I photographed the wedding of my friends Mary Morrison and Ian Alberg this past weekend in Washington DC. I worked with both of them during the Clinton White House. They are a wonderful couple who met during the administration. President Clinton, along with Chelsea and her husband Marc, attended the ceremony at the historic synagogue at Sixth and I in Washington DC. The reception was at the former Hotel Washington, now the hip and trendy W Hotel. A special thanks to Allison Jackson of Pineapple Productions for putting together such a beautiful event.
Mary and her Mother
Ian and his father before the ceremony
Mary and her father
After the ceremony with President Clinton
The historic synagogue at Sixth and I in Washington DC.
The Supremes!
First Dance
I am honored to be featured in the Best of ASMP 2011. For the seventh year in a row, the American Society of Media Photographers has selected 20 projects completed in the last year to be featured in print and online. My project on Alzheimer’s for The Shriver Report was one of 20 selected for the honor. You can read an interview with me, view my Alzheimer’s photographs along with some of my other work here.
I photographed the wedding of Jennifer Sullivan and Jerry Riener this past Saturday. Jennifer is a crime reporter at the Seattle Times, Jerry is a police officer and they met on the job seven years ago. Together, they own Guardian Cellars, a winery in Woodinville, WA. The ceremony and reception were at the Palace Ballroom in Belltown, where the wine flowed all evening!
Jerry gets a straight-edged razor shave at Valentino's in Greenwood.
The bride gets help with her dress.
First look at Hotel Andra.
Only a Seattle couple would stop for coffee before the ceremony.
Kerry Park overlooking Seattle and Mt. Rainier
Thanks to Ed Sauer for loaning us his classic Mini-Cooper
We stopped by Luly Yang for a quick touch up and look who's dress was in the window!
The flower girls and ring bearer wait for their cues.
A last minute adjustment for the bride.
Ceremony in the Palace Ballroom.
Married!
The room was filled with beautiful table settings.
Wonderful Washington wines were served.
A 3-2-1 Photo Booth was a big hit during the evening.
Tom Douglas, Seattle celebrity chef and owner of Palace Ballroom, dropped in to check on the newlyweds.
We attempted a shot as the monorail passed overhead. The crowds in Belltown on a Saturday night enjoyed the show!
Bride and groom first dance.
My favorite image from the day - kayaks and rowing boats for rent, shot on Polaroid 100 Chocolate film.
Took off to Green Lake Park in Seattle last week with my old Polaroid 180 camera in tow. I bought this camera back in 1988 to use when shooting portraits with multiple lights. The camera has adjustable shutter speed and aperture settings plus a sync outlet so I could trigger my lights with the camera, produce a Polaroid right there on the spot and see how my lighting looked. With digital cameras, there is no need for the old war horse (the camera, not me) but I’m still finding a use for it. I purchased Polaroid 100 Chocolate film and 100 Blue film from The Impossible Project, a company that is inventing and producing new types of instant film for traditional Polaroid cameras. They also manage to occasionally find boxes of discontinued Polaroid film to sell, which is how I came across the Chocolate and Blue films.
Two fishermen enjoy a quite moment, shot on Polaroid 100 Blue film.
Taken with Polaroid 100 Chocolate film, this reminds me of an image from the 40's or 50's.
The Molly Moon's ice cream truck on a busy afternoon, shot on Polaroid 100 Blue film.
It’s mid-June and the sun is finally starting to shine here in Seattle. I’ve been thinking of images that I’ve taken recently and over the past couple of years that characterize this beautiful and quirky Northwest city where I live. Thought I would share them with you………..
Spiderman taking a break at Comic-Con at the Washington State Convention Center.
A Bainbridge or Vashon Island ferry captured in film with my Holga.
The Seattle skyline viewed from Beacon Hill.
Beatniks posing for my Holga. They are actually baristas at Caffe Vita playing dress up for the day.
The dinosaur exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo. These life-like dinos move, make noise and even spit.
