It's almost the end

My first trip to DC has finally come to a conclusion. My bags are packed and I'm ready to head home tomorrow afternoon. While I'm very ready to be at home again, I'm going to miss the excitement of Washington and how pedestrian friendly it is. Living less than half a mile from the Lincoln Memorial has it's perks. There were many nights I would walk down there with some friends and we would just sit on the steps and take in the sights around us. Things like that are what I'll miss the most, the historical significance of the surroundings I found myself in on a daily basis.

The Hearst bureau took all the interns out to a nice lunch at the National Press Club as a farewell event. They told us they had been genuinely impressed by the work we have done this summer and they are sorry to see us go. They told us to stay in touch and to not be afraid to call for references when we start applying for jobs. It can't hurt to have the former president of the National Press Club (Rick Dunham) and the former bureau chief of the AP Washington bureau (Chuck Lewis) in your corner. I concluded my day with a very appropriate event, a reception at the White House celebrating soon-to-be Justice Kagan's confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States. The two people I spent the most time covering this summer were Elena Kagan and President Obama so it was fitting to end the summer with an event where they were both present. I haven't had time to look at my pictures from the event yet since I came home to pack everything up, but once I get home and settled I will put some up along with my final post.

Tomorrow will be a long day of traveling that will start all too early so for now I'm headed to bed. Thanks very much to everyone who has been reading my blog. I hope you have enjoyed following my adventures this summer. I know I've had a blast!

2 days til Atlanta

I'm winding down Wednesday and have been working hard all day on the photo archive. I've finished a "hard copy" on my computer. Now I need to upload it to our Moveable Type system so the files will be easily accessed for our blogs, where they are needed most. This isn't a hard task, just very time consuming, but I'll have it finished by the time I leave.

I've started packing and will continue tonight. I've successfully worn through two pairs of shoes while I've been here from walking so much on the concrete sidewalks so that frees up a little extra space for me.

I'm shifting my planning now back to Atlanta and Rome. I no longer have to look ahead at what's going on in Washington. Now I'm concerned with unpacking from DC and repacking for Berry, moving in, and planning for The Carrier and athletic photography. There's never a dull moment! All I know is I'm taking at least one day to lounge since my weeks here have been jam packed followed by weekends of tourist activities. This summer has been a blast and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but now I'm ready to pack up and head home.

My last four days in the District

The last week has been and will continue to be a slow one. The president has several out of town trips and the House is already in recess. The only thing the Senate has left to do is confirm Kagan. I hope to be able to go and watch the vote in the press gallery in the Senate chamber, just to say I saw her confirmed after devoting so much time to the events in late June. Other than that, I will be spending this week solely working on the photo archive. It is more time consuming than I expected it would be and I'm doing my best not to go cross-eyed from looking at so many pictures. I still have thousands to go through so I just have to keep going until I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I'll need to start the packing process soon and make sure everything will fit back in my suitcases in order for me to take it home. Something tells me this process will not be as smooth the second time around. I'm very sad to be leaving Hearst and Washington, but there are so many things about returning to the south that I'm looking forward to. Of course I can't wait to see my family and friends, I can't wait for sweet tea and Chick-fil-a, and I can't wait to see the beautiful fields of Berry again! The view pulling up to the Gate of Opportunity is always wonderful! The countdown is four days until I'm in Atlanta and 10 days until I'm back at Berry!

The final countdown

It's Saturday afternoon and in exactly one week from now I'll be boarding a plane to fly home to Atlanta. What a summer this has been. All of my expectations have been exceeded. I've learned more than I thought I would, saw more than I thought I would, and have had an all-around fantastic experience. I was told by our bureau chief at the beginning of the summer that the internship will be what I make of it, and I feel I can say confidently that I took advantage of every opportunity that I had.

I finished up this past week with a visit to the White House. I photographed Marine One landing on the South Lawn as President Obama came back from a trip to Michigan. Alan came too and since we don't know if we'll come back to the White House next week, we took the opportunity to take all the touristy pictures we wanted just in case. Below are photos of Obama saluting the Marine as he comes down the steps of Marine One, me in the White House press briefing room and me in front of the West Wing.

