Monday, January 30, 2012

Protesters attack 'oil corruption' in Congress


A group of protesters concerned about the amount of money members of Congress receive from oil commpanies dressed in ref's shirts and threw down "penalty flags" outside Capitol Hill, visually a nice effect.

Led by author and climate activist Bill McKibben, they also stopped by the headquarters of the American Petroleum Institute. To get there, the group rode the Metro, of course. (Personally, I and another photographer rode our bikes.)

Far ahead of the news cycle


House Speaker John Boehner (whom I photographed here that day with Majority Leader Mickey Cantor) denounced President Obama's State of the Union speech as "pathetic." Maybe that's not unusual for a House speaker commenting on a speech by a president from the other party, especially in an election year.

On the other hand, Boehner passed this judgement two days before the president's actual speech. And people on Capitol Hill wonder why they're perceived as partisan and grid-locked.....

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Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Watch out!


I've been lucky enough to shoot in a lot of manufacturing facilities, which can make really interesting photos. One thing you have to be careful for, though — these places are dangerous. At an aluminum plant, for instance, you can't see any difference between molten and solid aluminum, so the only safe thing to do is don't touch anything!

That's why I was so surprised when I went to a plant last week where workers cut material for military uniforms. I asked one of the workers to show me his machine. He walked over, ran his hands over the controls, gestured inside to where the blades were.

"Watch out!" I wanted to shout. You see, aside from the inherent danger of these machines, this worker was blind. Yes — this was at Blind Industries and Services of Maryland.

But it didn't matter. As I watched that worker and others do their jobs so I could decide whom to photograph, it became obvious I couldn't tell the sighted people on the floor from the legally blind. They all seemed equally comfortable, and effective, in an environment that for me was a little dangerous.

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