And sunday at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan3. Working with our cable affiliates as we explore america. This week on q and a, New York Times staff photographer, doug mills. Mr. Mills talks about covering President Trump and discusses some of the photos he took during and after the 2016 president ial election. New york times photographer, doug mills, your last visit back in 2013, you were photographing a lot of barack obama. What has changed in your life since then . President we have a who is not a politician in the white house and American People elected somebody who is a for us. It is a lot of work. We work nonstop. The president drives a new cycle hourly. Therefore it affects us everyday. The white house is quite an exciting place to work right now. Host how is it different . Doug from a photographer standpoint, we havent let more access to the president. I see have more on a daily basis and we did with barack obama. Sometimes three or four times per day. Sometimes five times a day. We are able to photograph him in different situations. Some meetings, will science, executive orders, things like that. There is a lot of travel involved. Not a lot of weekend travel other than to maralago or bedminster new jersey. It is exhausting. It is great. It is very exciting. I love what i am doing. I have the greatest job in the world. Being in the white house right now, every time i see someone that i havent seen in a while, that is what they ask. How has your life changed and what is different about it . It is very different. We worked nonstop. There is so many different pictures. I think photographing barack obama for eight years he was probably the most photogenic president in my generation. I look at the past year of footage graphing donald trump, he is the most iconic. You look at a picture of him from the front, side, back, you know who it is immediately. It is challenging. It is fun, i love photographing. Host here is a photo you took of donald trump sitting at his desk. When did you do that . Doug that was shortly after he took office. That was in february or march. There was a period where he was signing a lot of executive orders. Us having more access, we have been in the oval office more. You are able to be creative. I was able to put a camera up high in the air. I was waiting for them to bring the executive order over to him. I liked that picture better than the one with him with the actual papers in front of him. Host when you are on the scene, can you see the sweep of light on the desk, can you notice that . Doug i did. Other president s have kept more things on the desk at times. Sometimes it is blocked, i think this was an afternoon signing. The sun was coming in behind him, it cast that vignette. I remember looking at it when i pulled it up on the computer, it looked more dramatic than when i saw in person. Host you took the overhead shot which we also have. It has become your trademark, when did you start doing this and how do you do it . Doug i basically take a monopod, a single leg of a tripod, it has a connector on the top. Then i put a ball head on top of that which allows me to pivot the camera up and down to the side. I lifted up as high as it will go, probably 15 feet at the most. Then i am able to tilt it over. I cannot see, i am just trying to do a practice shot in the press room before i go out. I try and calculate what the distance is to prefocus. I am not using autofocus. I am prefocusing. I watch as he is gesturing or looking over. I think it is such a great, unique, view of the oval office or capitol hill. I think it really brings the reader into who is in the room and what is being orchestrated. Especially with everyone around him like that and having the right lens on. I love doing them. Host in our archive we have one from 1996, one from 2008, one from 2013, for those that have never seen any of these, bring us up to date how long you have been a still photographer. Doug i have been washington, d. C. A long time. I have covered the white house since Ronald Reagan when he was running for reelection. I have been there since 1983. I believe i have covered 18 different republican president s for 18 years. 16 years under the democrats. Host how many years with the times now . Doug i was with the associate press first. I was the chief photographer in washington. The last time you were here we talked about pete sousa, i think he was number one for a couple of weeks. Why do you think that book of photos has sold so well . Doug he is a brilliant photographer. He has a fantastic eye, he had the most access that any white house photographer had ever. You talk to other photographers who have been in that same job. I think pete had the most access. He clearly did a fantastic job of branding himself and branding his work. He stayed with the president all the time. He rarely took a day off. His colleagues did not have the same kind of access that he did. Therefore, he has been able to tap into a market obviously the book is selling like crazy. With all due respect, that work came at the expense of some of the access the press was not getting. Host that is what i wanted to ask you. You were kept out of the obama years, you went to bat for that. In the end, what did happen . Doug it changed. You