Brian doug mills, your last visit in 2013, you were photographing a lot of barack obama. What has changed in your life since then . Doug the American People elected a businessman who is now the president of the United States and things are drastically different for us. It is a lot of work. We work nonstop. The president drives a new cycle hourly. Therefore, it affects us everyday. The white house is quite an exciting place to work right now. Host how is it different . Doug from a photographer standpoint, we have a lot more access to the president. I see him more on a daily basis than we did with president obama. Sometimes three or four times per day. Sometimes five times a day. We are able to photograph him in different situations. Some meetings, will science, executive orders, things like that. There is a lot of travel involved. Not a lot of weekend travel other than to maralago or bedminster, new jersey. It is exhausting. It is great. It is very exciting. I love what i am doing. I have the greatest job in the world. Being in the white house right now, every time i see someone that i havent seen in a while, that is the first question they asked. How has your life changed and what is different about it . It is very different. We are going nonstop. There are so many different pictures. I think photographing barack obama for eight years he was probably the most photogenic president in my generation. Easily. In many generations. I look at the past year of photographing donald trump, and he is probably one of the most iconic. You look at a picture of him from the front, side, back, you know who it is immediately. And it is challenging. But it is fun. I love photographing. Host here is a photo you took of donald trump sitting at his desk. When did you do that . Doug that was shortly after he took office. That was, probably, i believe in february or march. There was a period where he was signing a lot of executive orders. And, again, us having more access to the president , we are in the oval office more. Therefore you are able to be creative. I was able to put a camera up high in the air. Look down on his desk. I was waiting for them to bring the executive order over to him. I ended up just liking that picture better than the one with him with the actual papers in front of him. Host when you are on the scene, can you see, you know, that sweep of light on the desk, can you notice that . Doug i did. Yes, i did. Because i never noticed, because other president s have kept more things on the desk at times. And sometimes its blocked, i think this was an afternoon signing. The sun was coming in behind him, it cast that vignette. I remember looking at it when i pulled it up on the computer, it looked more dramatic than when i saw it in person. Host you took the overhead shot, which we also have. It has become your trademark, when did you start doing this and how do you do it . Doug i basically take a monopod, a single leg of a tripod, a monopod, but it has a connector on the top. Then i put a ball head on top of that, which allows me to pivot the camera up and down to the side. I lift it up as high as it will go, probably 15 feet at the most. I cant see it. I eyeball it. Im not using autofocus. Im prefocusing. Once it is up there, i watch im watching him as he is just gesturing. I think it is such a great, unique, view of the oval office or capitol hill. I think it really brings the reader in to see who is in the room and what is being orchestrated. Especially with everyone around him like that and having the right lens on. I love doing them. Host in our archive we have one from 1996, one from 2008, one from 2013, for those that have never seen any of these, bring us up to date how long you have been a still photographer. Doug i have been washington, d. C. A long time. I have covered the white house since ronald reagan, when he was running for reelection. I have been there since 83. I believe i have covered 18 different years. 18 years under the republican president s, 16 years under the democrats. Host how many years with the times now . Doug i was with the associate press first. I was the chief photographer in washington. Host the last time you were here we talked about pete sousa, who has had a bestseller on the New York Times list, i think he was number one for a couple of weeks. Why do you think that book of photos has sold so well . Doug he is a brilliant photographer. He has a fantastic eye, he had probably the most access that any white house photographer had ever. You talk to other photographers who have been in that same job. I think pete had the most access. He clearly did a fantastic job of branding himself and branding his work. Being, you know, staying with the president all the time. He rarely took a day off. His colleagues did not have the same kind of access that he did. And therefore, he has been able to tap into a market obviously the book is selling like crazy. With all due respect, that work came at the expense of some of the access the press was not getting. Host that is what i wanted to ask you. We talked about the fact that you were kept out around some of the obama years, you went to bat for that. In the end, what did happen . Doug it changed. I mean, you know, you go through different press secretaries and different communication directors. I think josh earnest did a great job of getting us back into the fold and think more about pictures. There was a great team committed to it. Once there was a lot of controversy about the fact that we felt like we were being shut out. There were facts. We had plenty of examples that we were not allowed in, the white house was putting up their own instagram or twitter pictures, or putting it up on whitehouse. Gov. Excluding the press, basically going around. Exclusive events, you know . We had, one that sticks out, it was memorial day. The president invited the oldest living africanamerican veteran to the white house. Which sounds like it would be a great photo and great thing for the news media to see, and it was only done by the white house fontographer, photographer, and therefore it was put on instagram and twitter and so forth. Those were the