Pictures of the Year: Jerry Lara

In May, I covered a funeral for Nestor Lerma Jr. He was a derrickman with an oil drilling crew. Lerma died in a work-related accident a few miles from his hometown of Freer.

I first met Lerma, known as J.R. to his family, back in early 2013 while working on a story on local wildcatter Harvey Howell. We were given free range to photograph the operation. Lerma was on one of the crews working 12-hour shifts.

I was looking to find someone I could follow home to document his life, and Lerma agreed. During a two-day break, I visited with Lerma and his wife, Danielle Daniel, who was almost full-term in her pregnancy.

I found Lerma to be the life of the party during work and with his family at home. He was a hard worker. A career oilfield worker, he rode the highs and lows of the business, and at times his personal life took a toll. He left behind eight children, including his two daughters with Daniel.

In a conversation back in 2013, Lerma said, “It’s tough. It's hard. It gets hot in the summers. I tell my kids, I say, ‘Go to college. Please don't do what I do. Go to college. Unless you want to be out there busting your ass, breaking your back every day. Then the oil field is for you. If you want to make some money and stay in an office, go to college.’ That's what I recommend for anybody is to go to college.”

In a field where worker turnover is high and injuries will leave you out of a job, Lerma’s death became a statistic, one of more than 270 oil and gas facilities deaths in Texas since 2010.

But to Daniel and his family, he was irreplaceable. She worried about getting the call. “If something happens to J.R., they can replace him. We can’t. We can’t replace him,” she said.

Click through the slideshow to see more of Jerry Lara’s favorite photos of 2015.