go through different press secretaries and different communication directors. I think josh earnest did a great job of getting us back into the full and think more about pictures. There was a great team committed to that. There was a lot of controversy about the fact that we felt like we were being shut out. There were fax. Facts. We had plenty of examples that we were not allowed in, the white house was putting up their own instagram or twitter pictures, or putting it up on the website. They were excluding the press. We had, one that sticks out, it was memorial day. The president invited the oldest living africanamerican veteran to the white house. That sounds like it would be a great photo and great thing for the news media to see, and it was only done by the white house photographer and therefore it was put on instagram and twitter and so forth. Those were the things that really irritated me about that. Pete is a great photographer, he did a great job. I felt that at times we were on the short end of that because we were not allowed into every event that we are now. Host how would you describe the photographers that the white house has hired around President Trump compared to the others . Doug not a lot of different. Difference. The white house photographer for donald trump worked in the bush administration. There is another female photographer who worked for president bush on the first lady staff. I think she has two or three other and it is mostly a female staff. They are great. None of them are former photojournalists that were working as press photographers, much like the obama administration. Pete was a working press photographer. Lawrence jackson was a working photographer. You had Chuck Kennedy who was a working photographer in washington, d. C. They were working in d. C. And doing what we do every day. Host there is a photograph you took in front of the white house, what is that . Where is the president . Doug the president is on the south lawn of the white house. It was an event for unions and truckers. It was a normal event where the president got up and spoke at the podium. There were members of congress there. There were two tractortrailer sitting behind him as props. They filled up the frame nicely, they look great. At the end of it, i think a number of us were joking, wouldnt it be wild if he got into the cab. Everyone said he is not going to do that. Sure enough, he climbed up there and grabbed a hold of the wheel like he had road rage, and it was hilarious. It made for a great picture. It was not a side i have seen of him like that. Obviously, he was having fun, joking, you can see the members of congress there and other trucking officials who were taking pictures with their cell phones. Host if you are around him so much more than you expected, what do you see a close that we do not see on television or photos . Doug that is a great question. What do i see up close . Obviously, he enjoys having us around. I really believe despite his constant comments about fake news and the media, i really feel he enjoys having us around because it helps drive his message. It helps drives the news of the day which he can do and does do every day. He is constantly driving that message. Therefore, having us around really allows him to do that. I think he has personalities and reporters he looks to. When we are on air force one, he will come back and chat with us. And there are reporters that he has read their stories and speaks to them on a first name basis. He has not gotten to know photographers in the same way. He has only been in office one year. I think he knows who i am. I think he knows i worked for the New York Times. Host the failing New York Times. Doug the failing New York Times, exactly. Hurts, the New York Times is the greatest News Organization in the world. We do not put out fake news. That gets under my skin when i hear it. I think a lot of journalists feel that way. Host have you ever had a conversation with him . Doug for the white house news photographers contest, we were invited to the oval office to have our picture taken with him. There was a brief handshake. That was the first time i had ever shaken his hand. I think it was the first time i realized he knew who i was. He said something to the other photographers like, oh, he is really good. Watch out for him. I realized he knew who i was and who i worked for. It is definitely different, he is not a politician. Every time you are in the oval office, when he is around members of congress, to have a cabinet room photo op about immigration and be in their for about 55 minutes. We were flies on the wall negotiating the immigration bill. It was fascinating. It was unprecedented. Senator Lindsey Graham was sitting right in front of me while i was taking pictures. I said this is unbelievable, he said i know. It is remarkable. It is different. Host on that particular day, did they tell you this was going to happen . Doug we had no idea. We get the president schedule every day. The meetingstated was going to take place, but it said closed press. But a lot of times the president or someone on the senior staff says we have to get the media or the president will ask for the pool. He says a lot about where the principle pulled is, get them in, i want them in. Be a couplet