Farewell to Tearsheets

Time was, a photographer or reporter would keep tearsheets, or clippings, of his or her work as it was published. You'd use these to try for another job or a new assignment. Or they might just pile up in a satisfying way while putting on the patina of history when they slowly yellowed. The magazine covers and page-one photos were the best.

For me that first started to change about ten years ago. Though my photos were still appearing in print, it was easier on my filing system to skip the paper and just scan each new cover or other tearsheet, or ask the art director to send me a pdf.

This week I realized even those days are ending. What if a photo is "published," but never actually printed? Of course that's been happening for some time — just this week I had an online photo essay at Grist.org. But on Tuesday I got an email from an iPad-owning friend. He said I had the lead photo on the NY Times — in that paper's iPad edition! He took a picture of it displayed on his iPad and emailed it over.

Very cool — it was a photo I'd taken just a few hours earlier. But what am I supposed to do with something like this? Will it ever be something to show the grandchildren? And how about that old-fashioned yellowing?

Maybe I can just sepia-tone it in Photoshop after a year or two.

Ten minutes

It was a typical Washington shoot - the subject is running late (more than an hour), the subject needs to get to his next appointment, we need to try to do this right here in these offices.

But that's fine. You pick several spots to work in, so the designer will have some choices, figure out the lighting for each, and then walk your subject through them. And when the subject is Justin Smith, president of Atlantic Media Company (publishers of The Atlantic, which overall is doing quite well despite being in the hard-hit media sector), you end up with multiple choices for a good-looking cover.

The color of light

A problem for photographers shooting indoors on location is that different light sources have very different colors. Our eyes miraculously see a white sheet of paper as a white sheet of paper, no matter what the lighting. But a camera might see that same sheet as white, blue, yucky orangey-yellow, or even worse green, depending on the light source.

The simplest way to deal with this is often to just blast everything with strobes, which cameras quite like. But sometimes those differences in light can be helpful, if you're aware of them.

A recent cover assignment had two challenges. The first was that I was supposed to somehow make a cover image from a tele- conference. ("A tele- conference? What do I do -- photograph the phone!?!?") The second was that the participants, sitting at a conference table, were lit by very warm (in color) overhead lights, while lighting that would register as blue was pouring in the windows.

In this case, problem #2 provided the solution for problem #1. By taking advantage of the warm light on the people contrasted with the bluish light in the background, a picture was made, one that could run on a cover.

Luck on Location

It's usually a big challenge, going into a typical DC office needing to come up with a really interesting photo, often for a cover. I may be misled by other photographers' images, but I get the impression that in Silicon Valley, everybody works in high-tech spaces with lots of glass and metal. In New York, company digs are pricey and elegant with somehow a bit of a gritty urban feel thrown in. And in Washington .... Well, there's often not much to work with here (especially since so many of the photo subjects are lawyers).

There's the conference room, with the maximum-sized conference table shoehorned in, leaving little space to maneuver. The room with the view - but each view overlooks either the White House or the Capitol. And the company logo, usually bolted to a wall in the elevator lobby.

I usually avoid them all. But sometimes you arrive on location and realize you lucked out. Such was the case a few days ago with a cover shoot at the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They had a great logo, punched out of the sort of corrugated tin you'd expect to find sheltering a tequila bar in Tijuana (or a Chipotle in Bethesda). Combine that with the paintings decorating their suite and you feel this group definitely cares about its space.

The logo was fun to work with, as were my two subjects, Don and Katrina. And maybe the next time someone tells me over the phone, "Well, we have a nice sign out front," I'll put my skepticism on temporary hold.

Moving around

I've mentioned the "light(weight) light movement," photographers who are working with much smaller lights than were deemed necessary in the past (See "Visual Borrowing").

A big advantage when it's appropriate to use these lights is that I can work quickly, in a small area. That's a positive because "quickly" and "small area" define a good part of editorial photography in Washington. But another advantage is that a photographer can move around easily and try different setups. To someone who's not familiar with this kind of work that may not sound like a big deal. In comparison, though, when using traditional lights with big stands, power packs and lots of extension cords, once you set up to photograph your subject you — and they — are pretty much locked in place. Even moving to the right 12 inches can be a major engineering challenge.

But in situations where I can use the lightweight battery-powered strobes, I often just scoop them up and move to another location. That was the case recently when I was photographing Dr. Mary Wakefield, a nurse and PhD who is the new head of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. In just over half an hour we were able to shoot in three different locations, giving the magazine editors a nice choice of images to work with for their cover layout. And everybody, particularly editors, likes choices.