The Space Needle as seen through a tilt-shift lens.
The Seattle Public Library taken with my iPhone.
Seattle Storm's amazing and incredible Lauren Jackson with the equally amazing and incredible Doppler.
One of the many motel signs on Aurora.
High heels at 7th and Virginia.
Photo Exhibit at the Art Institute of Seattle
There is still time to check out my photo exhibit “My Clinton Years” at the Burnley Gallery at the Art Institute of Seattle. The show consists of images from my time as a White House Photographer during the Clinton Administration as well as photos from the 2008 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. We had a great opening reception last week with lots of students, friends and colleagues attending. I got lots of great comments and feedback, wonderful for the ego! The show is up until May 27th at The Burnley Gallery, 6th Floor at the Art Institute of Seattle, 2323 Elliott Avenue, Seattle, WA.
I recently returned from a three-week trip to Africa, on back-to-back assignments for two different foundation/non-profit groups. I traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
One of the assignments was for a group I have worked with before, the Eastern Congo Initiative. I traveled with founder Ben Affleck and a delegation that included Cindy McCain, to areas in Goma and Bukavu in the DRC. Yesterday, Ben testified before the U.S. House Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights and also did a round of media interviews about his work in the Congo. Here is a slide show of my photos that accompanied an interview with Ben and Cindy on ABC News.
In an effort to push myself creatively, I brought along a Leica M6 camera with a Elmarit 28mm 2.8 lens on the trip, with the idea of doing some personal work. I bought the Leica camera body back in 2005, but never took it out of the box because I didn’t have a lens for it. I finally convinced myself that I could afford the lens I had been wanting (which I really couldn’t, but isn’t that what credit cards are for?) found a used demo (that looks brand new!) online and purchased it before my trip.
Looking for a new book for the trip, I bought “The Lotus Eaters,” a novel by Tatjana Soli about a woman photojournalist during the Vietnam war. Helen, the main character, and her fellow photojournalists all shoot with Leica cameras. So, with my Leica packed in my camera bag, along with a gritty novel about photojournalists for inspiration, I was on my way.
I hadn’t used a Leica rangefinder since my days as a White House photographer. We were still shooting film during the Clinton Administration, so juggling film types and speeds was always a challenge. Back then, I always carried two Nikon bodies loaded with color film and one Leica M6, reserved for black & white. My award-winning photo “Primping for Peace” was taken with a Leica. I am still amazed that I got that frame in focus. I’m not very fast when focusing a rangefinder.
Anyway, a few observations after using my Leica M6 in Africa………..
- as I said, a rangefinder is much more difficult to focus, especially after being spoiled with using auto-focus with my DSLRs.
- the Leica is so light compared to a digital body with a lens. It was refreshing to have such a small camera – much less obtrusive in intimate situations. Plus, less strain on the shoulders!
- because I wasn’t able to get that immediate satisfaction of seeing an image on the back of my camera, I found myself taking my time and framing, determining exposure and being just a bit more choosy about what I was photographing. Without the luxury of hitting the delete button, I was much more calculated about my imagery. Film is money, after all.
- shooting digital, I can make mistakes, check the camera back, correct my mistakes. Not with film…….I missed a few good moments because I underexposed (should have bracketed,) was not in focus or just framed the scene poorly.
- it is limiting to just have one body with one roll of film at a constant ASA (ISO.) As I go in and out of varying lighting situations, the flexibility of being able to change the ISO reading with a digital camera, on every frame if necessary, is so extraordinary.
In conclusion, well, I have no conclusion. I LOVED shooting with my Leica film camera. I am excited to continue to push myself to use it for both work and personal projects, while keeping my Nikon digital cameras as my main tools.
I have always felt that a Leica sees the world a little differently, records light in a special way. I also like seeing the grain of film again. All of these negatives were scanned at the time of development, so I am able to upload low-res to my blog and website. Now…..what to do with the negatives………do I need to find a darkroom? Or maybe I just need to buy a Leica M9 for the next trip……….
