I have ron fourniers piece that he wrote in december. It starts off New York Timeses doug mills strode into jay carneys office with pile of pictures taken exclusively by president obamas official photographer at events the White House Press corp. Was forbidden to cover. This one mills said, this one too and this one and this one. The redfaced photographer joined by colleagues on the White House CorrespondentAssociation Board finished 10 minute presentation with a flurries that made carney a former moscow correspondent for time winced. You guys are just like tasks. How mad were you . I think i was pretty upset. Its culmination because of being on the board i am constantly being inundated with emails and voice and text from other photographers who were traveling with the president daily like i am. There have just been a lot of concerns. When they put them all together for me and then they brought it to me and myself and other news organizations sat down and looked at it, it was pretty striking. I was upset and i think there were other members of the board who obviously felt the same way. Turned into a small meeting turned into little bit of longer meeting. But i think were heading in the right path. Its interesting, pete souza who is the white house chief photographer and jay carney both come out of the media. It could be you next time. Absolutely, yeah, and this never been about pete souza. Petes name has been thrown out. There. I love pete and i love his work. Hes a phenomenal photographer and hes done a great job for president obama. The difference, he used to worked for the media. He worked for the chicago tribune. He and i worked together covering former president s. It used to be documentary photographer, they would do certain events and hand out certain events and put out press releases. Now because of the growing technology with the internet with twitter and flicker facebook and the whitehouse. Gov site, theyve used that more and more to release pictures that pete takes and other photographers, chuck, lawrence jackson. Their pictures are seven out all sent out all the time. Weve been asking for more access. Hopefully well get it in the coming year. President obama said one of his new years resolutions was to be nicer to the press. So hopefully this will be part of it. You yourself talked to the president about this . Off the record, yes. I have talked to him very briefly. Is he aware of it . Hes very aware of it. Hes aware of the situation and he understands it. He feels like a lot of people that pete is not the story. Pete is there and he is the photographer who does all of these wonderful takes. Unfortunately a lot of pictures hes been putting out, we havent had access to. We just went on the website today which is back in december. I want to show you what pete souzas photographs look like. What will be the difference between what you do and what he does . Pete has unlimited access. Pete follows the president around. Hes probably spends more time with the president than anybody in the west wing. He goes to a lot of the meetings that are private and some of the meetings that are put out on the schedule that are private. Sometimes they release photos of him. Because we see so many of these released photos now, we are asking for more access to meetings we normally would get or that we would want access to. Some of the photos you showing there, we dont have that behind the scenes access. Thats some of the things were asking for. We do like having behind the scenes access on a one on one because with white house photographer with pete. Thats been given in the past early in the previous administration. First four years of his term there was some access. As we roll into the second one, hopefully there will be more. But we are not looking at following pete around every day and trying to go into every meeting. Its the daytoday business that the president does. The bill signings. There are meetings he has with news makers all time that seem to not be getting access to. Pete souza was on our program when he had a book on the campaign in about lets take a 2008. Look what he looks like and sounds like. Well, the book really started with assignment from the chicago tribune. When senator obama was first elected to the senate. A reporter and i extensively documented his first year in the senate in 2005. I continued my coverage after that. Why did you choose this photo here for the cover . I dont know, its kind of a symbolic iconic image. Mr. Smith goes to washington and senator obama goes to washington. I think looking back on it now, you will never see a picture like that of him. Running up the steps of the senate by its himself. Pete souza also worked in the reagan administration. He did. How can you do both administrations. Is the job of photography all political . I dont think it is. Obviously he worked for ronald reagan. I remember when we worked for ronald reagan. We saw him on the streets all the time, at the white house. I dont think its political. I think he and the president have a great relationship, president obama, a unique relationship. They are very close. Obviously, they spend so much time together. I think he has had more than anybody else. You were here about five years ago, a little over five years ago. What have you been doing . Covered the olympics every year. Love the winter, summer olympics. Getting ready to head off to sochi for the Winter Olympics here next month. Then, lets see, i covered world series, super bowls, using a lot of the new technology that the New York Times has for covering games and big events. Obviously just been covering the white house a lot and capitol hill. Lets start looking at some of your photos. Weve got a whole bunch of them and you can explain as much as you can about each one of them. Were going to start the photo of you coming out of the helicopter. Where is this . I believe that was in south africa. President obama recent trip to south africa. The one where he went before the Nelson Mandela funeral. Who took this photo . One of my colleagues in another helicopter. Thats myself and jason reid , reuters photographer, jumping out with all of our gear running to another event. How much is hanging around your