We Live Together Day and Night

Friday involved a rather interesting assignment that, while it went smoothly, might still give me nightmares - due more to the nature of the story than anything having to do with my role in it. The Daytona Beach News-Journal was commemorating the ten-year anniversary of a senseless attack on three friends from Baltimore on spring break down in Florida; two of the three guys were killed, while the third (below) just barely survived.



These days, I take all the portrait assignments I can get, just because I see it as perhaps one of my weaknesses that I'd like to turn into a strength.

The Clinton Women

Hillary Clinton and daughter Chelsea were in DC last night for a "low-dollar" campaign fundraiser - basically a rally. I went just for fun, expecting the usual clusterfuck, but was pleasantly surprised by the level of access afforded us still photogs. Weirdly, we were not allowed in the buffer and only half-way up the center aisle, but we were able to hang out on the side of the stage for probably at least ten or fifteen minutes while Hillary and Chelsea were doing their thing. At the end, when Hillary signed autographs from the stage, access was again good, within the confines of not being shot by the Secret Service. Still, considering all this, I don't really feel I came away with anything portfolio-worthy. The whole lot is up on my archive here.

That's Andrea Mitchell of NBC News above. Below, if you were to look closely enough at the woman's glasses, the reflection is of two giant American flags.

Iraq War, Five Years (of Protests) Later

I was able to test the ability of my cameras to withstand a thorough drenching yesterday, as I was out covering the myriad protests taking place around town on the fifth anniversary of the start of the Iraq war for the New York Times. The weather in the morning was nice, but the skies absolutely opened up in the afternoon, just in time for a demonstration of waterboarding outside the White House. As more than one photographer present put it, we all got waterboarded.

Check out the slideshow on the New York Times website here.



And, because this is a photo blog, here's a random picture from the day.

The Capitol Hill Circus

It's after midnight so this is officially yesterday's news, but I did an assignment Thursday for the New York Times covering the circus that was the United States Capitol. All three remaining presidential candidates (and Ron Paul!) were in town casting votes, and photographers roamed like packs of lions waiting to pounce on their prey. Though I got a nice picture of Obama, so did Doug Mills, and the picture that actually ran was of Dick Cheney, who was on the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue casting a tie-breaking vote for something or other.



Above, photographers wait for Clinton, Obama, or McCain to magically appear. Below, the tearsheet from Friday's paper.

Wrestling: Literal, Figurative

I've been somewhat busy lately, but as happens from time to time, most of what I've been up to is not of particular interest here. However, I can report back on two items today. Late Friday, I got an email from the Baltimore Examiner to see if I was available for an assignment on Saturday evening. I've done quite a bit of freelance work for the Washington Examiner, and that's where they got my name. The assignment was to cover the Maryland High School Wrestling State Championships. I haven't really shot a lot of sports before, but since the moments you're looking for are so intuitive, I didn't see that as a big problem, and I'm happy with what I got. The worst problem was, of course, the light, but it was actually better than I expected.

Most interesting was that one of the winners (at right below) was only the third four-time state champion in Maryland history.



Also exciting (and somewhat of a relief) is that I'm in the New York Times again today (see it here). I did the assignment on Tuesday and have been a bit apprehensive until today, just because it was one of those assignments where the subject wasn't exactly dramatic and I really couldn't tell if I came away with everything I could have or should have hoped for - something I've been "wrestling" with ever since. Fortunately, the final result looks pretty good.