would of minutes and we would get out. We stayed in for 55 minutes. It was remarkable. Host sure is a photograph of an important person in the white house, who is it and where did you get this photo . Doug this was taken during a meeting with members of congress. Sitting there with his hands up to his face was the chief of staff, john kelly, who i have gotten to know on a hello, nice to see you, sir at a couple of of the record events the white house has had. I have Great Respect for him. He is very nice to me, very kind. It was the first time, that is normally where the Vice President says. I think the Vice President was traveling that day. A lot of times when the Vice President is sitting in that seat, there is a secret Service Agent directly behind him. We are not allowed to have that kind of perspective, right over whoevers head is sitting directly across from the president. I didnt realize that and jumped there. Host is that normal that they do not let you have that kind of position . Doug it has happened during the Trump Administration where there i dont recall it happening during with Vice President biden and president obama sitting across from him, but now there is a lot more security. We see a lot more secret service around. The white house has a lot of new faces in the media. Therefore, there are a lot more secret Service Agents around plus the media. It seems tighter in that regard. Host who is the person in this photograph with a jacket over his head . Doug that was taken from one of s at the white house. The president and first lady were heading out. We saw his son, barron was up by the motorcade. Saw him walk across the lawn normally, we are not allowed to photograph any of the children. We always give them that respect that we arent going to photograph him unless the president is around. Because he was around and we thought he was leaving, the ball started rolling, i thought i should get this. As soon as the two boys saw the tv cameras, they put their jackets over their head. That made it kind of funny and different. Barron always has a secret Service Agent with them. Just like every member of the trump family and like every member of the obama family group they had constant secret service around. Barron has secret service with him in school. Host this is a unique photo. People can see your stuff independently on twitter. How do they do that . Doug they can go to my twitter handle. This picture was actually taken during that 55 minute meeting we had with immigration. It was the first time i ever saw the number 45 embroidered on his sleeve. I am always fascinated with his cufflinks. Arrayesident has a unique of cufflinks that i always try to photograph or get a detailed shot if we are in the meeting long enough. Ofause we are in their a lot times, we get to see these things. This was one, when i took it, i thought this is different and unique. Luckily, i did not tell my other colleagues because there are 810 photographers in the same room. I am using a newer camera. I am using a sony which is completely silent. I can be standing next to my colleagues and formally, they could hear me take pictures, now it is silent. That helps make that image. I think if i have been photographing while he was in speaking or Something Like that, so it helped. Host lets talk about the technology. The first time in 1996 you were shooting with a canon. Doug the models have changed every couple years. Host show us what is different, what are you using now . Doug it is a sony a9, it is a mirrorless camera. When you press the shutter, it does not go up and down. You wont hear any noise. I am taking pictures now. You can hear anything. Host lets hear what it sounds like. Doug you can see the red light going on. It is taking pictures but you will not be able to see it because it is completely silent. Host when did that come on the market . Doug earlier in the year, i have been using it now probably about eight months. I was asked to try it out and see what i think that i have been a canon photographer for 35 years, probably more than that. My first camera was a canon, they do not make a mirrorless camera. Sony came to me and asked if i would be willing to try it and see what i thought. I picked it up, i played with it for a few hours. I remember saying to one of the technicians that this is a game changer. I want to use this camera. Host how does it change the game . Doug one because it is silent. For what we do in politics, it helps immensely bit that is one because that is one of the biggest complaints when photographers are around the president are members of congress when the cameras are going off it is hard to hear what the president is saying or everybody else in the room. That helps being a game changer. Also, it is 20 frames per second, and can fire 20 frames per second, which is twice when i was using before. If i am shooting sports with this, it doubles my frame rate, the amount of pictures i can get , the exact moment of the peak action. Sometimes for politics where i will turn it up to 20 frames per second. If i am chasing somebody around like robert mueller, you are running up and down the steps. When you finally get to him, i have used it and i have like 50 pictures of him. That was in an eightsecond window of it seeing