neck there . I have three cameras, two digital cameras and one for shooting video. Yes, the more the job comes, the more is put on us. Shooting video, instagram, twitter. Our job has evolved a lot. The photo of you at the swearing in with the oval office. Was that the second time . Yes it was. A remote camera. I had that actually it was a pool camera, i had it clamped to a light stand in the room. I was probably about 15 or 20 feet away firing with a pocket wizard. How many people were there in the room with you . There were four photographers total and i think probably four Television Crews. How do you get from that oval office to the shot of the m walking down pennsylvania avenue . The swearing in was the day before. It was unique this time because the president sworn in on monday, this was the swearing in took place on sunday and then the next day we had the swearing in ceremony up at the capitol. Heres a photograph of them wavering to the crowd. How do you move under those circumstances . I was on a jump truck. I was a pool photographer for a jump truck. Along with a lot of the wire photographers. I was able to jump off when the president got out of his car. They had a predetermined place that he was going to jump or get out the car. We really didnt know ahead of time. We only thought were guessing where we was going to get out. I was able to jump off with a camera crew from cbs and we were able to walk with him. Until he got back in the car. Photograph here of the inauguration. One of my favorite pictures. Why . How did you do that . It was up in a balcony. It was probably the last event of the night. It was the last dance of the night. Last ball and you see all the little white lights down there. Thats kind of my competition. Thats people down there with their cell phones and cameras. But it was to me, you look back in 2013 and that picture wasnt that long ago. It seems like its washington had such a busy year. So the inauguration seems like it was eons ago. Here is the here is a photograph of hillary clinton. Where were you when this was taken . She was up on capitol hill. She was secretary of state and seeing john mccain there. Obviously they have a unique relationship too. I really think they respect each other a lot. You can really tell by the embrace that she was given. Senator flake there on the left from arizona. How often do you hear people say things . Personal things, when you are that close to them . A lot. On capitol hill you hear a lot of things. There was a controversy this time when senator mccain and photographers were up in the elevated spots, senator mccain was playing on his phone and one of the photographers tweeted out a picture of it. We can see notes. We obviously dont photograph the notes. We dont try and read them. You hear a lot of things that are off the record. Any time youre behind the scenes, spent some time behind the scenes with president obama during the campaign for reelection. You hear a lot of things that you cant repeat. Who says you cant repeat . The white house. Thats part of the agreement when go behind the scenes as a photographer, youre there to see, not hear and not listen and not really repeat anything that you hear. Its kind of a mutual agreement because we are let into meetings when youre behind the scenes that are sensitive. I was there when president obama was at a rally and at the same time, the hurricane had just come up the east coast and it was up in north. He was on the phone on a secure phone talking to fema director trying to organize it at the same time he was trying to run the campaign. Really unique time to be in there and hear him in a really heated or serious conversation about what was going on the ground and organizing that. On the other side of the wall people are banging four more years. Its a unique time. Anytime you are behind the scenes with the president. Heres a photograph i assume on capitol hill with senator schumer and senator mccain in the middle there and senator durbin on the right and senator menendez. How often do we see these photo s . Not very often. It is probably the first time this crew has been together. Theres a lot of power in that photograph there. The play makers on the hill. Senator schumer, mccain, durbin and menendez and rubio now has become such a player. When they get together for a press conference, it is unique. How many shots do you take in order to get that one . I probably shot a hundred. I was moving around different sides of the room. I was able to go outside the backdoor and look at different angles. You try to pick up nuances where they are talking to each other. While senator rubio is speaking. Those two obviously have a unique relationship, too senator mccain and senator schumer. You had photographs of gabrielle giffords. Where was that . She testified up on the hill when Gun Legislation was brought before the senate. Really powerful hearing to hear her testify obviously being a victim, tragically shot the way she has and the way she come back. Her husband has been such a huge supporter. Really emotional hearing there. Another photograph coming up here shows Wayne Lapierre at the table with others. What do you see here when you take a photo like this . You see the difference whats being brought to the senate. The law and the legislation that is bringing brought being brought. You have people who are either very conservative or liberal when it comes to gun rights. Youre looking for little moments during a hearing like that that shows both of them. Obviously, lapierre took a lot of heat in that hearing and took a lot of just nonstop combative arguments. He was trying to defend himself in the Gun Legislation. You taking note youre doing video and youre doing narrating and youre on the New York Times website. When did that start . That started about two years ago. It just evolved. The New York Times website is a phenomenal website. Now they are looking for more video of some of the things that i cover and we have such a great video crew up in new york. Any time theres something going on in washington where looks like a news maker or something that will be happening that they can use video, theyll shoot me an email see doug i saw this on your early