[7] As a teenager he started practicing photography, and at age 15 he got his first job as a photographer's assistant at the Moulin Studios.
[2] After the Pearl Harbor attack, around 1943, Lyon dropped out of college and enrolled in the United States Navy with the intention of becoming a pilot,[7] but instead he worked as a military photographer.
[2] In 1949, he had a solo exhibition titled, Photographs by Fred G. Lyon, Jr. at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
[11] In the 1950s, Lyon socialized with Richard Diebenkorn and other painters within the Bay Area Figurative Movement.
[3] He would take photographs of San Francisco landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Coit Tower, hotels in Nob Hill and cityscapes, which were often highlighting the fog.
[10] Lyon also had a special interest in photographing vineyards and wineries in nearby Napa and Sonoma.
[10] In 2013, the film documentary Fred Lyon: Living Through the Lens was made by filmmaker Michael House.