I spent much of yesterday in Ashburn at Redskins Park for the team’s first minicamp of the year. One of the media relations guys said he was surprised at the amount of coverage for voluntary workouts. Maybe so but I guess with a new coach, Donovan McNabb in burgundy and gold and a few new running backs, it was to be expected. Basically it took 90 minutes to get there, 90 minutes to get back and 25 minutes to shoot if you don’t count the hour-long press conference after practice, for which I had to wait another 90 minutes. I discovered early on that a lot of this job is waiting – waiting for access, waiting for the right light or composition to come together. It also took me a little while to learn that time spent waiting was not necessarily time wasted.

I spend a lot of time looking at other photographers’ work and often see very pronounced aesthetic approaches and complex styles; lots of layering, different ways of seeing and interpreting what is in front of their lens. Done well, I love that approach though done poorly, it can be a cluttered frame that doesn’t hold my attention or tell me anything.  When I look at my own photographs, I don’t always see that complexity – to me my pictures are often matter-of-fact, what you see is what you get. Occasionally I get down on myself about this – that I’m not working hard enough, thinking about my composition enough, that I’m little more than a visual stenographer. Often though isn’t being there and having the presence of mind to take a picture, recording what you see so that others can see as well? I was reminded of that while reading about the Pulitzer Prize-winning project by Craig F. Walker of the Denver Post. From a post at the Society for News Design:

The Ian Fisher story is a linear, classic approach that resists keeping a photographer’s stamp on the images. The strength of the package is not in the artistry or aesthetics of the images. Rather, it is a work of is journalism communicated with the camera that gives us an intimate experience with Fisher’s life. “Craig does not come out in his photography,” [Assistant Managing Editor/Photography Tim] Rasmussen said. “But the people who Craig is photographing do – and for me that’s more important. I want to learn something about the subject, not the photographer.”

Walker says that his photography is about the moments and reacting to them. When the moment happens, the composition is simply the best effort he can make to capture that moment. “It’s not about me, it’s about Ian, I’m telling Ian’s story. I guess my style is what you’re looking at.”

via The story behind The Denver Post photo Pulitzer – The Society for News Design.

Do yourself a favor and click the above link – it’s a good read. And then go here for the presentation on the Denver Post’s photoblog.

UPDATE: I clarified some language here as I accidentally referred to the 2nd photo when I should have been referring to picture #1. It is now correct! -Mike

I spent last Saturday covering a tea party rally in Stafford. I expected that there would be a lot of signs and flag-waving as seen at every other tea party and I was not disappointed in that regard. I wanted to try and get an overall shot that didn’t misrepresent how many or how few people showed up. The reporter and I took an informal count and estimated 200-300 people. In order to get the overall I put a 14mm on the camera and held it above my head with a monopod and came up with these two frames. While it doesn’t show the entire crowd, many of whom were off to the side, at least it didn’t make it look like 10 people showed up.

Initially I preferred the first one; the guy was giving a speech called An Angry American, getting pretty worked up and gesturing a lot with his hands. We ended up running the second one, mostly because nearly every person I showed frame #1 to thought of a nazi salute. I wonder if that is because of their own feelings about this political movement or if it really does look like that?  I was concerned that using the first picture would be considered unfair or at least editorializing if readers saw the same thing. The idea of objectivity (and that discussion is worth an entire post on its own!) is drilled into your head in the newspaper world but I wonder if I went too far in the other direction and sanitized what actually was going on there out of some kind of political correctness. Was I unnecessarily concerned about this? Am I overthinking this? Which one would you have published?

I drove up to Ashburn this morning to cover the press conference introducing Donovan McNabb, formerly of the Eagles, as a Washington Redskin. As pictures go, it wasn’t exactly a barnburner, but the amount of media present was noteworthy. I’m told more members of the sporting press showed up for McNabb’s coming-out party than the second coming of Joe Gibbs. I wasn’t at the one where Mike Shanahan was introduced as head coach but I can’t imagine he drew this kind of crowd. In attendance, of course, was a salty group of reporters from Philly. Though I suppose saying ‘salty’ and “Philly’ is kind of redundant. I say it with affection as they are my people!  Anyway, here’s a pic or three:

Having grown up in eastern PA, there was no question who you root for – it was either the mighty Iggles or you were a communist. Or worse, a Giants fan. I’m not quite as hardcore as my brother though and I am actually kind of excited to see what this year holds for McNabb & the Skins. I guess it can’t get much worse!

Here's a shot my wife took with her Kodak point and shoot of me setting up lights while waiting for LA to arrive for her shoot.

Tonight I had 2 wonderful models come through for shoots. The first few images here are of Kelly, a great print model that I have worked with before. The final image is Zanneta, an aspiring fashion model who wanted shots for a Jet Magazine submission and a few casual shots for her port.

Tonight I had 2 wonderful models come through for shoots. The first few images here are of Kelly, a great print model that I have worked with before. The final image is Zanneta, an aspiring fashion model who wanted shots for a Jet Magazine submission and a few casual shots for her port.

Tonight I had 2 wonderful models come through for shoots. The first few images here are of Kelly, a great print model that I have worked with before. The final image is Zanneta, an aspiring fashion model who wanted shots for a Jet Magazine submission and a few casual shots for her port.

Tonight I had 2 wonderful models come through for shoots. The first few images here are of Kelly, a great print model that I have worked with before. The final image is Zanneta, an aspiring fashion model who wanted shots for a Jet Magazine submission and a few casual shots for her port.

Tonight I had 2 wonderful models come through for shoots. The first few images here are of Kelly, a great print model that I have worked with before. The final image is Zanneta, an aspiring fashion model who wanted shots for a Jet Magazine submission and a few casual shots for her port.