things that really irritated me about that. Pete is a great photographer, he did a great job. He had the trust of the president like no other photographer. But i felt that at times we were on the short end of that because we were not allowed into every event that we are, certainly, now. Host how would you describe the photographers that the white house has hired around President Trump, compared to the others . Doug not a lot of different. Difference. Sorry about that. [indiscernible] who is now the white house photographer for donald trump, President Trump, she worked in the bush administration. There is another female photographer who worked for president bush on the first lady staff. On laura bushs staff. I think she has two or three other, i think it is mostly a female staff. They are great. None of them are former photojournalists that were working as press photographers, much like the obama administration. Pete was a working press photographer. Lawrence jackson, from the Associated Press, was a working photographer. You had Chuck Kennedy who was a working photographer in washington, d. C. They were working in d. C. And doing what we do every day. Host here is a photograph you took in front of the white house, what is that . Where is the president . Doug the president is on the south lawn of the white house. It was an event for unions and truckers. It was a normal event, you know, where the president got up and spoke at the podium. There were members of congress there. There were two tractortrailer sitting behind him as props. They filled up the frame nicely, they look great. At the end of it, i think a number of us photographers were joking, wouldnt it be wild if he got into the cab. Everyone said he is not going to do that. Sure enough, he climbed up there and grabbed a hold of the wheel like he had road rage, and it was hilarious. It made for a great picture. It was not a side i have seen of him like that. Obviously, he was having fun, joking with it. You can see the members of congress there and other trucking officials who were taking pictures with their cell phones. Host if you are around him so much more than you expected, what do you see a close that we up close that we dont see on television or photos . Doug that is a great question. What do i see up close . Obviously, he enjoys having us around. I really believe despite his constant, you know, comments about fake news and the media, i really feel he enjoys having us around, because it helps drive his message. It helps drives the news of the day, which he can do and does do every day. He is constantly driving that message. Therefore, having us around really allows him to do that. And i think he has personalities, reporters he really looks to. When we are on air force one, he will come back and chat with us. And there are reporters that he obviously has read their stories and speaks to them on a first name basis. He has not gotten to know photographers in the same way. He may know my name, but he is never said to me hey, doug. Unlike other president s. Again, he has only been in office one year. I think he knows who i am. I think he knows i worked for work for the New York Times. Host the failing New York Times. Doug the failing New York Times, exactly. That hurts, the New York Times is the greatest News Organization in the world. We do not put out fake news. That gets under my skin when i hear it. I think a lot of journalists feel that way, when they are around him and he says that. Host have you ever had a conversation with him . Doug for the white house news photographers contest, we were invited to the oval office to have our picture taken with him. It was a brief handshake. That was the first time i had ever shaken his hand. I think it was the first time i realized he knew who i was. He said something to the other photographers like, oh, he is very good. You watch out for this guy. I realized, then, that he knew who i was and who i worked for. It is definitely different, he is not a politician. Every time you are in the oval office, you realize that. When he is around members of congress, to have a cabinet room photo op about immigration and be in their for about 55 minutes. We were flies on the wall while they were negotiating the immigration bill. It was fascinating. It was unprecedented. I even said to Lindsey Graham, senator Lindsey Graham was sitting right in front of me while i was taking pictures. I said this is unbelievable, he said i know. Its remarkable. Its different. Host on that particular day, did they tell you this was going to happen . Doug we had no idea. In fact, the photo op was on the president s schedule, which we get every day. Its emailed to all the journalists covering the white house. That day it stated the meeting was going to take place, but it said closed press. But a lot of times the president , i think, or someone on the senior staff says we have to get the media in for this, or the president will ask for the pool. He says a lot about where the press pool is, get them in, i want them in. We thought it would be a couple of minutes and we would get out. Yet we stayed in for 55 minutes. It was remarkable. Caller heres a photograph host heres a photograph of an important person in the white house. Who is it and where did you get this photo . Doug this was taken during a meeting with members of congress. Sitting there with his hands up to his face was the chief of staff, john kelly, who i have gotten to know on a hello, nice to see you, sir at a couple of off the record events the white house has had. I have Great Respect for him. He is very nice to me, very kind to me. It was the first time, that is normally where the Vice President sits. I think the Vice President was traveling that day. We were in the room and a lot of times when the Vice President is sitting in that seat, there is a secret Service Agent directly behind him. So, we are not allowed to have that kind of perspective, right over whoevers head is sitting directly across from the president. I realize that and jumped right into it. Host is that normal that they do not let you have that kind of position . Doug it has happened during the trump