Ricky Martin

Yes, I've been shooting a lot of celebrities lately.

Bloomberg Afterparty

"After" refers to the White House Correspondents' Dinner.

DC Schools Benefit

...featuring a performance by John Legend.

Tibet Hearing

A Nazi Party

The National Socialist Movement held a march and rally down on the Mall Saturday; the main feature that distinguished the event was the incredible police presence separating the Nazis from the counter-protesters (and journalists). More in my archive.

Green Apple Music Festival

I'm going to try an experiment and use fewer words on this blog. It is, after all, a photo blog. Image context need not be so important here.

USA Today

This is the assignment I did last Monday that was so much fun. I spent the whole day at Polyface Farms down near Staunton, Virginia, shooting a story for USA Today revolving around the idea of agritourism. They ran one of my photos really huge on the front of the Life section today and put a ten-picture slideshow on the website. Score!

Popemobile

I was on duty yesterday along the route of the Popemobile, shooting for Getty. I was expecting a plodding, parade pace from the motorcade, but they really zipped by. The whole thing was something of a spectacle. Most of my time was spent shooting feature pictures of the crowd, resulting in a few pictures I liked.

It Can Happen

I've had a busy week, a fact for which I'm extremely grateful. To have your phone ring every day with the prospect of taking pictures for money is more or less a dream come true. Tuesday I covered New York mayor Michael Bloomberg here in DC for the New York Times, Wednesday was an uneventful corporate job, and yesterday was my first assignment (two, actually) for the Associated Press. The AP is one of which I'm particularly proud; the editor there spent a full 90 minutes with me a few months back, going over everything he liked and disliked about my portfolio, how the AP's Washington bureau works, how difficult it is to be a freelancer there, etc. In fact, he told me it was more or less unheard of to freelance for the Washington bureau without having been a staffer at a decent paper for at least a few years and/or having freelanced for AP in a smaller market. That said, I was signed anyway. Maybe because I met with him on my birthday?

AND...Monday had be busy as well, shooting a really fun assignment all day that I won't be ready to reveal until it's published. There's always that nagging feeling that it'll get canned for one reason or another, and I'm never really satisfied until I see the work out there. Speaking of, the New York Times assignment Tuesday was for the metro section, which does not appear in the Washington edition of the paper, so I have no idea what, if anything, they used. Can anyone help me out?

And finally, a few pictures - from the AP assignment and Mike Bloomberg.

My fave - not what has been published though, to my knowledge. I did have a pic in the Washington Post, and the Baltimore Sun.

Above, simple. Below, perhaps cliche but fun.

Cheesy But Fun

I spent some time this week with a good friend of mine from college Mike Turns, a serious dabbler in nature photography. He was here for other reasons, but we spent two evenings wandering the Tidal Basin among the cherry blossoms. This made me a little nervous, since there are literally hundreds of photographers out taking pictures, from true amateurs to amateurs who think they're pros to actual professionals. That means I can't help but put some pressure on myself to come up with something I think is really nice, and really earn my stripes as a working photog. The key, as always, is to edit tightly, but I am relieved to say I think I did OK. See a few more in my archive.