By Jason Reed

Any news photographer that has been in the business for a decent length of time may say to you that he or she has “seen it all and done it all” or that “there is nothing new that hasn’t been shot already.” Until this week, you could also paint me with that same brush.

But for a moment in time on May 14, 2013, I was a wide-eyed kid again, thankful that my job as a photographer afforded me access to witness a world-first. The U.S. Navy made aviation history by catapulting an unmanned jet off an aircraft carrier for the first time, testing a long-range, stealthy, bat-winged plane that represents a jump forward in drone technology.

Gathering at sunrise in Norfolk, a handful of press ranging from military industry reporters to network TV crews received a safety briefing that detailed, among other things, how to exit our crashed helicopter in the event of a water landing (a little unnerving) to wearing double ear protection, helmets and goggles at all times during our 45 minute flight out onto the deck of the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush, a nuclear-powered Nimitz-class supercarrier in the Atlantic Ocean. Upon first sight, that 103,600 ton ship was just a small dot on the horizon, the full reality of its might only realized when we touched down on the deck over three football fields in length.

That experience alone was worth the 5am alarm, but the real reason was sitting there right on the deck — the X-47B, an object so obscure and futuristic, you’d think you just stepped onto the film set of Battlestar Galactica. The folded wings brought flashbacks of a seven-year old seeing that first Star Wars movie when Luke Skywalker’s X-wing fighter attacked the Death Star. This bat-winged, tailless unmanned combat aerial vehicle, developed by the military hardware supplier Northrop Grumman is designed to take off and land on aircraft carriers.

The future of pilot-less aviation really struck home when we were able to photograph up-close the two “pilots” in charge of launching the drone off the deck. In-flight suits and face masks, they appeared as if they were ready to hit the skies themselves. But this is one aircraft without pilot seats, no canopy and no joystick. Strapped to the pilot’s right arms were remote controllers that relied on hand gestures to maneuver the drone into the steam-powered catapult, the same sling shot that still launches F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets and previous to those, the F-14A Tomcats made famous from the Tom Cruise movie “Top Gun.”

With its incredibly loud jet engine screaming through two layers of ear protection, the catapult officer, wearing a yellow vest with the word “Shooter” on his back, began an elaborate dance of hand signals to a pilot who, for the first time, was not watching from a cockpit but was standing alongside him. In the controlled chaos of an aircraft carrier launch, at this point it’s a matter of holding steady and trusting that the camera panning technique you’d honed in the past, shooting formula 1 motor racing and other sports, didn’t let you down. There are no do-overs when you’re shooting at a 1/60th of a second to capture the motion blur of the drone as it is launched from the ship out at sea. That point-of-no-return moment came when the drone was launched down the deck, going from zero to 165 miles per hour in about 2 seconds, (zero to 266km/h). It gave me goose bumps as I am sure it did the Northrop Grumman VIPs who were there to witness their multi-million dollar baby’s launch over the cold Atlantic Ocean.

After circling our carrier a couple of times, the X-47B disappeared into the skies and landed at an air field on the U.S. mainland shortly after.

As humans we can’t help but marvel at giant strides in technology. The invention of the wheel, the steam engine and the jet engine were all giant, revolutionary strides in the human endeavor but I have one last thought after witnessing this historic event – we are probably less than a generation away from never needing to train another Navy jet fighter pilot. I wonder if this new generation of flying robots will adopt cool names like “Maverick”, “Goose” and “Ice Man”.

X-47B just doesn’t roll off the tongue as well.

By Jason Reed

It was something you wouldn’t dream of ten years ago. Based then as a photographer in Bangkok, our forays into neighboring Myanmar consisted of clandestine treks across a slippery border into the jungle camps of Karen rebels. Rebels who were child soldiers brandishing impossibly heavy weapons in their fight against a military junta that had not only persecuted them but also banished Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi into years of house arrest – denying her a place in the political landscape following democratic general elections in May, 1990.

Journalist visas to Myanmar were almost impossible to obtain and the only visual fruit they bore was to strictly-controlled, officially-sanctioned photo opportunities at the ceremonial burning of illicit drugs intercepted from the golden triangle.

Fast forward to November 19, 2012 and the dream is now reality – a first embrace by the United States government to the new social and political reforms in Myanmar. We’re flying into Yangon in a plane bearing the seal of the President of the United States. As journalists we are privileged to have a front-row seat to history. In this case, it was the first visit by a U.S. president to this nation as it slowly reveals itself from behind a curtain of 50 years of strict military rule and international sanctions.

