Obama Farewell: A Look At Barack Obama's Presidency
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Obama Farewell: A Look At Barack Obama's Presidency
1. Flexing with Superman before today's trick-or-treat at the White House. Superman is Walker Earnest, son of press secretary Josh Earnest.
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2. October 2010. The President and First Lady wait to be introduced before a mid-term campaign rally.
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3. December 2010. Economic meeting on a Sunday.
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4. Signing mementos backstage in North Carolina earlier this week. iPhone.
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5. December 2010. Bo tags along at a holiday reception.
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6. February 2011. Waiting in the kitchen area for the VP to introduce the President into the State Dining Room.
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7. March 2011. The President greets Halle Major who's Make-A-Wish was to meet him.
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8. May 2011. Greeting people affected by the tornado in Missouri.
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9. June 2011. On the colonnade with the VP.
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10. June 2011. Stopping by a daycare center after a parent-teacher conference at his daughter's school.
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11. Labor Day, 2011.
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12. Sept. 11, 2011. President and Mrs. Obama at the site of Flight 93 crash.
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13. November 2011. Aboard Air Force One over Australia.
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14. December 2011. Disembarking from Marine One.
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15. October 2011. Visiting the MLK Memorial with the family.
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16. December 2011. Headed with Bo to do some Christmas shopping. Really. We went to PetSmart and Best Buy.
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17. December 2011. With troops at Fort Bragg. New interview just posted by NBC; link in profile.
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18. Honored that this photograph from May 2011 was included in Time's 100 most influential images of all time. Link to all 100 photographs: 100photos.time.com
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19. January 2012. Before his State of the Union address, President Obama hugs Rep. Gabby Giffords almost exactly a year after she was shot in the head, along with many others, at a constituents meeting in Arizona.
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20. President Obama with kids from the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. Gallery from our 52nd and last foreign trip now posted. Link in profile.
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21. That moment before the handshake as the President congratulates Bruce Springsteen prior to today's Medal of Freedom ceremony. @springsteen
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22. As requested by some of my followers: President Obama with the one and only Michael Jordan at yesterday's Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony. And for those that complained I posted two photos of @springsteen , can I just say that Bruce Springsteen is the Michael Jordan of rock and roll concerts.
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23. June 2012. POTUS and Bo.
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24. July 2012. Meeting with the Cabinet.
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25. July 2012. Kissing for the kiss cam.
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26. July 2012. In The Beast, receiving an update on the shootings in Aurora, Colorado.
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27. July 2012. "Anybody want to try my strawberry pie."
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28. October 2012. The Getaway. That day the President jumped in Roberts Gibbs' new Chevy Volt and took it for a spin around the South Grounds.
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29. November 2012. Denver, Colorado.
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30. November 2012. President Obama poses in front of the 368-foot tall Shwedagon pagoda in Burma (Myanmar). To some, this may seem just a snapshot. But to me it evokes what our trip to Burma was all about. Here is the President of the United States, shoes and socks off in respect, posing like a Western tourist in front of the oldest pagoda in the world in a country that no American President had ever been able to visit.
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31. February 2013. Visiting a pre-kindergarten classroom in Decatur, Georgia.
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32. March 2013. Waiting for a rain shower to pass.
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33. April 2013. Greeting a young Crimson Tide fan after a celebration for the University of Alabama championship football team at the White House.
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34. May 2013. Last minute editing of a speech.
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35. May 2013. Another impromptu meeting. Note for the photo geeks: one of the benefits of my access is the luxury of time. Time to try and frame my photograph in an optimal way. My camera is always on the silent mode so I'm somewhat stealth as I make photographs in the Oval. Plus people by now are so used to me always being around. So I can make slight adjustments in where I stand, sit or in this case, kneel for the right angle, without interfering what is taking place. I try to position myself so as I look through the viewfinder the background directly behind the President is not too distracting. In this photo, I also was consciously trying to line up Lincoln, Washington and the Emancipation Proclamation so they were all visible in the background. And then I waited for a moment while continuing to watch my background in case there were slight movements sideways by the President's aides.