administration, where there has been i dont recall it happening during with Vice President biden and president obama sitting across from him, but now there is a lot more security. We see a lot more secret service around. And the white house has a lot of new faces in the media. And therefore, there are a lot more secret Service Agents around us and the media. It seems tighter in that regard. Host who is the person in this photograph with a jacket over his head . Doug that was taken from one of the press surveillance one evening at the white house. The president and first lady were heading out. We saw his son, barron was up by the motorcade. I saw him walk across the lawn. Normally, we are not allowed to photograph any of the children. We always give them that respect that we arent going to photograph him unless the president is around. Because he was around and we thought he was leaving, the ball started rolling, i thought i should get this. In case they see this video. So, i started photographing. As soon as the two boys saw the tv cameras, they put their jackets over their head. Which made it kind of funny and different. You know, the boy, barron always has a secret Service Agent with him. So, just like every member of the trump family and like every member of the obama family group family, they had constant secret service around. I think they just like, sasha and melia, going to school, barron has secret service with him in school. Host this is a unique photo. People can see your stuff independently on twitter. How do they do that . What is the address . Doug nytmills is my twitter handle. This picture was actually taken during that 55 minute meeting we had with immigration. It was the first time i ever saw the number 45 embroidered on his sleeve. I am always fascinated with his cufflinks. The president has a unique array of cufflinks that i always try and photograph or get a detailed shot if we are in the meeting long enough. Because we are in their a lot of we are in there a lot of times, we get to see these things. This was one, when i took it, i thought this is different and unique. Luckily, i did not tell my other colleagues because there are 810 photographers in the same room. I am using a newer camera. I am using a sony camera, which is completely silent. I can be standing next to my colleagues and formally, they formerly, they could hear me take pictures, now it is silent. That helped to make that image. I think if i had been photographing while he was speaking, Something Like that, they would have heard, so it helped. Host lets talk about the technology. The first time in 1996 you were shooting with a dcs3, is that a canon . Doug the models have changed every couple years. Host d1x, when you came in 2000. Doug these are ancient, now. Host so, whats the difference . Show us what you are using now. Doug it is a sony a9, it is a mirrorless camera. The mirror, when you press the shutter, it does not go up and down. You wont hear any noise. I am taking pictures now. You cant hear anything. Host snap it, lets hear what it looks like. Doug you can see the red light going on. It is taking pictures but you will not be able to see it, because it is completely silent. Host when did that come on the market . Doug earlier in the year, i have been using it now probably about eight months. I was asked to try it out and see what i thought. I have been a canon photographer for 35 years, probably more than that. My first camera was a canon, they do not make a mirrorless camera. And so sony came to me and asked if i would be willing to try it and see what i thought. And i picked it up, i played with it for a few hours. I remember saying to one of the technicians that this is a game changer. This is i want to use this camera. Host how does it change the game . Doug one, because its silent. For what we do in politics, it helps immensely bit that is one because that is one of the biggest complaints when photographers are around the president or members of congress, when the cameras are going off, it is hard to hear what the president is saying or everybody else in the room. So, that helps being a game changer. Also, it is 20 frames per second, and can fire 20 frames per second, which is twice when i was using before. So, if i am shooting sports with this, it doubles my frame rate, the amount of pictures i can get, the exact moment of the peak action. I use it sometimes for politics, where i will turn it up to 20 frames per second. If i am chasing somebody around, like robert mueller, you are running up and down the steps. When you finally get to him, i have used it and i have like 50 pictures of him. That was in an eightsecond window of it seeing him, maybe less than that. Host what about quality . Doug the quality is fantastic. Yeah. I am a true believer i have used canons all my life. Eventually, i am sure nikon and canon will come out with mirrorless cameras. Right now, that is a great camera. I can take a picture and send it directly from their and to my smart phone and from my smartphone to the office. I can stay in the back of the White House Briefing room and take a picture and send it directly from their straight to the office. Host on one of your visits you were full of computers. You have to do that anymore . Doug i do. Being part of the press pool, when we travel with the president , i take my computer, so i can put on a caption and crop and tone pictures. It does have all of the wifi to get on the internet. If i know i am on a deadline or i know that the office is waiting on something, i can send it directly. Like, during the campaign, i did a lot of that. I sent it directly from the camera. I still do it now. I am heading off to the olympics, and i will be doing it every day there. So, yes, i dont carry the laptop as much as i dont carry it as much as i used to. I am sure that eventually the software will be piped in cameras to allow us to do that. Host can a civilian by this camera . Doug oh, yes, they are on the market. Host how much . Doug they are cheaper than most of the slrs out there. I want to say i think they are under 5,000. I know the others are around 10,000. Host with other photographers, d