The art director at SDMag and I wanted to try to connect them to their young life and home in Mexico, but it can be difficult for a photographer to tell in images what happened in the past. So, we had the subjects hold photos. Below are images of them both in Mexico, and in the U.S. today, as well as some portraits that we weaved into the story.

This is all a way of saying that a lot goes into those articles you pick up on the newsstand or read online. This took the great writing of a reporter, the collaboration of an art director and photographer and, most importantly, the willingness of a subject to have their story told.

Take a few minutes to read the story over at San Diego Magazine.