him, maybe less than that. Host what about quality . Doug the quality is fantastic. I am a true believer i have used canons all my life. Eventually, i am sure nikon and canon will come out with mirrorless cameras. That is a great camera. I can take a picture and send it their and to my smart phone and from my smartphone to the office. I can stay in the back of the White House Briefing room and take a picture and send it directly from their straight to and it to thehere office. Host on one of your visits you are were full of computers. You have to do that anymore . Doug i do. Being part of the press pool, when we travel with the president , i take my computer, so i can put on a caption and crop and tone pictures. It does have all of the wifi to get on the internet. If i know i am on a deadline or the office is waiting on something, i can send it directly. During the campaign i did a lot of that. I sent it directly from the camera. I still do it now. I am heading off to the olympics, and i will be doing it every day there. I dont carry the laptop as much as i dont carry it as much as i used to. Eventually the software will be piped in cameras to allow us to do that. Host can a civilian by this camera . Doug oh, yes, they are on the market. Host how much . Doug they are cheaper than most of the slrs out there. I want to say i think they are under 5,000. I know the others are around 10,000. Host with other photographers, do they use the silent camera . Doug yes, other photographers from getty, reuters, sony came into washington and tried to see if people would be willing to switch. I have completely switched. Some of my colleagues would like to completely switch. It is a matter of having a larger staff. Photographers at ap would be hard to outfit every photographer who wanted to switch. Same with getty, and reuters, it is tough when you have a large staff like that. Luckily, the New York Times has purchased it for me and i am thrilled right now. Host lets go back to some of you are still photographs. These have been taken from twitter. Here is one from the White House Briefing room. Doug that one got a lot of interesting comments on twitter. It was a day when we had seen the president couple times, i believe. I have gotten to really know and respect Sarah Huckabee sanders, she has the toughest job in washington by far. She was doing her daily briefing. Because we had seen the president a couple of times and where my desk is at the white House Reading room, it is all the way in the back. I can hear on the pa when the secretary comes in and start s speaking. I was not planning to go out and photograph her until question started. When she said she had a guest with her, i grabbed my camera and run up to the briefing room. That would be his first time in the briefing room. All of a sudden, a feed shows on the monitor. I have never seen this. It was an interesting day. Her face the questions that she got about it, they were interesting. Again, she has a tough job. Just like sean spicer, it is a tough job. Host late last year, fox and friends brought your name up. Lets watch what the exchange was and i want to ask you questions about this. There was a moment where a New York Times photographer was upset, the day before, they were not allowed to cover this. He actually took this picture, and the Washington Post said mills got his revenge for that awkward moment. The revenge was, the president of the united states, had a grimace. He did not look his best. These cameras are like a machine gun going off, how many frames per second they are taking these shots. He has hundreds of pictures from that very seem to take from, and he picks an isolated frame so it looks bad. This is what people get so disgusted by. This was a hit job trying to make President Trump look bad. Doug it was not a hit job. I had no intention of doing a hit job on this president or any president. I was there, i made the president like 20 other photographers who were there. I happen to tweet mine out first. It went viral. That, i was criticized for it. It did not help the day before, i tweeted out a blank frame, we were at a summit and had no coverage of the president. Host there it is. Doug so i tweeted out this is the first time i had ever been to a summit and never been able to photograph the president. Much less, the family photo, when you hear a family photo, you think that is for the photographers and the camera crews. We were not allowed into that. Host what was driving that . Was at the vietnamese . Doug from my understanding, the vietnamese came to the white house and said, ok here is the deal. We are giving each country does go credentials for the press, and that is it. The two credentials that came to the u. S. Press, one went to fox, and one went to the press photographer. When i found that out, i was fuming. I was out of my mind. How could this happen . The white house push back and i had a conversation with sarah about it. They were giving one credential and they did not have a credential for the white house photographer. My feeling was, if it is a press credential or a credential to get in, it should be given to the press. I thought, you with the white house pence can roll them. Just send it in. No one is going to stop a photographer from traveling. Nobody is going