Switching Sides

How would you describe the shooting you do now?

I try not to make the pictures I take a big deal, I like it to just be a part of what I'm doing, so when something happens I'm ready. That goes for work and for my family time. Of course that's how you get good pictures.

I remember growing up my grandfather every year would take this big family picture he'd put it on a timer and I've never seen them to this day.

What I enjoy about digital photography, it's reminded me how much I enjoyed the whole process of being in the darkroom - with out using the fixer. I'll be sitting there at the end of the day, really should be going to bed, find myself compelled to just get in there and start tweaking and start cropping this. There's a certain creative aspect to that that I really enjoy. I think of the camera as just an extension of life and of work.

And your stuff behind-the-scenes at CNN?

Well, what I've found really fun, is we have this incredible website (www.cnn.com) that's always interested in getting features for the stories, and slideshows. I bring [my camera] just because I want to capture things, but it turns out to be a good way of telling the story of getting the story. There are certain things that work well on television, and there's certain things that don't. But those things can really work well on the web, with the right still and the right copy and the right text. It's allowed me to explore other media, and an easy outgrowth.

It's…corporate synergy.

I do a TV piece, I love doing a nice TV piece, but to me, there's nothing like posting a really well-written column and then marrying that with pictures. That's a tremendous amount of satisfaction.

And there's a certain permanence that doesn't exist on TV-it's on it's way to Pluto.

I'm in a very fast-paced medium, so it's nice to have something with you that gives a sense of permanence. It's kind of a natural thing.