Yangon airport, where in a past life I smuggled memory cards of images out of the country concealed in my underwear, is now a flashy contrast of glass and steel. On the road to town is where the first true glimpse of social upheaval hits you – British colonial-era boulevards lined with thousands of flag-waving children and families, office workers craning their necks for a glimpse of President Obama as his entourage motorcades to a meeting with Myanmar’s President Thein Sein. At times the crowd were just inches from our vehicles as they sped past.

The second surprise was an internet connection at government house so fast that I could transmit a two-megabyte picture to our editors in Singapore within about three seconds, saving us the agonizing minutes spent wrestling with a spotty satellite phone connection we were all dreading but were prepared for. The constant pressure that wire photographers put themselves under to get the first pictures out of important events is very real, leaving butterflies in your stomach until that first image uploads with the reassuring phrase.. “transfer complete”. Only after then can you breathe a giant sigh of relief, ready to actually enjoy taking pictures.

Next stop on the whirlwind trip was an unplanned visit to the beautiful Shwedagon Pagoda, a golden temple complex on a hill overlooking Yangon. Running barefoot with three cameras up flights of stairs in the steamy tropics was an experience at least one photographer would rather forget as he stumbled into the stairs, smashing one lens and breaking skin on a knee even before the first shots were made. The image of a barefoot president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton strolling in the temple was the worthy prize.

But it was the next stop that held the most anticipation, an audience with Aung San Suu Kyi at the residence where she had spent so many years under house arrest.

In recent months the contrast could not be bigger as she traveled the globe, garnering support from the outside world that eventually brought her latest guest to her doorstep.

After remarks at the University of Yangon, the president and his entourage were already on their way back to the airport.

Total time on the ground – just six hours…

What may surprise a lot of amateur photographers is the rapid pace that pictures can unfold in front of a news photographer’s lens, even if on the surface the images appear to be very staged and therefore easy to capture. The White House will take us the first 15,000 miles on assignment but those last 15 feet are all up to you. This multimedia shows us running up the dozens of steps to get ahead of the president and his entourage at the Buddhist temple, as well as shooting in between official White House photographers, press wranglers whose job it is to keep you at a fair distance from the president, the Secret Service Agents and overzealous local security. It is one giant chaotic moving game of chess. You are absolutely going to miss moments because there are always too many moving pieces on the board, not least of which are your colleagues competing against you to get the best angles of the most important moments. But you keep on pushing, knowing that in this game there are no instant replays.

What a difference four years makes for someone running again for President of the United States.

Barack Obama hit the campaign trail in 2012 wearing two hats… one as the incumbent President, and one as a candidate for re-election.

Whether it’s from 35,000 feet aboard Air Force One or in a motorcade through the streets of Manhattan, Reuters White House photographer Jason Reed offers a view from behind the tinted windows of Obama’s 2012 Presidential campaign.

It happens about once a year. If he had waited two more minutes the pictures would not have happened but Mother Nature had other ideas. It was time for a good old soaking at an event featuring President Barack Obama.

The forecast had called for hot and humid conditions on the second day of a two-day campaign swing through Virginia, where the first ominous signs were the crash of thunder in the distance as Obama stopped at a roadside vegetable stand to pick up a crate of tomatoes for the family. On the way to the outdoor campaign rally in Glen Allen, lightning flashed in front of the motorcade. We arrived at the venue with heavy, ominous clouds and some light sprinkles that we all hoped would quickly subside. No one except the Secret Service were carrying rain jackets (they must have all been boy scouts – “Be prepared”). Not even the President was prepared to deal with the next half hour.

With the press gathered in front of the stage in our cotton short sleeve shirts, the light sprinkle, which had been just a small nuisance, quickly turned into a full deluge that would be familiar to anyone who has ever lived in monsoon-prone regions of southeast Asia. (Stand under a bathroom shower fully clothed and turn the water pressure to maximum. You get the drift.) Now grab about $20,000 worth of camera gear and start taking pictures.

Any speculation about the event being cancelled was quashed in a matter of seconds when President Obama surprised all by going on early, appearing without his jacket and tie, among hundreds of soaked-to-the-bone supporters who had waited hours for a glimpse of the President. In the 30-foot (ten meter) walk from his entrance to the main stage, Obama’s thin sky-blue cotton shirt was already transparent from the rain and he was already wiping water off his face every few seconds. He seemed to enjoy the experience by telling a few jokes to the crowd and laughing at the whole preposterous scene.

I had shielded my computer bag in the damp grass under the stage and tried to make the most of a situation which, while challenging and uncomfortable, I knew was going to yield some pretty interesting pictures.