to stop them. Send them in and give the other credential to a member of the White House Press corps. A trip like that cause the New York Times probably 60,000 to go on a trip like that. Four is not to be in the room, we are there to cover the president. And not to have access to it unfortunately, a story was written about the blank frame, then the next day i got my revenge, that is what the narrative was. His narrative was, doug mills at revenge with a picture. Host who made the choice . Did this picture end up in the New York Times . Doug they did not publish it. It was on twitter the handshake picture, it did. I think we went from vietnam to the philippines. The next day, the front page of every newspaper had the same picture. My picture. It was the ap picture. Everybody made that picture. I have some that look worse than that. Host how often do you are those discussions about the New York Times from somebody like Mike Huckabee . Huckabee that is in your mind misleading . Doug that was completely misleading. Host your mad though . Doug i was mad the day before. I was out of my mind the day before because we were not given access. Access. A we were given other leaders make remarks, they got on stage for the handshake. It was a really awkward handshake. Every photographer took it. It brought back memories of when president bush, 43, went to china and went to open the door after a News Conference and the door was locked. He had this incredibly twice more awkward phase, and that picture went on to the front page. Nobody went after him. Twitter is black and white. There is no right or wrong. Everybody has an opinion. On twitter, everybody goes after a few if they feel you are being unfair. Host when you appear in 1996, i that, 22emind you of years ago, but when you appear here in 1996, a woman called and was upset that we were showing pictures of bob dole in shorts. She accused you of doing this on purpose. Doug i remember that. Bob dole was running for president and he came down from the pool and he started Walking Around in shorts. He didnt have any problems with us at pictures. Nobody on the staff ever complained. Host why did somebody in the audience think you are up to get him . Doug that is a great question. No matter who you work for, and i was working with the Associated Press at the time. I think people think photographers have agendas and are biased. I couldnt be further from being biased. I just do my job. I photograph what is in front of me. I do not tell the president what or what not to do. I do not put out a picture because i think the president it didnt happen, if something happens and i have it on camera or disk, it is not fake. Host you have seen newspaper editors, photo editors, the drudge report, people use pictures politically to show somebody in a bad way. Doug that is true. Again, that fox and friends video put me and a bad light the same way. They used that picture, they did not send out any of my other ones. Two the newly 40 york times. They did not look to see the most awkward they could find. For a lot of you photographers they looked a lot more awkward but that was not my intention. It is an awkward moment. Host here is a photograph that shows cartoonist newspapers that love to do the hair. Doug they do. As i said, it is iconic. His hair is amazing. This was on that same trip. Asia trip. I think we were leaving china and going out, the wind caught his hair as it does sometimes. I had to question in my mind, should i send this, should i tweet about it . All of my colleagues shot it. It, and itideo from looks the same way. It is not like i am attacking the president , we are just showing something that happened. People talk about his hair. His children have talked about his hair. It is not i dont think, he has talked about his hair, i am not going after him. It is interesting. Host here is that november photo in korea with the president ial plane we dont see much of mrs. Trump. Doug the first lady was on the trip with us. At this point, they had two separate schedules. We had no idea they were going to depart. We dont get those kind of details in our schedules. The president had gotten off the plane, the World Leaders were there, politicians, members of the diplomatic corps, they were reviewing the troops. Right at the end, the first lady came up and gave him a kiss. She went one way, he went the other. We were asking where she is going. They said she had a complete different schedule. That is how that one came about. Host at the uss arizona in hawaii, how did you get this picture because there is a gulf between you and the president and the first lady . Doug that is at pearl harbor memorial. It is an amazing place to be. I dont know if you have ever been there. It is solemn, dramatic, it is so well done. We were standing on the other side. The president came in with the vote boat. Rate they brought the press pool in a different boat. We saw the chief of staff looking at the memorial. We have a picture of him looking at the memorial. It was very solemn. The president and first lady looked at the names. As they were leaving, i think the president and first lady were supposed to do this. We didnt know that we were going to see this. We didnt know as a press pool we were going to get to see this. Come