THIS is my new blog. I never thought I would be writing a blog, but a friend suggested it was the best way to update clients and others on what I’ve been working on lately. This blog is designed to highlight my most recent photography projects and assignments. My first blog posting is rather long and I promise to be more brief in the future, but last year was busy………….
2010 – A Year Like No Other!
I transitioned back into freelancing full time at the beginning of 2010 and launched a new website to showcase my images.
The year began with a trip in January to Africa with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. I photographed Melinda Gates as she visited various sites in Malawi to learn more about maternal health care practices in the country. In March, I traveled to Uttar Pradesh in India for another assignment with Melinda, again to learn about maternal health care. My still images were used in videos narrated by Melinda and can be viewed on the foundation’s website, click here.
Also in March, I was back in Africa with one of my favorite clients, williamsworks, who was instrumental in launching the Eastern Congo Initiative. Founded by actor and director Ben Affleck, ECI is the first U.S. based advocacy and grant-making initiative wholly focused on working with and for the people of eastern Congo. ECI believes that local, community-based approaches are essential to creating a sustainable and successful society in eastern Congo.
I photograph a handful of weddings each year and the summer of 2010 brought me two rather high-profile weddings. In early July, Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – N.Y.) married Huma Abedin, longtime assistant to Sec. Hillary Clinton, in a ceremony officiated by President Bill Clinton. The wedding was at Oheka Castle in Huntington, Long Island.
Three weeks later, I was back in New York to photograph the most anticipated wedding of the year – Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky at the Astor Courts estate in Rhinebeck, N.Y. I have quite a history with the Clinton family from my days as a White House Photographer during the Clinton Administration. I was also Hillary Clinton’s campaign photographer during her 2008 run for the Democratic nomination for President. My ongoing relationship with the family culminated in being asked to photograph Chelsea’s wedding. This was a special event for me, having first photographed Chelsea when she was 13-years-old, running around the White House with her friends. Of the six photographs we released to the press, my image was chosen for the cover of People Magazine.
The Alzheimer’s Association and Maria Shriver teamed together to publish a book “The Shriver Report, A Woman’s Nation Takes on Alzheimer’s.” This study looks at the effects of Alzheimer’s on women as caregivers, advocates and people living with this disease. I was assigned to document individuals with Alzheimer’s in their homes or nursing facilities It was emotional experience for me to be an eye-witness to this terrible disease. I was continually amazed at the love and patience of those taking care of their family members. My photographs can be viewed in a gallery on The Shriver Report website.
The Clinton Global Initiative hired me earlier in the year to photograph the CGIU event at the University of Miami and again in September for their annual meeting in New York City. The list of speakers at the annual meeting included President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Bill Gates, Laura Bush and many more.
One of the things I miss about living in Washington DC is the beautiful fall weather. Luckily, I was able to travel to DC in October to shoot “The Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear.” I was hired by the event organizers, Chris Wayne of CWA and Craig Minassian of Minassian Media, to photograph backstage, on-stage and from the buffer zone. Basically, I had an all access pass for this Comedy Central event featuring Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Performers included Ozzy Osbourne, Sheryl Crow, Kid Rock, Yusuf Islam and Mavis Staples. I was thrilled to meet Mavis Staples and tell her about my 6-year-old daughter named Mavis!
In addition to all of the travel and assignments that occupied my time in 2010, I was also asked to participate in a few speaking engagements. I was part of a panel discussion at the Portland Art Museum featuring former White House Photographers. Myself, David Kennerly and Eric Draper talked about “Photography Inside the Presidential Bubble” in an event moderated by former White House Photo Editor Mike Davis. Other speaking engagements included Fall Foto Fest in my hometown of Evansville, IN and the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar in Atlanta.
As for 2011, I am leaving for Africa on January 16th for a three week trip for two different clients, back on February 7th and ready for more interesting assignments to come my way.