Dragging the shutter speed down to about 1/20th of a second to elongate the rain drops, I went to the side of the stage that was almost back-lit from a large HMI outdoor light and with the dark background of some nearby trees, you could make out the raindrops pretty easily.

An added bonus was that the rain on the front of the 70-200mm lens, which I had been hopelessly trying to wipe dry with my soaked shirt, created these octagonal highlights when pointed towards the artificial lights as a function of the eight-bladed aperture ring. It was a nice effect which made the Reuters picture wire along with a selection of other frames from the event.

The real fear was that any of my three cameras were eventually going to stop functioning. There is only so much moisture that an expensive hand-held electronic box can take – most professional photographers could tell you a story or two of a piece of gear that paid the ultimate price.

A lot of people wonder why professional Digital SLR cameras are so expensive, typically double that of consumer-grade equipment, but at least in the case of the EOS-1 D Mk IV cameras and a 5D Mk III that I use, it’s the rubber gaskets and weather seals built into their magnesium alloy bodies that are the saving grace. Although not fully waterproof, in this awful weather they kept on ticking and I was happy to end the assignment with everything still functioning perfectly. Our clothes, however, would take the rest of the day to dry out. Next time I’ll bring a rain coat, I swear…

President Obama’s healthcare overhaul, signed into law two years ago, is his signature domestic policy achievement. It remains a divisive issue among Americans and is likely to be a key issue ahead of the November 6 election in which he seeks a second term.

For three days this week, the nine Justices heard arguments from both sides on whether the healthcare overhaul is lawful. A ruling is expected in June.

I covered the story and gathered pictures, sound and video from the circus-like atmosphere outside the Supreme Court, and compiled supporting images from other Reuters Photographers for this multimedia project. With a Zoom H4N digital audio recorder mounted to the hotshoe of a camera, I was able to capture some ambient sound of the debate raging between participants outside the courthouse.

Washington is a magnet for demonstrations and rallies focusing on the biggest social and political issues that face the United States. In any one year, hundreds of protests of all shapes and sizes dot this landscape around the nation’s capital’s landmarks. They are just a regular part of what we cover as news photographers alongside all the other responsibilities of Washington politics, including the White House, State Department, the Pentagon and Capitol Hill.

The challenge for any photographer is to try to keep it fresh, as in most cases it is the same actors, just a different play.

For me, the Supreme Court has always attracted the most radical of demonstrators, folks very committed to their cause and very vocal about it. Assigned to cover this historic test case on Obama’s healthcare law, it was the vocal aspect that I also wanted to capture a little of, to support the still pictures that we provide for the wire. I believe that capturing a little sound can go a long way to bringing a picture story to life.

600 miles of ice cream stops, cornfields and cow judging contests – a glimpse inside the traveling white house circus.

The scene in Washington DC, 2011 – U.S. debt ceiling negotiations, unemployment figures that wont improve, congressional deadlock – it’s enough to make you want to get out of town. President Barack Obama did just that this week, jumping on a shiny new bus and heading out to the Midwest to spend time with pretty much anyone who wasn’t wearing a business suit.

It was surely a nice change of scenery for Obama and definitely for photographers assigned to the White House who have been fed a steady diet of presidential remarks in front of all the familiar Washington backgrounds for weeks on end. The message was however, the same. Getting the nine per cent of unemployed Americans back to work.

Not since the early campaign days of 2007, when new U.S. Senator Barack Obama burst onto the national scene, have I seen the sort of access that the traveling White House press received in the past several days. With an entire staff dedicated to “advancing the trip”, locations were scouted along the 600 mile route through key election states Minnesota, Iowa and lllinois.

Some would think that the Presidential election is just around the corner but you’d be wrong. In most other democracies around the world an election cycle would last maybe a month. We are still over 530 days away from the November 2012 presidential election, and right here for me President Obama’s re-election campaign has officially begun. Better strap myself in for the ride. It must be by far the longest, most intense election campaign in the world.

Forming up at about 6am each day, a small group of press who are the “travel pool” ride everywhere the President goes – in nondescript vans about halfway from the front of the 40-vehicle motorcade. Along with the scheduled stops at town hall-style meetings, of which we are given advanced notice, come the unannounced “OTRs”, off-the-record events which have been planned by the White House advance staff, sometimes days ahead, but for security purposes are not told to anyone until the motorcade comes to a stop at ice cream shops, high schools, large crowds of onlookers gathered in small towns and other random places.

These are the events we love to cover because they are so random, introduce new people and places, and can produce some great moments that show the President is human, just like the rest of us. The only thing we are told moments before the motorcade comes to a halt is whether the stop will be indoors (coffee shop?)

or outdoors (visiting high school football team?).

