Out of the Art

The National Museum of Women in the Arts celebrated their 25th anniversary over the weekend. Seeing the gowns on some of the guests, it seemed as if some of these women had stepped from the paintings on the walls to join the celebration.

Hidden banker

When a meeting of the Institute for International Finance held at the National Archives last week ended, some of the world's biggest bankers – from the CEO of JPMorgan Chase to that of France's Société Générale – emerged from the building and headed to their limos.

Most did not want to talk, and a few would have preferred not to be photographed. Among these was Lloyd Blankfein, CEO and chairman of Goldman Sachs. A man whose financial height greatly outdistances his physical stature, he took advantage of that and the rain to pull an official Goldman umbrella closely over his head and disappear from view.

How to deal with this? By dropping my camera to knee-level and shooting upwards, hoping that repeated exposures would do the trick. (Taking lots of photos is important in professional photography!)

And as the images revealed, Mr. Blankfein was apparently enjoying himself under that umbrella.

Dinosaur man

Back in the day (the day of the Contract With America) I got to go into the office of the Speaker of the House and do an interview with Newt Gingrich, for a story on a photographer who had documented the new speaker's "First Hundred Days." Sitting right there in the office, in a glass case, was the huge skull of a T Rex. It was behind me, but at one point in the interview - mid-sentence - Newt leaned around me to look at the skull admiringly.

"Man I love that thing," he said.

Now Newt's out of that office and running for another. On an assignment to photograph him recently I found his new office on K Street had no dinosaur skulls, but lots of other dino memorabilia. It seems a risky symbol for a Republican presidential candidate, but then Newt never went out of the way to be politically correct.

A little background...

Not an uncommon problem: A magazine client has an important story for the week, and wants a cover image to go with it. But the photographer (me) arrives at the event they assign and finds people standing at a podium with a couple flags behind them. What to do to make this scene a little more cover-worthy?

How about a nice (blue) strobe on the beige wall next to the flags? (Just set the strobe on the floor.) Plus a light on the subject. Two small strobes from the camera bag and the resulting image (of an AT&T official, above) is a lot more interesting!

The Bride

Checking my analytics for this blog this morning I saw I was suddenly getting traffic from "theknot.com", a source my wife used for planning our own wedding just a few years ago. It seems a bride whose wedding I'd been privileged to photograph a few weeks ago had posted a very kind review. Thanks, Stacey!!

Marching, marching

Marches on Washington are quite an industry here. A week ago we had Glenn Beck and the Rev. Al Sharpton (I have an odd connection with the Rev. — see the author of Al Sharpton: Community Activist.)

And there's another one coming up in October.   "One Nation"  says it is about "Demanding All the Changes We Voted For." The One Nation march is on October 2, with strong backing from labor and a variety of other groups.

One person who will be there is Anthony Anderson, a "floor tech" at a nursing home in Baltimore. (Before you smile at the job title, understand it's no joke — if Anthony makes a mistake and mixes the wrong ingredients to do a floor people will soon be jumping out the windows as the fire department arrives!) Photographing him I got to hear some of his story, moving from prison to redemption and a good union job. Anthony says he'll be coming to Washington for the march and bringing his 18-year-old son. I'll be looking for them.

The next justice

It was interesting to hear yesterday that President Obama has chosen Elena Kagan for his new Supreme Court pick.

I've photographed her several times. The last time was on the day she was sworn in as U.S. solicitor general. Her swearing-in ceremony was closed, but I caught up with her on the steps of the Supreme Court before she went in.

It turns out to have been a very appropriate setting.

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.

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.

Definitely headed to Hollywood

August can be a slow time in Washington (though a great time to go to the beach or climbing). But there was still one particularly fun job this month.

Rachel, a friend's daughter, apparently had an "in" to try out for a movie role. The understanding was that it would help if she looked a bit like Ellen Page, the star of 2007's Oscar-winning "Juno," only maybe even a bit younger. So Rachel (and her hopeful stage-mom, Dede) came over and we did some photos.

Rachel looked great throughout the shoot. The fun part was watching the mood change. She started out looking like a young teen, a la Ellen, then - through a simple borrowed shirt and combed hair - slowly morphing into a much more sophisticated young woman.

Good luck with the role, Rachel. And remember: tickets for me and my Dad!

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?

Visual borrowing

Recently I had the chance to talk with photographer Bert Stephani, based in Belgium. Bert has become something of a YouTube star, posting videos of his working methods on the video-sharing service. His father criticized him for this, complaining his son was giving away his secrets! (You can search for Bert by name on YouTube, or see his site at http://www.bertstephani.com/.)

In any case, before talking with him I needed to check out a couple of the videos. And like any working photographer, I'm always looking for ideas to "borrow" - whether from other photographers, painters, designers, or just about any other type of artist that may give me a different approach to use on the next assignment.

Bert photographs people outdoors, with a simple strobe on a stand, the background often a dark tunnel or passage that puts a splash of color or light behind his subject. That was the perfect approach today when I needed to photograph environmentalist Dan Becker in the yard of his Chevy Chase home. For an environmentalist I wanted green. The shady passage by the side of Dan's house made the ideal background. And traveling by bike (appropriate when photographing an environmentalist!), I was using a single, small strobe.

Thanks for the help on this, Bert!!

By the way, Bert's work is typical of what you could call the "light(weight) light movement" - photographers who are doing sophisticated location lighting using simple lightweight strobes. Perhaps the dean of this movement is known as The Strobist, http://strobist.blogspot.com/. It's an appealing approach for me, a photographer who often gets around by bicycle - and who recently had a bunch of equipment (including a big monolight) stolen!