around. Y, there is another balcony and it looks like he is standing just above the water. They through the rose petals up in the air and in the water. I think they were one of the native hawaiian flowers. Host we will come back more on President Trump. This was a video from 2016 when you were on the Hillary Clinton campaign. What is a 360 . Doug this was a big project the New York Times was doing during the election. Host are you carrying the camera . Doug i am carrying the camera. It looked like an eyeball. You would set it down, it basically would allow you to see a 360degree view of everything. This one here sat on the ground on a monopod. I just left it there. I am not even near it because i would be in frame. The secretary walked over and was shaking hands. If you have the vr glasses on which are very cool and fascinating, you can basically stand around and look at an event like that. Host there you are. Who is moving the camera . Doug when you put the glasses on, you move it. It is stationary. You can follow everything around you in it is fascinating. 360. I used on the campaign for months. I went over and they said can you switch gears and go over to donald trump and use it . I said, oh, absolutely, i would love to. I packed up all of my gear, went out with donald trump and on the first day i put it down in the press pool. One of the secret service guys said what are you doing . I said is a 360 degree camera. I have been using on the hillary campaign. He said, you are not using that on our campaign. I said what do you mean . It is no different. They said it could be used as a weapon, get it out of here. I went and pleaded with the staff. I have been doing and they said it is a secret service call and you cannot use it. Andnt and bed other people they said if you put it up on stage, and that does not give you the same affected and has to be in a very strategic spot. I could not do it. Host how is that any different than what you carry . Doug i dont know. I have no idea. I went to the shift leader on the campaign and tried to explain to them what i was doing. He said it is too dangerous. Someone could reach over and grabbed and start swinging. It never even occurred to me that is what it could be used as. I have used it for two to three months with hillary. Host how often do you find yourself in an argument with a staff for some for a candidate of the president or the secret service . Doug during the campaign . Quite a bit. Not a argument but a discussion. Maybe a discussion about why things are being done the way they said things were going to be done. The white house is arguing with the secret service because they are in charge for the president s staff. They will listen to what the recommendations are. My experience has been it is up to the president s staff. They say this photographer is allowed to go here. They go tell the secret service this photographer can go there and then they say ok. If they are confident in who they are and trust them. There are moments on the campaign with photographers and staff, most of it is out of frustration about not being able to make a decent picture. It is about this is what photographers need and this is white we need it. This is to help your candidate. We cannot be here or there. This is not right. Lets go through quickly a lot of your photographs. We will keep moving through. This is from october 2017. Doug that was on a trip to south carolina. The president arrived there just as the sun was setting. It was a dramatic i shot it with the sony, i was able to look it up beforehand. I really tried to do a silhouette because i thought it would be cool. I had one or two frames with that. Host here you are aboard marine one. This was in a flooded area. The that was shortly after hurricane and the president went down to visit. The press pool was flying in a separate helicopter. It has an open back or windows on the side. A lot of photographers went to the back of the helicopter to try and shoot out the back. I went to the side and asked the marine who was standing if i could stand next to him and shoot out the window. Host do you have to pay for that . Doug it is expensive. For News Organizations to travel with the president it is outrageous. I think the New York Times probably spends 750,000 per year to travel with the president. Host here is a familiar figure. Doug he is a lightning rod. Host what can you say . Did you have any interaction with him . Doug you know, you see steve bannon around the white house. House quite regularly. He was not familiar with the press. He never said hello to me. I was in a meeting one time when he walked in. He was with sean spicer and other meeting with the staff. He said you are meeting with the enemy. He said that publicly. You would see him around. He always made great pictures. Again, he is a very different kind of subject. Host you mentioned robert mueller, is this the picture you got . Doug it is. He was meeting before the select committee on the hill. He was in an area where you could not stand by the door where he was meeting. There are a lot of rules about where photographers can and cannot be. You are walking back and forth and that and forth and trying to figure it out. You see two security guards that are gone from the door. He went out the back