So we set the basic exposures on our cameras and get ready. I can’t imagine the surprise locals must feel in their small towns when a bulletproof bus with blacked-out windows rolls up, a bunch of secret service agents pour out of vehicles to scatter in all directions and then about 15-20 members of the press leap out and charge at full speed down the street, over potholes and front lawns, some with at least $10,000 worth of camera equipment, to our target – a popcorn shop, café or a school girls volleyball team. Then for the next 5-10 minutes during the photo opportunity, we all do our best to exclude each other, the secret service agents and white house staff from our backgrounds as we try to frame our pictures that give context to the event.

From an outsiders perspective, as they watch the media tornado tear through their neighborhood, the traveling circus must look like an attempt at herding cats. Back in the van again, barreling down the highway to the next stop, we light up our computers to edit and transmit another round of pictures using the same cell network used by mobile phones. It’s a battle to select the best images and tone them in photoshop as alternating full sunlight then shadow flicker from outside and onto your laptop screen.

Not to mention the attempt at typing a perfectly-worded caption in a van at 60 mph (100 km/h) bouncing all over the road. One colleague from another news outlet had to deal with an email from an editor who said that his caption was missing one comma in his sentence. I think that editor needs a week on the campaign trail to appreciate that he gets any caption at all!

In this game it’s all about staying on your toes, keeping your eyes open and being ready for just about anything. That includes the cow patties at the county fair! Only 530 more days to go.

In the 4- ½ years serving as Secretary of Defense under two Presidents, Robert Gates’ made his 12th and final trip to Afghanistan this week, primarily to thank the troops for their service one last time. Fortunately for me, it was Reuters’ turn to embark on this historic journey. As we circled the earth clockwise via Hawaii and Singapore and eventually onto Brussels for a NATO Summit, Gates touched down in Kabul on June 4th and began three days of extensive travel around Afghanistan, via Blackhawk helicopter, C-17s and Osprey aircraft over the scorching desert in the south and mountainous east of the country.

As a Washington-based photographer more accustomed to mundane political assignments where making a great and memorable picture is akin to creating a “silk purse out of a sow’s ear”, I relish the chance to mix it up and cover the “real world” outside the Washington beltway. Yes, the Secretary of Defense trips are insanely long (11 days this time) and force you to work in some difficult environments, but I love them because you are given a little more access behind the scenes and are generally allowed almost as much freedom to move around as the Secretary’s own Pentagon photographer, the only other on the trip. In getting the best pictures, access is everything.

It was surreal to land at remote Forward Operating Bases (FOBs) and Combat Outposts (COPs), spend a few hours there and then move onto the next one. Gates wanted to thank as many troops serving in the country as he could during his trip so we included as many as we could fit in each day. On almost every occasion we would hear the emotion in his voice as he addressed those serving their nation. Gates would also present each one of them with his own challenge coin, a military tradition, bearing his name on one side and the Department of Defense insignia on the other.

As is customary, it was suggested that I present my body of work to Secretary Gates on the final leg of the trip home, sort of like a slide show from the family trip to Disneyland. I put together this multimedia piece and, as I played it for him on the flight from Brussels to Washington, I sensed the historical significance of his last trip to Afghanistan was not lost on him.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates – One last time in Afghanistan from Jason Reed on Vimeo.

He said he appreciated the pictures and as we stepped off the plane at Andrews Air Force Base, I was presented with my own Challenge coin, along with those of the traveling press that cover the Pentagon.

The thing that was always in my mind as we left each combat outpost and forward operating base were the troops left behind there to continue their mission. A tour of 12 months or more in this environment is tough. I also take my hat off to all the journalists and photographers that chose to risk their lives right alongside those troops, so that the world may see their story.

I was there in 14 minutes – a new personal best, from my home three miles away. Running through White House security gates with my shoe laces still untied, I was thinking that I hadn’t made it in time for whatever the big news was. The scene outside the famous 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue address was familiarly quiet, with a couple uniformed Secret Service officers and their squad car.

Inside the press briefing room, wire and newspaper photographers started filtering in, showing varying states of preparedness but all wondering the same question. Why are we here?

In the U.S. TV network booths, a closed circuit live shot from the East Room of the White House showed lighting technicians, cameramen and producers readying the Presidential lectern for remarks. They were scrambling faster than I had seen, and these guys are always pretty slick.

After 20 minutes, a tight group of five photographers were led through the quiet night by staff up to the state floor of the White House, waiting for President Obama to deliver a statement. It was there that I glimpsed the words flashing on the teleprompter that I won’t forget any time soon. President Obama was about to declare Osama bin Laden had been killed.