This week will be an entire week of building the Hearst photo archive. With the president out of town several days and the House in recess there won't be too much going on, but you never know what will come up. For now, I'm anticipating spending a lot of time with my computer and combing through the 20,000+ images I took this summer and pulling out the best of the best for the archive of people which Hearst will use photos of again. As a fun side project I will be building a blooper reel of the people in Washington I've photographed this summer. Let's face it, not every picture I take is going to be flattering and I've had some that are just downright hilarious so look for that towards the end of next week.

Still on my list of things to do and see: inside of the Library of Congress, go to Georgetown Cupcake, and walk Embassy Row.

Midday update

One of my photos from the Arlington funeral ran on the front page of Albany Times-Union today. This is my second front page photo of the summer, but this one is above the fold and for a bigger paper. Had to share it with everyone since I was so excited! You can see the front page here: http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/hr.asp?fpVname=NY_TU&ref_pge=lst

Tying up loose ends

I have approximately nine days left in DC and way too much stuff to fit into that time frame. I have heard adults complain about how much there is to do before "leaving a job" and moving onto the next thing in their life, but I never really understood how complicated that can be until now. All of the long term projects have to be wrapped, I have to turn in my paper on my internship experience shortly, I have to see the sights I've missed so far and on top of that I have to pack to move home. All of this is starting to set in and I've found myself with little free time left, if any, and the next nine days with be filled to the brim with work and play and extremely tiring. But I'm ready for it.

I had a fantastic time this weekend with Lucy and Erica in town visiting from Berry. I won't bore you with the details of everything we did, just know we saw everything there is to see and is humanly possible to see in a single weekend. If you're really curious, go reread my Fourth of July post from when my family was in town. We basically did all of the same things plus a few extras.

The week has been off to a busy start. I'm still working on rounding up photos of Texas representatives. The verdict is out on whether I will give photos of all of them, but I'm not optimistic. There are too many last minute schedule changes in this town to get photos of everyone you need. I photographed the education secretary, Arne Duncan, on Tuesday when he announced the phase two finalists of Race to the Top funding. Fun fact: I learned at this event he played professional basketball for a couple years after college. His strangely tall stature then made more sense.

Today, I had the privilege of photographing a funeral at Arlington. And while I was by no means excited to be there, I felt honored to be able to photograph the event. The fallen soldier was Pfc. David Taylor Miller, a 19 year old from Saratoga Springs. The photographers were held in a 10 by 10 foot area away from the gravesite so as not to distract the family and friends that gathered at the gravesite. I was thankful to have the distance because it kept me focused on the job I came to do and helped me keep emotions in check during a very heart-wrenching ceremony. Nineteen is two years younger than I am. No one that young should have to die, but I'm thankful for Pfc. Miller's service to our country and very sorry for the loss of the Miller family. Below are a few images that included the military honor guard and the presentation of the American flags to Pfc. Miller's mother and father.

Toughening Up

The week peaked with the coolest event on Tuesday. However, I've stayed busy since then and have photographed the press conference announcing the Tea Party as an official caucus, a press conference with Senators Reid and Kerry, and a hearing where Ken Feinberg was testifying. He matters because he's managing the $20 billion fund being distributed to those who were affected by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Throughout the internship, I have seen my photographs morph. As another intern pointed out, he feels they have gone from snapshots to photos with artistic interest. Not only have I learned from myself, but I've also learned from the impressive crowd of photographers I'm shooting with. I take note of what the AP photographers are doing and how they approach a subject. I also try to do things differently than them because ultimately they're who I'm competing against in trying to get my photos published. And even though all of the guys shooting for AP, Getty, and Reuters have far more experience than I do I'm occassionally successful in beating them out to get published. On Wednesday, I had one of my photos published of the press conference with Prime Minister Cameron and President Obama in the San Antonio Express-News. Before I go to Capitol Hill or the White House to shoot an event one of our editors often asks me if I've sharpened my elbows today. He knows the competitive nature of DC photographers and has told me he's been impressed with how I've kept up with them, despite coming away with bruises after many events.

At this point, I've got two weeks left in this town and I plan to make the most of it. I know I'm giong to have a great weekend because two great friends from Berry are coming to visit me! It will be a marathon weekend of site seeing and with a heat index of 110 degress on Saturday I'm just praying we survive. Look for pictures of the weekend on Monday, but for now I'll include the photos from the events I mentioned earlier. From top to bottom, Rep. Michele Bachmann at the Tea Party press conference, Ken Feinberg at a subcommittee hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and Senators Reid and Kerry at a press conference outside the Senate Chamber.