door. The senate they were over in the capital. Running up and down steps and trying to figure out where he is going now. Those three other photographers were running full speed upstairs, around elevators, up more stairs, and and ran outside and probably had five seconds before we saw the First Security guard come out and escort him out to his car. Thankfully, i am in shape. I try and stay in shape to do this young mans job. It pays off. It is a fastpaced game at times. Host this picture that you an interview in your own newspaper on page 2. Why . What was the excitement about it . Doug the anticipation of james comey coming to the hill after he had been fired to talk about the firing and to talk about President Trump. It was like the super bowl up there. Security was tight. There was so much hype. Once he got there, i used a camera with the monopod on it. I try not to overuse that. I try and pick and choose when i am going to use that. I thought this would be a Good Opportunity to do that. Photo yous show the also took at the same time from the back of the room. If you look closely there, you can see your own self. Somebody is next to you with another one. Doug i had four different remote cameras set up that day. I had set this one up at 7 00 a. M. And the back of the room in a window. I was able to fire wirelessly. When i was taking this picture, they were using that camera, another one over here and another over there. All on the sides of the windows, not on the floor. I tried to explain viewers dont understand what goes into an event like that. Again, it was like the super bowl. My colleague was thinking the same way that he wanted to try the same way. He was with the Associated Press. Host does the times expect you to do this or are you doing this your own . Doug there is a lot expected of us. I try not to let them down. That is my goal. Never take any assignment lightly. Every event, especially Something Like that needs to be covered like the super bowl. Host you also carried another camera, what is that one . Doug it is great. It has a screen i will turn it on so you can see everything like this. I can take your picture right now but you cannot hear it. There it is. There you are. You cant hear a whisper of a noise. Host we as the audience when we listen to the clicks at these events, when will we not hear it anymore . Doug that is a great question i would say maybe one year or two. Some of my colleagues and fox news every time there is a photo opportunity where they can cant hear the president because of the cameras. He will say to me, i wish what that everyone would do what doug mills is doing. It helps for a lot of reasons. Believe me, i hate having that sound drown out what the president is saying or whoever you are photographing. It is distracting. It does make it seem like a news event. When you hear that clicking, even for people watching it, i am sure there is a reaction, they hear the shutter. They are not necessarily worried about what he is saying yet, but it is drama and it is dramatic. It is not a studio. It is kind of a catch 22. Host here is a Company Separate location. This is in the Supreme Court. This was in june 2017. What is this event like, how often do you get to take this picture . Doug this is taken every time there is a new member of the Supreme Court. It is fascinating. I have done it two or three times now. My colleague has also done it a number of times. It is a fascinating day. You go to the Supreme Court very early in the morning and you set up in this room. You draw straws about what position you are going to be. You draw numbers basically. It gives you the position you are going to stand in. You go into the room, you put your camera down on the floor. Then you leave. All of the justices come in, they pose for the Supreme Court photographer. Then they say, give us one minute, then we will let the media in. The media is allowed to come in, but you cannot just grab a camera and start shooting. You go and then there is somebody is standing with a stopwatch. Because they can hear their shutters, they say you cannot take pictures yet. They said, ready, begin. We have 90 seconds. The justices said there like this. Most of the time they are staring right at you. There is not much interaction back and forth. Host how did you do at this time . Did you do individuals . Doug great question. You make sure you get a good overall. Because it is such limited time, you cannot tell if somebodys eyes are closed or if they have an awkward look or an awkward smile. You also have to get head shots of everyone. Every time there is a story about the Supreme Court, there may be a separate story of a justice and they want to use the headshot. We do not see them much. Everyones in a while they will do a speech, but we do not get to see them in their robes. Host how often are you allowed to take this picture . Doug only when there is a new justice. You would think they are done every year. Every time there is a new justice on the Supreme Court. Host now that you have the silent camera, they wont know. Doug exactly. I can walk in and shoot right away. Host here is the speaker of the house, when did you do this one . Doug paul ryan has a Weekly Press Conference after he meets with all of the republican members of house. He