First of all the headline is a bit misleading. At least in referring to me.

There was not much planning that went into trying to photograph the perigee moonrise on Saturday night. My wife, Jenny, said something about it while we where hanging out Saturday morning surfing the web on our laptops. The weather was going to be nice, and I thought, why not?

My first plan was to try to shoot it from the Lincoln Memorial and put the Washington Monument and the Capitol in the foreground. After thinking about the parking logistics and realizing that the moon may not rise in that narrow window, I decided on the park around the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington just across the river. This provides the same line of sight down the National Mall, and allows for more leeway.

We arrived at about 6:00 giving about 1 1/2 hours until moonrise. The park was already filling up with photographers and tripods. Obviously this was not an original idea on my part. HA!

The majority of the photographers were clustered near the Carillon tower south of the Marine Corps Memorial, which offers an almost direct line of sight down the Mall. I asked a couple of the photographers if they knew where the moon would rise in relation to the Mall and everyone was pretty much in agreement that it should be very near the line of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol. A few photographers even had iPhone apps that seemed to confirm it.

So much for planning and technology.

When the time came the moon rose way off the line we were hoping for. If you look at the photo below taken about 20 minutes before moonrise, the point where it was to come up over the horizon is about 2/3 of the way between the Lincoln Memorial and the right side of the image. In other words, we were not even close.

So, time to scramble. I did a few quick images of the moon starting to appear and then headed to find another vantage point. Nothing ended up being ideal, but at least it was not a wasted trip.

I think the lesson here is always have a backup plan.

Mother Jones has published images from the essay I did on an Old Order Mennonite family I had the honor of getting to know while I was still living in Harrisonburg, Virginia and working at the Daily News-Record.

For more on the essay: Mennonites in Black (Click here).

The Wall Street Journal picked up 4 of my images from Saturday’s busy day on Capitol Hill for their slideshow on the Dream Act failing to pass in the Senate.

Link here: Busy Weekend on Capitol Hill

Working on the weekend at the Capitol. Lots of big votes going on. The DREAM Act failed a procedural vote in U.S. Senate to halt debate and move to a final vote. The DREAM Act would have created a path to citizenship for some illegal immigrants who entered the country as children. The vote failed by 55-41.

More images can be found on my archive here: DREAM Act Fails in Senate (Click here)

The Senate voted 65-31 to repeal the ban on gays in the military. The vote is a major victory for gay rights and an end to the 17-year old “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The bill will now be sent to President Barack Obama, who plans to sign it into law.

Mother Jones has picked up a photo of mine for a story on the failed attempt in the Senate to ban earmarks. The photo, shot at the “elevator stakeout” at the Capitol outside of the Senate Chambers, is of moderate Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe who had voted against the earmark moratorium in March but voted for the ban this time around.

Story and photo can be found on Mother Jones website (click here).

The Guardian is reporting that Rupert Murdoch, head of the News Corp, and Steve Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, are about to unveil a new digital ‘newspaper’ at the end of this month. The “newspaper,” is designed exclusively for new tablet-style computers such as Apple’s iPad.

“According to reports, there will be no ‘print edition’ or ‘web edition;’ the central innovation, developed with assistance from Apple engineers, will be to dispatch the publication automatically to an iPad or any of the growing number of similar devices. With no printing or distribution costs, the US-focused Daily will cost 99 cents a week,” Edward Helmore reports for The Guardian.

With major magazines launching iPad based versions of their publications and now this experiment into a daily newspaper that will be pushed to tablet based devices, photographers may be finding themselves having familiar outlets for their work. With no issue of space as in traditional printed publications, photographers may be finding an increased demand for photography and multimedia content.

This is really starting to get interesting.

More on the story can be found on the Guardian’s website here: Rupert Murdoch creates ‘iNewspaper’ – with the help of Steve Jobs

Newsweek has a story on Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL), who will be returning to Florida after Marco Rubio’s win. They used a photo I shot earlier this year.

The story, which is very interesting, can be found on www.newsweek.com.

I covered Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-N.Y.) appearing before an Adjudicatory Subcommittee hearing For Politico. The hearing is to determine whether any alleged ethics violations he committee can be proven by clear and convincing evidence. Although it was expected to last a week, the schedule changed when he left the hearing after the ethics panel rejected his motion to postpone the trial.

You can read the story on Politico.com.

Newsweek has used a photo I shot recently of Gen. Peter Chiarelli, vice chief of staff of the Army, as he testifed on Capitol Hill before the Senate Armed Services committee hearing on the progress in preventing military suicides and challenges in detection and care of the invisible wounds of war.

The photo accompanies a story about the Army vice chief of staff explaining “why inconclusive science is complicating the treatment of wounded warriors.”

The story, ‘We Just Don’t Know’, can be found on www.newsweek.com.

Mother Jones used an image of mine from earlier this year for a story about how conservative businessman Ron Johnson, the Wisconsin GOP candidate, defeated “Senate liberal legend” Russ Feingold.

For the story click here: Climate Denier Ron Johnson Topples Russ Feingold (Mother Jones).