AAAS Communicating Science Workshops

In the midst of all the other things that are going on right now, I paused to make an updated PowerPoint slide to feature our AAAS Communicating Science workshops. We needed a new version that confirmed to our new color palette and more closely matched our printed materials. I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Many thanks to the University of Maryland for providing the terrific photo from one of our workshops.

Video: AAAS Leshner Leadership Fellows

A handful of the photos I took of the AAAS Leshner Fellows appeared in our new promotional video. So fun to get photo credits in a video! Watch it here: AAAS Leshner Leadership Fellowship

Headshot

 My favorite person in the world agreed to model for me!

AAAS Leshner Leadership Fellows

During their orientation in June, I took the "official" group photo of the 2017-18 cohort of AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute Fellows. I had several of them sit this year, to change the style from last year's official photo, and although I like the idea, I'm not sure I like the end result as well. Again, I wish I had done some things differently, but it's always fun trying new things and pushing boundaries. Both photos are below.

2017-18 cohort:

2016-17 cohort:

Headshots: AAAS Leshner Fellows

I took headshots of all 15 of our 2017-18 AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute Fellows in June to accompany their bios on our website. I had a lot of fun doing it and each was terrific to work with. While editing the photos, of course, I realized several things I wish I had done differently, but that's good inspiration for next time!

AAAS Early Career Award Twitter Cards

This morning, I made a couple of Twitter cards to advertise the nomination deadline for our Early Career Award for Public Engagement with Science. It was tough because of the differences in the photo qualities and styles of the previous winners' headshots. I'm happy with the results, though. And it's always fun to play in Photoshop.

Headshot: AAAS Leshner Fellow

So happy with this headshot of one of our AAAS Leshner fellows. The light was so perfect and she was totally at ease. I didn't edit this photo at all.

Photos of Leshner fellows in Science Magazine

A photo I took of several of the AAAS Leshner Leadership Institute fellows was published in today's issue of Science Magazine: AAAS Leshner fellow aligns science with public service.

"LLI fellows (left to right) Ina Park, Sheena Cruickshank, and Anthony Wilson participate in a Facebook Live chat on infectious disease with [AAAS Public Engagement Project Director Emily] Cloyd (far right). CREDIT: MARY CATHERINE LONGSHORE/AAAS"

The fellows -- all infectious disease researchers -- came together for a week in June to polish their public engagement skills and took part in several events when they interacted directly with the public. Here, three fellows discussed how infectious diseases are portrayed in popular culture during a Facebook Live chat.

Two of my photos were also used in a AAAS News story on our organization's website: Leshner Fellows Put Public Engagement Strategies to Work.

Headshots: New staff headshots

Everybody gets a new headshot! That was the rule. After months of mis-matched staff headshots driving me crazy, I arranged a time to take new headshots of our team and now our photos finally have the same style on our Contact Us page.

My teammates were terrific subjects, and I took it as a complement that nearly all of them had replaced their images on Twitter, Slack, etc., by the end of the day with their new headshots. One member of our team even got some nice feedback from a friend on social media: "This is a great photo! Captures your personality and beauty so well."

 

Headshots: New Staff Members

In July 2016, I took headshots for two new staff members, using the best natural light I could find in our office building. Each person sat in a windowsill in our break room. Patient colleagues!

Florida to California in 140 seconds

This is why I booked window seats on my flight to Fall Meeting:

  

Shot with an iPhone 5s and edited in Windows Movie Maker.

Video: Approach into FLL (Timelapse)

Now that we can leave our phones on during take off and landing, there is much fun to be had! For example, this timelapse video I took during a recent approach into the Fort Lauderdale (FLL) airport

Dupont Circle Photo Walk (AGU Art Council)

Here are two photos I took during a staff culture event, the 2015 Photo Walk, hosted this spring by the AGU Art Council.

The first is a portrait I took of one of our interns. Doesn't she have the best smile!?

The second is a photo of some buildings in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of D.C. These colors caught my eye -- beautiful shades of cream and purple. 

I feel like there is more I could do with both photos if I had a better command of Photoshop. One of these days...

ArtJamz 2015 (AGU Art Council)

As part of AGU's Art Council, a committee tasked with improving staff culture through appreciation of and interaction with art, I helped organize an ArtJamz painting event for the staff this spring. It was one of our best-attended events, and why wouldn't it be? Two hours to paint, sip on beer and wine, enjoy some snacks, and forget about the pile of things waiting for you on your desk!

AGU Fall Meeting Press Conference

I'll be leaving my work home at AGU soon. Over the past four years, I've been collecting photos of journalists and scientists interacting to use with our Sharing Science materials. My goal has been to show action and for each photo to tell a (short) story. Here are some photos I took at the 2012 AGU Fall Meeting during one of our largest ever press conferences. In these photos, scientists present early results from NASA's Curiosity rover and TV, radio and print journalists interview some of the scientists immediately after the press conference.

AGU Fall Meeting: Scientists interacting with journalists

I'll be leaving my work home at AGU soon. Over the past four years, I've been collecting photos of journalists and scientists interacting to use with our Sharing Science materials. My goal has been to show action and for each photo to tell a (short) story. Here are some photos I took at the 2013 and 2014 AGU Fall Meetings:

 The BBC's Rebecca Morelle interviews a scientist after a 2014 Fall Meeting press conference.

A TV crew interviews (left to right) Rolf Hut, Fedor Baart and Olivier Hoes at the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting about their recent findings on whether the Alcatraz escapees could have survived.

Jim Green, director of NASA’s Planetary Science Division, gives a TV interview after a 2014 Fall Meeting press conference.

U.S. Rosetta Project Scientist Claudia Alexander of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, gives a live radio interview following a press conference about results from the Rosetta mission at the 2014 AGU Fall Meeting. I was very sad to learn that six months after I took this photograph, Alexander died of breast cancer.

Rebecca Morelle, of the BBC News, gives a live radio broadcast from the 2013 AGU Fall Meeting Press Room.

#SketchYourScience

We're trying a new outreach activity this year in the AGU Booth at our annual Fall Meeting. We're encouraging people to sketch their science, an activity that took off at a recent Ecological Society of America meeting.

My colleague asked me to create some PowerPoint slides to play on the TV screens in the booth during the event. Hopefully these will attract some passers-by! 

I drew everything using the free Paper app on an iPad. I can't wait to see what people draw at the meeting! Follow the #sketchyourscience hashtag on Twitter this Dec. 15-17.

Colorado

Two years ago, I had the chance to travel to an AGU Chapman conference in Colorado. I took my old Canon AE-1 with me, which I had not used in a long time. Clearly, I still have some practicing to do with this camera but the resulting grainy, black and white photos are still fun!

 

Stew

Our inaugural Dutch oven use produced a delicious beef stew.

Now I bet you're really hungry.

MD-88: WiFi Enabled

How charming are the buttons on this MD-88? I love the old-school square, plastic push buttons. Boy, did I wish I had an excuse to press the flight attendant call button. "What color will it light up?" I wondered. (The answer is orange.)

I also enjoyed the WiFi light, which was new to me.

It's the little things. 

Visit these photos on Twenty20.