walks into a small room at the capital, which looks bigger on television but it is a small room. He answers to three questions. Maybe four. He comes out, i was able to meet him at the door. I was basically standing right in part of him, impeding him. I knew i could not stay there the whole time. I took a couple of quick pictures and then stepped out of the way. I noticed the door was open and people walking by and i could see their reflections. Nobody had walked in yet like that. As soon as he walked to the door, i noticed the door was ajar. It worked. Host this is one of the many photos you have taken on a golf courses and the president. How hard do they work to prevent you from getting the shots . Doug pretty hard. Host why . Doug doug no matter what president they get criticized for playing golf. They have the hardest job in the world food when they go play golf, there are people on sides of the aisle complaining he is playing golf. Was it president whether it was president obama, president clinton, bush, reagan did not play golf, i did not see it. This was maralago and him coming into play golf. We do not get to see him play golf there. Some tv crews have recently tried to see him going from one hole to the next. They had video of of him and then once it aired, they brought in a truck and blocked the area. Now they have planted trees. Host this photograph the general public would be interested in . Doug yes, just the way all the way the reporters are sitting around waiting for the press secretary to come in. I think this was during sean spicers era. It is a packed house. Most of the time, it is busy. I think sean had probably higher ratings than sarah. Way of sarah has a bringing the temperature down in the briefing room. With sean the temperature was , always up. Host there is something i saw online with numbers that says who they are. Doug i think early on, sean probably used a number system. I think sarah pretty much knows everybody now. There are a lot of people who come into that briefing room, and sometimes for the first time, she doesnt know them. I dont know if she calls on them because she doesnt know them, but i am sure she can look at a reporter and no what kind of question she is going to get. Host how soon did you know you had an unusual photograph like this one . Doug that was at the African American museum. That was one of those where all of my colleagues were to my left, and i tried to go farthest to the right. I did not like what we were going to be seeing. Luckily, the president turned down the hallway and i saw the sign. It do not see them talking quietly like that. She had his ear at the time. She was a confidant of him. She was around a lot. Once Reince Priebus left and general kelly took over to the over, we saw a lot less of her because the meetings were really made it tighter. You could tell you medically when you went into a meeting in the cabinet room, there were people that were going and the numbers were up. Therefore, we were a distraction. That has changed a lot. General kelly has wrote the numbers down to the meetings and you see it. We see it as members of press going into the room. Host how long can you keep this up . You said it is a young mans game. Doug it definitely is a young photographers game. I am 58 this year. I would like to do it until i am 65. If i stay in shape and stay healthy i am training right now for the olympics. They are coming up. I am training with a backpack on and 30 pounds on my back, walking the hills like i will be on the ice. Host at the time people see this, how long will the olympics run . Doug a month. I leave on february 3 and come back at the end of february. Two iowas always have to check into first of all, the audience needs to know your wife runs over radio show. How are your daughters . Doug they are grown up. They are lovely young ladies now. They are 23 and 25. Host still not interested in photography . Doug the younger one does. She has quite an instagram feet. She has two instagram feeds. The other is in pr and marketing. They love their jobs but they are with great companies. As parents, kate and i are delighted for them. It is great to see them grow up. Host New York Times photographer doug mills thank , you for this periodic update on your activity. Doug always a pleasure, thank you for having me. For free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us in q a. Org. Q and a programs are also available at cspan podcasts. As cspan podcasts. If you enjoyed this weeks interview with doug mills, here are some other programs you may like. Mr. Mills previously talking about efforts to increase access to the president for photographers. Washington post photographer carol guzy talks about being a Pulitzer Prize winner. Another photographer talks about his book, in the shadow of power, which shows a washington, d. C. Not usually seen by tourist. Watch this anytime or search our entire Video Library and at cspan. Org. Next, we are with your calls and washington journal. Then the national clifford gallery unveils the president s of former president barack obama and first Lady Michelle obama. Tonight, on the communicators, Consumer Electronics show in las vegas. Technology Industry Leaders discuss latest development in artificial intelligence. You can