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Covering the President's first address to a Joint Session of Congress is a big deal, and the photographers who are tasked with that responsibility are among the very best around.

Photographers Doug Mills of the New York Times, H. Darr Beiser of USA Today, and Pablo Martinez Monsivais of the Associated Presss (as interviewed by AP photographer Evan Vucci) take a few minutes to talk about their coverage after their pictures have moved to their outlets.

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Sometimes, for even the most talented of photographers, no strobes are necessary. Heck, not even added continuous light sources (besides the sun). Such is the case in this video from GQ behind the scenes with Mark Seliger.



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Years ago, I had the opportunity to work with R.J. Cutler when he produced The War Room, and another project. Now, RJ has turned his documentary style on Anna Wintour at Vogue, for an amazing look behind the scenes at what goes into the most important fashion tome of every year, the September Issue of Vogue. Rivaling many cities' entire phone book in size, the best fashion and best fashion photography are showcased every year in this issue. This is a real-life incarnation of The Devil Wears Prada, which was based upon Wintour, and played by Glenn Close. I can't wait to see the movie. Here's the trailer.

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The inauguration of Barack Obama meant a great deal to the nation. To the photographers covering it, while it's historic, it is also familiar. Yet, everyone has their own perspective and approach.

For those coming from outside of Washington, or who are here in DC and covering this big event for the first time, we produced the "Inaugural 'Pre-Game' Behind-The-Scenes Video" to let you know as much as we could about how the "big day" was going to shape up. Following that, preparation continued.

We taped off a 30" x 5' section on the floor of our office (if you look closely, you'll see the tape on the carpet early in the video at the end of this post), and set up our most sturdy tripod.

We next turned to the duration of the pinacle of the day - the actual swearing in ceremony. We recounted our testing of the cameras, and CF card speeds in this video - 30 Seconds and counting - where we learned the best solutions for achieving the maximum number of images. While we had two cameras set up to be triggered remotely (as noted below), we also took a minute to talk to our colleague Scott Andrews of Canon - Scott Andrews, Remote Cameras, and the inauguration - about his perspective from the center stand.


Once we were content with our tripod's rigidity, we attached to the top of the tripod the lynchpin of the setup - a Bogen 131D lateral Side Arm, which allowed for two Bogen 410 geared head with quick release tripod heads, as well as two other Bogen heads to be attached with Bogen super clamps in the middle. Attached to the legs are two Bogen magic arm, camera platform, and super clamps holding the D300 and D700 as well.


Below is the camera setup as seen from my standing position. The Tripod was leveled first, then the Bogen 131D arm attached. Then each of the end heads attached. Following that, the super clamps in the center, each with a head holding a 300mm and 500mm lens respectively (click the image to see it larger).


Below is the setup, as seen from above looking down on it. In this image, you can better see the D300 in the front. You'll also note that while I am making this image with the missing D3, all the other cameras are triggered by the D3, which is the only one I will be looking through. Every other camera has been prepositioned and pre-focused and locked down.(click the image to see it larger).


As someone who spent more of my formative years than I had planned living in the wilderness of Alaska, I earned the hat I am wearing, and it is keeping my head very warm indeed, and I've worn it for several of the last inaugurals. In the foreground of this image is the Canon XHA1 video camera that we used to do all the interviews in the video at the bottom. (click the image to see it larger).


Final preparations and packing took place on Monday, January 19th in the afternoon, as I had an assignment that would keep my busy until 1am Monday night. By the time I got back to the office it was 2am, and 30 minutes later I was asleep. The video below picks up two hours later, at 4:30 am.

In a bit of a departure from our normal videos, we've started with the departure from the office, then the journey to the Capitol, and we then turn our attention to interviewing several of my colleagues - Dudley Brooks of Ebony/Jet Magazines, Dirk Halstead of the Digital Journalist (read more of his thoughts here), David Burnett of Contact Press, Vincent Laforet of Time/Laforet Visuals, Chuck Kennedy of McClatchy Newspapers, and Paul Morse, working for the Official Inaugural Book Project.


(to view the video on Viddler with a lower bandwidth connection, click here, and if you have more bandwidth, and want to watch it FULL SCREEN, click above on the lower right corner of the screen, or click here to watch it at Viddler.)

To answer the obvious question - yes, each camera made exactly the image I had planned. All were just focused as planned, and I have multiple perspectives to consider, as do those looking to license an image I produced. The payoff was that all the planning and attention to detail resulted in a smooth execution without any significant problems.

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My good friend and colleague, David Burnett, who wrote this really great piece about his experience "in the buffer" covering election night in Chicago - History In The Buffer - and which is a remarkable diary of his election night experience, and well worth a read, has put together a really interesting piece about his experiences behind the scenes at the Olympics. Check it out!


The Olympics You Didn't See from David Burnett on Vimeo.

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Below is a video clip that's 22 minutes in length, but don't bother watching it all. Advance to 15:37 and watch 5 seconds of it, where White House Chief of Staff tells a reporter for Washington Life Magazine "The First Amendment is highly over-rated" while he arrived at The White House Correspondents Association Dinner in 2009. Over-rated? Really? Was Rahm joking, or is this what he really believes?


(Apologies that apparently you have to wait for the entire video file to load before you can advance to that point in the video.)

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ThinkTank has introduced a new line of Multimedia bags, and we had a chance to put them through their paces. We really like them - here's a look:

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Often we wonder "what's next?" in our chosen profession, and the consensus seems to be "video", in one form or another. I just finished a 25 minute Ken-Burns-esque video for a client that I am delivering this week, which uses 400 stills from 5,000+ images from a recent assignment. In addition, we've integrated video capabilities into our service offerings to clients in DC, but the uptake on that segment of our business - at least right now - is minimal.

When we ask Adobe "what's next?" for upcoming versions of software, they demur and don't answer, or they are coy about exactly what will be next in a roundabout way, with a wink and a nod. Here though, is a cool video that demonstrates what they're working on over at Adobe - an example of the increased openness we're seeing from the company. This, I believe, is a good thing.


Interactive Video Object Manipulation from Dan Goldman on Vimeo.

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If you've been a photographer even for a few months, you are abundantly aware of the absurdity of client arguments about lowering your rates. You roll your eyes, scream after hanging up the phone, or otherwise express (rightfully so) indigniation about the demands for less now, with a promise of more later. This video (with thanks to Leslie Burns Dell’Acqua for the heads up on this) brings to life that absurdity in other business exchanges, and is absolutely a must-watch. It's only two minutes, but after about the first minute, the message is loud and clear, and the remaining minute is just gravvy.

Hit the jump for two more videos....


When I Grow Up I Wanna Work in Advertising


REAL Truth In Advertising:


Harlan Ellison on Getting Paid:


Marc Focus on Being The Best:

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Of late, one of the best shows about quality and service I have found is Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. The restaurant business can easily be compared to the photography business.

Food = Images
Kitchen = Darkroom/Post-Production space/Image Management
Decor = Photographer attire
Servers = level of service
Hostess stand = initial phone call
Roaming manager = follow-up after shoot

And so on. What I like so much about Ramsay is his commitment - and demand - for excellence. He demands excellence at every turn. Here is a clip from his show:

You must unequivocally be committed to the highest level of excellence as a photographer for every client for every shoot.



Here's another clip:


And one more:


Ramsay makes no excuses for his level of expectation, and neither should you.

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