Photographers Blog

Shuttle dream discovery

By Gary Cameron

While every photographer for Reuters is expected to cover, and have a knowledge on an array of events, whether they be political, sports, entertainment, or features, there are certain subjects that always hold a personal interest. For me, if it has wheels, wings, and a sense of history, I want to be there.

The arrival of the space shuttle Discovery from Cape Canaveral, Florida to Dulles International Airport in Virginia (where it will be transferred into the Smithsonian Air and Space collection) yesterday took some minor planning locally, mainly with trying to figure out where our best photo positions would be around Washington, D.C. as Discovery did a last fly-over before landing at Dulles.

Elevation would be key, but also, trying to line up the various Washington landmarks with the aircraft in flight. Discovery was riding piggy-back on a NASA 747 jet, which creates quite a large object moving through the skies. Also, flight altitude was listed at 1,500 feet, which is quite low.

Reuters Senior Photographers Kevin Lamarque (on the roof of RFK Stadium in the east) and Larry Downing (at the Iwo Jima Memorial to the west) would handle the Mall aspect which comprises the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Obamacare under siege

Jason Reed

Mar 29, 2012 16:58 EDT

By Jason Reed

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.

Ready to record history

Jason Reed

May 2, 2011 14:52 EDT

The call came at 10pm on a Sunday night at home. “How soon can you get to the White House”? Reuters had got the urgent call that President Barack Obama was due to make a statement within 30 minutes. It had to be something big to bring the press back so late on a weekend night. Even if I dropped everything now and raced down there, would I be too late?

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.