Schimmel joins News Leader staff

Norman Schimmel of Sarasota has joined the staff of The Sarasota News Leader as contributing photographer.

Schimmel is the former CEO of both exchange-listed and private domestic and international home furnishing/functional lighting companies.

With 17 front-page photos to his credit over the past two years in the Pelican Press, The Sarasota Observer and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, he has helped to showcase the many facets of life in Sarasota County. Schimmel also has been a contributor to the websites of the City of Sarasota, Sarasota County, the Town of Longboat Key, the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau and USA Today, as well as to the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce Visitors Guide and the Downtown Sarasota Alliance Guide.

The new Baltimore Orioles Baseball Operations Center has in its collection a number of his photographs of the remodeled Ed Smith Stadium.

In 2011, the Sarasota Convention and Visitors Bureau named Schimmel The Voice of Sarasota for his efforts to promote tourism in the county through his photography.