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36. May 2013. "Jack, it's a nice day, let's meet outside." Or something along those lines. That's how the President's scheduled meeting with Treasury Secretary was moved from the Oval Office to the Rose Garden.
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37. June 2013. Bo and a visitor.
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38. August 2013. Women's Rights National Historic Park.
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39. September 2013.
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40. August 2013. Three Presidents.
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41. October 2013. The President hugs NBA Hall of Famer Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics after viewing his statue which was to be unveiled the next day at City Hall.
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42. March 2014. Listening to the President's heartbeat.
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43. This family. What can I say. What an honor to have photographed them for eight years. A couple of months ago, the Social Office came to me and said they were thinking of using a family photo for this year's White House holiday card. So I thought of Justin Trudeau. I know you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about. Earlier this year we hosted the Canadian Prime Minister for a formal State Dinner. Malia and Sasha attended as guests. Before the dinner, I did a family photo in the White House residence. But later, when the Trudeaus arrived, the two families spent some time on the Truman Balcony with their respective delegations. At one point, the Prime Minister asked if we could do a photo of he and his wife with the Obama family. Click, click, click. Then, he said I should do a photo of just the Obama's. I could have said, "sir we already did one before you arrived." But instead, I clicked off a few quick frames. And lo and behold, it was this picture that Justin Trudeau asked me to take which everyone loved as the choice for the 2016 White House holiday card.
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44. "Hey (hey) ho (ho)....Tell me what I'd say". Starting to go through my edit for the annual Year In Photos and I can still hear the President singing along with Sam Moore and Usher during a salute to Ray Charles. A great memory but not sure the photo will make it in. What you'd say? Yes? No? Maybe?
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45. Still editing for the annual Year in Photographs. Always liked this one from our visit to Midway Atoll but not sure it will make the final cut.
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46. Editing for Year in Photographs (which will be posted after Christmas). Here the President makes an iPhone photo while hiking in Argentina. Not sure if this will make my final cut.
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47. Still culling down my annual Year in Photographs. Here the President takes a photo of David Simas (with David's iPhone) in front of the Golden Gate Bridge just after we had landed on the Marine One helicopter.
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48. Culling down my Year in Photographs. These two are in my loose edit. The top one shows the President drinking tap water in Flint, Michigan after a panel discussion on the tainted water supply. He had also sipped water in front of the television cameras but I felt this was more of a genuine moment after the press had departed. The bottom photo is him drinking a beer while filming a food segment with Anthony Bourdain in Vietnam. Although the top photo is symbolically important and the bottom one received a lot of attention at the time, my inclination is to not include either in my final edit. Let me know if you agree or disagree.
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49. Editing for Year in Photographs. Interesting light at the Resolute desk both in February, at left, and October. Curious if people have a preference for either.
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50. President Obama makes Christmas Eve calls to U.S. Troops stationed overseas.
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51. Wrapping up the final edit for my annual Year in Photographs. Here's one that almost made it in, the President trying to beat personal aide Ferial Govashiri at chess. But there's a better picture coming of the two when I post my final edit on Dec. 30.
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52. President Obama and Prime Minister Abe of Japan talk while on the Commander's boat en route to the USS Arizona Memorial today.
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53. Coming tomorrow: my annual Year in Photographs. This one of the President with Evie Cushman will certainly be included.
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54. This will be the lead-off photo in my 2016 Year in Photographs, which I will be posting tomorrow morning. I will include the backstory on this and many other photos. Look for the link in my profile.
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55. See link in my profile for my 2016 Year in Photographs. It's sometimes difficult to explain how my editing process works. It's important to include some variety showing the President at both work and play. And hopefully some of these photographs in the final edit are the best ones I've taken throughout the year. I included this one of the Obama family visiting the new African American Museum of History and Culture even though it may not be among my "best". But, to me, it is an important photograph for this time in history. The fact that this museum opened while this family was living at the White House; how great is that. Historically. Symbolically. Maybe even emotionally.
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56. This one of POTUS and some guy on the White House basketball court made the 2016 Year in Photographs. Link in profile.
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