Michelle kept her promise...

On November 11th, 2009, First Lady Michelle Obama made a challenge to the student body of George Washington University and that was to complete 100,000 hours of volunteering by the end of the academic year. If this was completed she would speak at their commencement in the spring. The student body met that challenge and complete over 106,000 hours. With that being done Ms. Obama kept her end of the bargain, speaking at the commencement and receiving a Honorary Doctorate in public service on May 16th, 2010.

Signs of the recession still remain...

Last Thursday and Friday I was up in Gettysburg, Pa on assignment. I arrived the afternoon before to photograph around Gettysburg as it plays a major part in how our nation was shaped in the later part of the 19th century. I drove around for sometime finding nothing to photograph. Until I came across this movie theater that was on the outskirts of town. I drove around the entire theater and only found about three or four cars in the parking lot, which seemed odd for me as it was a Thursday evening around 7pm. Weren't families taking their kids out to see an early movie or a young couple on a date. Or was this one of the many signs that still remains of the recession and how it will take sometime for the small parts of this nation to feel the effects of the bailout. A newly constructed theater sits empty on a Thursday night.

Who would think that these two would be next to each other

It has been a while since I have posted on my blog. Last week I was covering a Atlantic Council dinner which saw Bono and Bill Clinton receive awards for their humanitarian work. What made the shot interesting was that Sen. John McCain was presenting Bono with his award. You wouldn't even imagine the two in the same room, but chatting it up at the dinner table was a very cool moment to witness.

The amplifier of Sound...

A little of this and a little of that

Here are some images from last week. I saw Dennis Quaid celebrate his birthday, congressmen sing with O.A.R., a few good men stand up for the arts and a law professor kiss his daughter.

Washington Teachers are one step closer to a new contract

WTU - Images by Kristopher Connor

In a recent facebook post, I wrote that I think as a DC based photojournalist. We can become lost in the world wind that surrounds the national and international political news scene that makes up DC. Covering congressional hearings, Fed Reserve press conferences and the occasional white house event. Spending our days standing on podiums or sitting in a well with a dozen of our peers right beside us...waiting.

Every once in a while, I try to step away from this scene and go back to my days covering local news. A place where you have a chance to interact with your subjects, your not competing with photographers for that shot that you hope will make it inside the covers of Time magazine. I think of Robert Capa's saying "If your pictures aren't good enough, then your not close enough." A place where your right on top of your subjects and able to get those shots that are not capable with a telephoto lens.

This is the reason I got into photojournalism....

These images are from a recent press conference I covered about the tentative agreement between the Washington Teachers' Union and District of Columbia Public School System that was attended by the Mayor of DC Adrian Fenty, Chancellor Michelle Rhee, and WTU President George Parker.

My dad

I guess as a photojournalist it become easier to do stories on people that we have no personal connections to...ones that we will hope to remember, but soon become forgotten as we move onto the next story, the next assignment. This is our craft to look at something with an outside eye..to make a connection that will make people want to pick up that magazine or newspaper or click on the link on a website.

I guess my family has become use to the site of hospital rooms over the years...for my brother it has become a place that he has seen since he was a baby not due to any medical condition that he has. Due to my achondroplasia with my first leg surgery starting at the age of five to correct bowing in my lower legs and then on to my limb lengthening that started when I was ten and that ended when I was 15 in the spring of 99.

We weren't barely out of the woods of my last surgery when it was my dad's turn to go under the knife. Having rods and screws inserted into his back to correct his scoliosis. At the time we thought it was going to be a one shot deal...go in and then come out the other side ready to go. But little did we know at the time it would be the beginning of ten years of him in out of hospitals dealing with infections, pain and complications.

So finally after almost ten years of operations, I decided that it is time to turn the camera inward and start documenting what my dad and family is going through.

Showing the story of a man who wasn't hit by IED or shot by a sniper in the desert of Iraq or Afghanistan at a young age as we see on the news everyday. A man who served 32 years in all four services, joining the Marine Corps at the tender age of 17. Running with 100 pound backpacks with steal tow boots long distances. He is not alone, at the time the military and the healthcare industry did not know what they know now about what a life in the military does to a man's body. Now issues are starting to come to light as many veterans and retires started to have issues with their bodies.

I have to say it is one of the hardest stories that I have worked on, its hard to document what your family goes through...