What kind of photography?

When people ask me what kind of photography I do, I explain that it's most often photos that are to be reproduced someplace - maybe a magazine or newspaper, maybe an ad or a newsletter or a poster or a web page or a book jacket.

Of course, there are other places my photos turn up from time to time. Like, for instance, a series of bus shelters in Baltimore.


And it's for a good cause -- see http://www.theheartofbaltimore.org/.

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.

"There's Not So Many of You..."

Showing up in a Capitol Hill committee room to testify a few days ago, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner seemed surprised to find only two photographers waiting for him.

"There's not so many of you," he said. "The economy must be getting better."

A nice insight - but possibly not the real reason for the low press turnout. The secretary was testifying on dull budget matters, while in another hearing room a CEO named Toyoda was struggling to explain faulty accelerator pedals.

Snowmageddon

"Howling Blizzard Deepens the Misery" is the understated lead headline in The Washington Post this morning (the online edition; we're certainly not getting home delivery). Not to deny there are many people seriously affected by this storm (we too played overnight host to relatives who'd gone days without heat or plowed streets), but isn't that a bit much?

Yes, the federal government and schools have had to pack it in for the week, but does this record-setting winter of snow really deserve the same treatment you'd give a Haitian earthquake or Indian Ocean tsunami? Perhaps the problem here in the capital of the known universe is that the snow serves as a useful reminder we're not the masters of the cosmos, that nature and other potential "inconveniences" still hold the upper hand, even in the 21st century.

And for those of us lucky enough to have electricity and a working oven to bake cookies while the landscape outside is transformed, this memorable week has had a lot to recommend it. Clients have asked if I'm off shooting monuments in snow. No, I'm sure they're very beautiful - the whole city is beautiful right now. But in a family that loves snow and snow sports, this has been an opportunity to enjoy ourselves right outside our front door.

Snowmageddon II from Jay Mallin on Vimeo.

Leaving town

That's Sen. Max Baucus, who played a key role in the battle for health-care reform, headed out barely an hour after the Senate's passage of the legislation. That vote came at 7 a.m. on Christmas eve, after Republicans and Democrats had pretty much worn each other out in round-the-clock maneuvering.

Unless you're trapped in a house fire, you'll probably never see a group of people so happy to get out of a building as they were leaving the Capitol that morning. Still, the senator, who'd spent two years in what often appeared to be a losing battle for this legislation, had time to stop and wish me a Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!

Official Photographer for the Big Guy

I was at a holiday party thrown by a union in Baltimore over the weekend, and they had a problem. Santa was there and so were about a zillion kids. But Santa's photographer was missing. Could I....?

You bet! When am I ever going to get a chance to play official photographer to a mall Santa again? And it was a blast. The kids were all adorable, all zillion of 'em. Of course, there's always a few who look at the Big Guy in the Red Suit and say "No Way." It's an understandable reaction. But it seems their parents still want that photo.

And if I think about it, these photos are going to be held onto long after everything else I shoot this month is history. Even if some of my subjects were less than enthusiastic.

Loud!

I didn't realize it at the time, but yes, those musicians in the foreground are covering their ears while the percussion section sounds off behind them.

It was part of a wonderful program for second-graders by the National Philharmonic Orchestra I photographed yesterday. That's Piotr Gajewski, the NPO's music director, conducting at left. Needless to say, the school kids loved the sound. But this is probably not a photo that's going to show up in the NPO's promotional materials anytime soon!

Perfect

A long-time and favorite client of mine is Barry Remley, of Salvations Architectural Furnishings. Barry and her painters and blacksmiths design and build beautiful tables and other furniture, sometimes starting with found objects like heating registers salvaged from old homes and buildings.

From the designs to the welding to the last touches of paint, these pieces are just perfect. This month, I realized, marks the 10-year anniversary of when I began photographing them digitally. This meant the dropped backgrounds, perspective correction and other effects that normally wouldn't be affordable for a small business became something I could do for Barry's images. So the images became perfect too (at least more perfect than much of my other work, where dealing with real people and real situations means the images have that real -- and less-than-perfect-- edge to them!).

To celebrate the 10-year mark I used my library of images to create a short film of the Salvations works, and the people who make them. I hope you can take a minute to check it out.

I Love Baltimore

Well, sure, I married a lady from Baltimore two years ago. And driving up there to see her in the years before that was always a treat.

But I've always liked working in the city. I seem to have the best experiences there, right back to when I started full-time photography in the early '90s. I remember one of my first assignments was to travel around for a day with a doctor who still made house calls. We started in the projects and finished up in a mansion. I don't remember how he got such a varied client list, but I still recall many of the stops we made, including the teenaged quadriplegic, being cared for by his aunt. He'd spent months as a homeless quadriplegic, living in an abandoned building. Only in Baltimore.

I've been up to Baltimore a lot recently, especially photographing healthcare workers. Often these workers don't have health benefits for themselves, or for their children, through their employment. The very people whose job it is to care for others often don't have any way to care for themselves should they get sick. Only in the United States. But it's great to meet these folks and their families, get welcomed into their homes. Yesterday I photographed a woman named Stephanie, her wonderful teenage son and daughter. One photo I did was on their front stoop -- such a hallmark of Baltimore homes.

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.