obama

Twitter’s Photo Cropping Algorithm Draws Heat for Possible Racial Bias

Back in January of 2018, Twitter introduced an auto-cropping AI that detects the most interesting part of your image and crops the 'preview' photo to match. This works with everything from airplane wings to people, but as one engineer showed this weekend, it may suffer from some inherent bias.

Pete Souza Looks Back on 1.9 Million Photos of Obama

NPR's Fresh Air just aired this fantastic 30-minute interview (here's a transcript) with Pete Souza, the Chief Official White House Photographer for U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. In it, Souza reflects on 8 years of capturing Obama's presidency, creating an archive of over 1.9 million photos during that time.

White House Photog Pete Souza Looks Back at Iconic Photos

Pete Souza, the former Chief Official White House Photographer during the Obama administration, returned to Ohio University in March this year to present a selection of images from his time photographing the President. His images and commentary are in the 26-minute video above.

How I Managed to Photograph Obama on a Beach in 2008

In the fall of 2008, Barack Obama had just become the Democratic candidate and was heavily favored to win the White House to become the first African American President of the United States. His popularity created media frenzy as the world was thirsty to learn more about the young Senator from Illinois. Because Obama was a presidential candidate, a media corps began to follow and report on Obama’s every move.

Trump Accidentally Used 2009 Obama Inauguration Photo on @POTUS Twitter

People following the handoff of the coveted @POTUS Twitter account from former President Obama to newly sworn-in President Trump were treated to a bit of a gaff this morning. It seems the Trump administration accidentally used a photo from President Obama's inauguration in 2009 as Trump's new Twitter header.

The White House Flickr Account Just Changed Hands from Obama to Trump

Flickr sent out a message to followers of the White House account today that says, more or less, "Say a fond farewell to Pete Souza." The account that Souza used to chronicle 8 years of the Obama Administration is changing hands. Starting today, the Trump Administration takes over.

Listen to DSLR Shutters Drowning Out Trump’s Meeting with Obama

President-elect Trump met with President Obama for the first time this week, and the short press conference afterward can be seen in the 3-minute video above. But politics aside, the video has people talking for a different reason: everyone's pointing out how loud and obnoxious the press photographers' DSLRs are.

Powerful Photo of President Obama Being Updated on Orlando Shooting

As Barack Obama nears the end of his 8-year tenure as President of the United States, White House photographer Peta Souza has been looking back at the nearly 2 million photos he's taken of the sitting president. But Souza may have only yesterday taken his most widely-seen photo of the president... a photo he likely wishes he never had to take.

I Was Invited to Photograph at the White House

On March 10th, 2016, I woke up with great expectations: I was heading to the White House to photograph Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and American President Barack Obama.

President Obama Crashes Wedding Photographs

San Diego-based wedding photographers Jeff and Erin Youngren got an unexpected surprise this past weekend after President Obama stepped into the scene. The wedding was at the Torrey Pines golf course in San Diego, and Obama happened to be playing a round of golf on Sunday.

The White House is Shooting with a Sony a7R II Now

Guess who's shooting with a Sony a7r II camera now? Chief Official White House photographer Pete Souza.

The latest photo posted to the official White House Flickr photostream shows that Souza used the highly-regarded Sony mirrorless camera to photograph President Obama talking to Cuba President Raúl Castro in the Oval Office in mid-September.

Yes, Even President Obama Uses a Selfie Stick Now

President Obama embarked on a three-day tour of the Alaskan Arctic this week to bring attention to the issue of climate change. To document his adventure and share it with the world, Obama carried along a GoPro camera and a selfie stick.

NJ Cop: Constitutional Right to Take Pictures in Public Null Because ‘Obama Has Decimated the Friggin’ Constitution’

A New Jersey police officer is making headlines for how he responded Monday to a resident taking pictures in a public building. When the resident, one Steve Wronko, explained that it was his constitutional right, the officer told Wronko that "Obama has decimated the friggin' constitution, so ... if he doesn't follow the constitution, we don't have to."

Breaking: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney Resigns

Jay Carney, the White House Press Secretary who has taken much of the heat for the Obama Administration's less-than-open policies that have kept photographers out of major events, announced his resignation today during a press conference.

Reality Show President: An Exposé on the Battle Between the Press and White House

Since late 2013, the White House and the White House Press Corps have clashed several times over. We've covered this briefly in the past, but if you're still not sure what's going on, how it came to be and why exactly members of the press have gone so far as to call the administration's policies regarding press access "Orwellian," this exposé by ReasonTV may help clear things up for you.

Chief White House Photog Pete Souza is Now an Instagrammer

How do you take the next step after rising from humble newspaper shooter to chief official photographer for the White House? You start sharing pictures of your lunch, of course.

At least that's the strategy for Oval Office documentarian Pete Souza, who opened his new Instagram account Wednesday with an image of healthy snacks aboard Air Force One.

The Humorous Photobombs Dropped at Obama’s Inauguration

Here's a bit of lighthearted humor as we heat up the bloggin' machine today: at the second inauguration of Barack Obama this past Monday, a number of humorous photobombs were spotted in the live television coverage and in the press photos that emerged afterward. A few of them have the web talking (and laughing).

In the photograph above by Jim Bourg of Reuters, we see New York Senator Chuck Schumer photobombing during the oath of office.

A Time-Lapse of President Obama with Photos from the Past Four Years

For his project Presidial.org, Chicago-based artist Jeremy Tubbs collected random news photographs of Barack Obama captured between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2012, aligned them, and then turned them into the above time-lapse video. The 2,500+ photographs were scraped from various online sources and are arranged in chronological order.

Photographing the President Overseas: A “Giant Chaotic Moving Game of Chess”

Reuters has released this interesting behind-the-scenes look into what it was like to be a news photographer trailing President Obama as he made an official visit to the nation of Myanmar in November -- the first by a US president. The video offers a glimpse into how hectic the job is, as photographers must rush from place to place, out of vans and into venues, in hopes of capturing a historic and newsworthy shot.