Eerily, the muted sounds of cheering were heard from outside the White House. It seemed the news had just hit the streets but weren’t there just a couple of police out there a minute ago? We knew Obama’s speech was just seconds away. He emerged from the Blue Room and strode past us to the lectern and as Obama began to read the statement to the nation and the first TV frame-grabs were being taken back in our office, I was able to run the camera’s memory disk to Jonathan Ernst, another photographer here for Reuters who was ready to transmit those early pictures.

As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.

After running back to send our pictures – tight crops, loose crops, walking towards us and away from us, side angles and such, as many versions of 30 seconds of picture-taking as I could think of, it was time to see what was going on outside.

It was now midnight and those two police and their car were now engulfed by thousands of chanting, flag-waving revelers. It sounded like a sports stadium. The noise was deafening and it was a sight I had never seen before in this normally quiet and reserved political town.

Thousands of college students pouring out of bars, tourists and residents scrambled to the White House to take in this historic moment. People were hanging from trees, guys were dressed in Spiderman and Captain America Costumes and strains of the Star Spangled Banner were spontaneously being sung. It was like a carnival.

I can only guess that, like the recent uprisings on the streets of Cairo, social networking sites like facebook and twitter must have contributed to a massive gathering of random people in one place. Cars loaded with flag-waving revelers were honking their horns into the wee hours of the morning in celebratory scenes also echoed in Times Square that night.

By the time I got home at 3am I couldn’t go to sleep. The last few hours had been one large blur, punctuated with surreal moments not normally seen in Washington with the exception of Presidential inaugurations and large organized rallies.

Tonight reminded me that big news can happen in the blink of an eye and as a news photographer it always pays to have your equipment ready to record history.

Further clarification in response to some of the comments below:
Every nationally-televised Presidential statement of historical significance and of this nature, going back decades, is made specifically for television. The concept of accommodating still photographers immediately after these events is a courtesy extended to us by each administration so that a still record of the event is made by the independent press that work at the White House. To reproduce the same angle that viewers had just seen on TV, the still photographer must step right in front of the teleprompter and block the TV camera. This is the only way to do it, so stills cannot be in that position during the event. In addition, the noise made by the still cameras and the movement by the photographers themselves would be an unnecessary distraction for the President if pictures were take during the live address.

The fact that still photographers even get this picture is a result of negotiations made between the press and each successive presidential staff, for the benefit of the printed press whose needs we try to meet every day. Our photo captions explain full disclosure that the pictures are taken following the actual address to make clear the circumstances under which the picture was taken.

With the front row of the audience about 3 feet (one meter) from the signing desk, it was almost impossible to see the Presidential Seal and that important document that President Obama was about to sign. Even on step ladders, which normally elevate us sufficiently above the audience, it was touch-and-go, and that’s before camera phones, the new nemesis for any working photographer shooting over a crowd, would inevitably start popping up. Not to mention the audience members standing up themselves to see over the rows in front. I even had to negotiate a compromise with one Congresswoman from New York that if she would refrain from pulling out her cell phone and blocking us behind her, I would ensure that she would receive a copy of one of my pictures as a trade off. She thankfully obliged and I emailed her a jpeg file later in the day for her private collection, for which she was grateful. Other congressmen in the audience were not as considerate, and anticipating this (hey, even elected officials can’t resist pulling out their cameras too), I set in place an “insurance policy”, because news photographer’s never get a second chance at capturing history.

My insurance policy was a Canon 5D camera and 24-105mm lens clamped high above my head on one of the towering light stands, atop of which is enough illumination to set an exposure of 400th sec @ f4, at 1000 asa. They do light White House events well, as administrations past and present recognize the power of the well-crafted image. I know a lot of photographers who shoot indoor events and would dream of soft, plentiful light rather than messing with high ISO speeds or the dreaded flash/strobe. With one dedicated radio transmitter attached to the hotshoe of my handheld camera, and a radio receiver connected to remote camera on the light pole, I could wirelessly fire the remote every time I pushed my shutter button. After editing the pictures from the remote camera for the Reuters wire shortly after the event ended, I thought it would be cool to put the entire sequence together with some sound to give you a sense of being in that room on this historic occasion.

One peculiar quirk you will quickly notice that has become a standard at President Obama’s signing ceremonies are multiple pens to sign just one document. He starts his signature by making one pen stroke, replaces that pen with another, signs another part of his signature with that one and carries on writing his name until all the pens are used. That ensures that all the important participants on the stage, in this case key congressmen who helped pass the bill in the House of Representatives, receive a ceremonial pen that actually was put to paper. You can see Obama reaching for the pens in this time lapse sequence.