My Instagram accounts (both of them) have gone a little fallow in recent years. That’s partly due to the pandemic’s effect on my outside activities and field reporting.
Another reason is that posting to Instagram doesn’t seem to provide the same dopamine hit that comes with sharing photos on TikTok or even Twitter. I think Instagram and Facebook should be worried about that.
But while looking for images to illustrate this new site, I’ve been going through some of the older photos on my personal and work accounts. Here are 10 of my favorites and a handful of runners-up.
1. This cat on the hood of our vehicle outside Mosul, Iraq.
I took this photo when we stopped at a staging area in the town of Bartella, outside Mosul, during the nine-month battle to retake the city from the Islamic State in 2016-2017. Something about the light feels vaguely accidental Renaissance-like.
2. These four men on a motorbike outside Irbil, Iraq.
I love the movement in this photo, but I also love the sheer sense of danger captured here. I took this while traveling south of Irbil to a Kurdish military base with my “fixer” (a translator and local guide who aided my reporting). A lot of my field reporting time consists of rolling around in cars on roads through war zones or places adjacent to war zones. The “too many men on a motorcycle” scene is a recurring motif.
Danger is relative, I guess.
This is a photo I took near Kabul, Afghanistan, of three men on a motorbike. I couldn’t believe the driver was texting.
3. This photo of a man getting on the bus in Los Angeles.
It’s possible I like this more for story than for its actual photographic merits, but it makes me miss living in a large American city. I caught so many intimate snippets of people’s lives while walking or traveling on public transit. I took this one while returning from a weekend trip to Santa Monica.
Here’s 👇 another photo from the bus, along with my original caption. There’s something vaguely like living in a PostSecret or Found Magazine post in these moments.
And here’s 👇 a similar slice of life that made my heart swell with a sense of love for humanity.
4. That time I went to a Star Wars burlesque and got turned on by Lando Calrissian and/or Shaft.
Before I left Los Angeles, I couldn’t pass up the chance to see a Star Girls Burlesque show (their next event appears to be in August in Pasadena, Calif.). It did not disappoint.
If you’re not familiar with modern burlesques, you might be thinking it’s just stripping or titallation, but that’s not quite accurate.
There are elements of strip tease, but there’s no actual nudity and the focus is more the creativity the dancers bring to their performances. As L.A. Weekly puts it, “it’s become an undeniably empowering form of expression for the women who do it and a unique form of entertainment for an avid fan base that goes way beyond the turn-on.”
I went to see this show after hearing about it while covering the premier of one of the Star Wars sequels in Burbank. My plan was to see about pitching a story about it to my editors at the Los Angeles Times Community News, but that never panned out.
I took several photos and videos of the event and its fans, but my favorite moment was the one above, in which Lux LaCroix made me feel a whole different way about Lando in a risque portrayal that seemed to mash-up the Baron Administrator of Cloud City with that complicated man no one understands but his woman (John Shaft). Her costume was amazing.
5. These adorable Burbank residents who celebrated 75 years of marriage in their 90s.
As far as I know, Stephen and Rose Marchese re still together and living in Burbank. A little over six years ago, I interviewed them for the Burbank Leader, the suburban insert of the Los Angeles Times. That would mean they’ve now been together 81 years. Stephen shared his advice for the longevity of their marriage in this video, featuring the excellent Los Angeles Times Community News photo editor Raul Roa.
6. A random photo of a flyer on a bus seat.
I’m perhaps at risk of sharing too many photos from aboard an L.A. bus, but I just like the light and color framed in darkness.
7. This photo from one of my cross-country moves.
I’ve criss-crossed the country numerous times on road trips and while moving. This one is from my move from Phoenix while in grad school at Arizona State University back to Illinois, then to Washington to cover the Arizona legislative delegation and other stuff for Cronkite News Service’s D.C. bureau. While it’s maybe a little fuzzy, I like the light and early morning mist. America is a beautiful place.
8. This moody selfie from my hotel room in northern Iraq while covering the battle for Mosul.
I’m not normally a fan of selfies, but I really liked the light in this reflection when I looked up from a story I was writing in my hotel in Irbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdish region, in January 2017. At the time, U.S.-backed Iraqi forces were several months into the grueling fight to retake Mosul from the Islamic State, which had occupied it for more than two years.
A runner up in the selfie category is this one from Los Angeles. Also a reflection. Fittingly, at a Chipotle restaurant.
9. This shot of the iconic Iwo Jima flag raising photo through the AP logo on frosted glass
This was shot I took at The Associated Press bureau in Portland, Ore., on the second day of my legislative temp job with the wire service in 2014. It was my first “real” journalism job after graduate school. I thought the image was a cool connection between journalism and the Marine Corps, fitting for my background.
10. Sunset in Barcelona
Runners up.
None of these were worthy enough for this list, but I like looking at them for the memories they conjure.
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