list. Because every morning i send up a list to let them know what they are doing. Then they can look at that and say, i really love to have a video clip of that. Or can you shoot system video some video from this event. Do you mind doing it . At first, it was a lot of pressure to do it. Then, i dont know how i came up with the idea, i thought about if i can do both at the same time that would be great. The iphone quality at the time was not the video was not as good, it was a little tighter lens. A little too much focal length. I thought about trying to mount another camera on top of my digital camera below. Looked around on the internet to try to come up with an idea to mount it. I found it. My first crack at it was Roger Clemens appearing in federal court. From there, i found its so useful. Producers in new york loved it and loved having the video clips. Lets look at that video with Roger Clemens. Thats in 2011 . Right. Well show this a second. You got two cameras . I got two cameras. I got a lot of requests from sports. Sports wanted it for the first for the front page. Then video said, oh my gosh, time cast was coming on. They want to get a clip of 15 or 30 seconds of him arriving. I tried it for the first time there. You are thinking video and stills at the same time, but now its become something i think about all the time. Oh, i wish i had video now and im glad i have both so im able to mount a camera on top of my regular digital camera. Heres the Roger Clemens video. [video clip] good morning. Its not very dramatic but there was a time when there will be two or three people from a Major Network shoot that. You are right. I bought a clamp and i am able to put up this camera and i shoot the video with this camera. Then i can look through and still shoot the regular film digital camera picture here. How heavy is that . Its a little heavy. Ive been in some scrums and havent had trouble with it. But, yes, its heavy. What kind of cameras are those . Both are canons. Got a d1x on the bottom mark 2 on the top. That package cost how much . Together probably about 20,000. Is there going to be a time when just take your stills off the motion . That would be great. Thats possibly in the next generation i think that is something that people will look at. Still videos. You can still take a still off that. The quality not that good. The quality is just not that good. Ive done it only once. It wasnt published. I wanted to find out what the next step is in this process if i can do it. Ive tried it. Its there and you can pull it out but its not great. Its so much different than shooting a real still picture. So five years ago when youre here, you were shooting a canon. I wrote it down somewhere what kind you had. Probably a marked 3 or mark 2. I remember the number four on there. Or mark four. Whats the difference between those cameras then and those cameras now . The speed. The d1x now is probably the best camera a photographer can put in his hands. Why . Its the quality. The j peg size and the digital imagery. It shoots video also. How much video . I can shoot i can put a 32 gig card in there up to 30 minute or an hour. Its phenomenal. The quality youre seeing it more and more in reality tv shows theyre using these slrs. Slr stand for . Single lens reflex. Its really come a long ways. I think the other camera that ill take the bottom one, the d1x i take to the olympics, i use it at the white house and capitol hill shoots about eight to ten frames a second. Thats hard to beat. In the autofocus is phenomenal. Lets look at some more of your still photos. Ken salazar hugs obama is the title of this one. Where is this . This was when he was leaving. He said his goodbyes and he was at the white house and president obama was giving him an hug to giving him a hug to thank him for his service. I think hes back off to colorado. What would distinguish your photo from your colleague Steve Crowley at the New York Times . Steve is a phenomenal photographer. I love working with him. He and i like great thing you hear compliments around town when somebody will say, you guys you compliment each other every day. You can tell doug mills picture, you can still a Steve Crowley picture. He has an unique eye. I learned a lot watching his work. Hes great to work with and its phenomenal to be able to think that both of us can be at the same event and have two totally different views of the event. Thats the great thing about washington. Theres so many photographers in this city. Great photographers. And everybody has a unique eye. You land in this city, you work really hard and everybody brings to it something different. That is the great thing about the city. Why do you think the white house has worked so hard to keep the still photographers away from some of the shots and have done their own thing . Why . Yes. I dont think i dont know. They say its the advent of the internet. I think its obviously muchers much easier for them not to include us in. Not letting the photographers in or letting the pool in. The 13person pool. I think its probably become easier. You obviously can control the message. The white house photographer takes the picture and someone approves it. They know exactly what picture is going out on the internet. And what everybody is going to look at that picture and think. Whereas when a new photographer takes a picture, you look at it totally different. It is an unfiltered eye and its something that hopefully well describe what exactly happened in those meetings or happened at an event. Heres a photograph of michelle obama. Do you remember where this was taken . I think she was at one of the d. C. High school. The story i remember getting an email something about her hairdo. Shes photogenic as the president. Hard not to make a good picture of them. John kerry. John kerry, secretary of state. Do these people ever object to these closeup shots . No. Some of them dont. They may see the length of the the lens that you have on them. Jeff sessions and the president. Look like theyre having fun. Theyre not in the same party. I remember tweeting that out. Got a lot of funny comments about it. How often thats Elizabeth Warren senator from , massachusetts, what were you look