The Revenuers

Every once in a while I get to photograph someone with the IRS, even the IRS commissioner. And it's always a good experience - nice subjects who are interesting to talk with and photograph. Once, trying to work quickly at a House hearing, I jokingly asked an IRS commissioner "to gesture early and often." And he did!

But they also sometimes seem a bit apologetic, as if accustomed to getting teased, at the least, about their jobs.

So let me say: All the IRS folks I've met seemed thoughtful, interested in their work and with a good sense of humor too. If the tax code is impenetrable, blame Congress - and Congress' constituents (that would be us), so many of whom lobby for specialized tax breaks.

The cover shoot above of IRS official Lois Lerner, by the way, was for a story on a report that the average CEO at a nonprofit hospital earns $490,431 annually.

What's in the Frame

Photographers learn early on that the only thing that really counts is what's in the frame. It doesn't matter what you intended, your bright idea, the story behind it all. If it's not in the picture, it's not in the picture.

That's usually a sad lesson. But it can have an upside, too.

Consider this photo. I'd put a bluish light on the floor behind Alan I. Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, intending to light the bookcase behind him as if from the skylight above. Instead, the effect was much stronger on the carpet, which I hadn't thought about lighting at all.

But I shot a few frames, looked at the results, and said, "That works too." I'll gladly take credit for it. After all, what matters is what's in the photo, whether or not it's what I intended!

(By the way, this marked the start of the new year with two magazine covers for two clients in one day - one morning, really. Let's hope the rest of 2009 keeps pace. Happy New Year!)

My Grandfather's Television

I got a call from a magazine client looking for a cover image. It's to go with a story analyzing television coverage of former Chief Justice William Rehnquist. We discussed the possibility of using a shot of Rehnquist with media (I didn't have a good one), and then turned to the option of a studio illustration.

I have here in my office a black & white television that once belong to my grandfather. He passed away more than 30 years ago, but his TV still works great (at least until the switch to digital broadcast comes in February!). I thought I could put it to use.

The shoot worked out well. A frame grab of Rehnquist with his distinctive Gilbert-and-Sullivan-inspired gold stripes was easy to find. Ring lighting helped create the distinctive shadows on the green background.

And the TV is appropriate, because I often think of my grandfather when photographing the Supreme Court. He liked to debate the court's decisions and constitutional questions with his grandson when he visited us in Miami each summer. He might have hoped I'd become a lawyer, or feared I'd become a journalist - but perhaps never imagined I'd so often end up photographing the people, the building itself, and the issues of the highest court.

Page 1

I love that I get to do a wide variety of photography. Last Friday, for instance, my work was split between photographing sculpture and photographing the food and kitchen of an Indian restaurant - a variety that required working with action in available light + carefully composed, lit photos.

But I'm also very grateful that I get to do a fair amount of hard news. Hard news is where I come from and I wouldn't want to leave it behind.

Besides, sometimes there are days like today, when the news photos really do well. This morning I found I had the page 1 photos in at least three major papers, with more photos scattered in others.("There's that bald guy again!" said one of my sons when I showed him three front pages.)

In the woods, downtown

Occasionally we fantasize about moving to a place where the outdoors is closer and the snow guaranteed. But the truth is that Washington has amazing access to all sorts of outdoors possibilities. Take Mather Gorge in Great Falls Park - just 10-15 minutes from the Beltway, but it offers a spectacular vista, challenging hiking, some mountain biking, Olympic-class kayaking, and lots and lots of rock-climbing.

So when a magazine this month asked for a cover shoot of two staffers who work for a nonprofit that deals with conservation issues, it made sense to do it somewhere other than the nonprofit's Crystal City offices. Rachel, one of my two subjects, mentioned the group is involved with deforestation, and said she lives in Dupont Circle, right by the heart of downtown DC.

Bingo - that's also a couple of blocks from Rock Creek Park, a giant green swath of national parkland that cuts through DC. A short walk and she and her colleague Vinnie had left the city and were seated on a log in a lovely piece of woods. The trail was a little steep for Rachel's platform shoes, but the photos looked great.

Now, if we could just do something about the lack of snow around here...

Update: Outside magazine's August issues lists its picks of "The 20 Best Towns in America." Coming in at #1: Washington, DC. I wonder who "outed" us?