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.

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.

PDFs for scientists!

Today, I posted three new tip sheets to our Sharing Science website to help scientists prepare for phone, radio and video interviews. They feature the icons I made the other day because, after all, what good is a tip sheet without a striking visual icon!?

I created the tip sheets in MS Word and the icons in MS PowerPoint. Voila!  

Happy weekend!

Telephone, Radio and Video Icons

Today I created several icons to go with some informational sheets I'm working on. These icons are by no means original, but I still think they turned out nicely and I had fun making them. It certainly wasn't your average day! (At least not for me.)

 

Pluto loves Charon

I've been inspired by all of the recent response to the New Horizons spacecraft's flyby of Pluto, especially by this silly video of Stephen Colbert and Neil deGrasse Tyson discussing Pluto's planetary status. So, I drew this...

Happy Pluto flyby! 

Sports Photos from The Salem News

Included are sports photos I shot for The Salem News in Beverly, Mass. Sports were, by far, my favorite photos to shoot: the action! The intensity! I especially loved middle school and high school baseball. The kids got so into it. (And they were good!) It was lots of fun. All photos are by Mary Catherine Adams for The Salem News.

Jesse Anthony, winner of the elite men's race in the Witches Cup, rounds the corner onto Route 1A early in the race around Salem Common. Anthony, of Beverly, beat 70 other race finishers for the win. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

An FMX pro athlete performs at trick at the Journeys Backyard BBQ Tour at Northshore Mall on Saturday. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News. Check out the full photo gallery from the tour.

The Masconomet Chieftains celebrate their Division 2 North championship victory over the Reading Rockets at LeLacheur Park in Lowell last night. Masconomet topped Reading, 9-1. Mary Catherine Adams/Staff photos. 

 

Masco's Lee Greeley connects with the ball early in the championship game against Reading. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

Amesbury's Rey Miles is called out as he tries to steal home in the first inning. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

Visit my page on The Salem News' photo archive for more photos.

Feature Photos from The Salem News

Included are feature and "run of the paper" photos I shot for The Salem News in Beverly, Mass. I really enjoy taking photos of people -- they're just so interesting! It's such a rewarding challenge to earn someone's trust in the few minutes you have with them, get close enough to them to capture a good image without breaking that trust, and to capture just the right moment to tell a story in a single frame. All photos are by Mary Catherine Adams for The Salem News.

Jim Tedford, Jr., left, and Adeline Diehl sing songs whose lyrics are printed on their placemats at the Ipswich Rotary club's annual lunch for senior citizens. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

Bobby Ring, 7, at left, and his brother Thomas, 5, jam on their cardboard guitars along with "All Together Now" guitarist Bruce Hilton during the first weekend of the Beverly Homecoming festival in Lynch Park. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

Meat cutters trim sirloins at the start of the Texas Roadhouse restaurant meat cut-off competition. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

Jack Dixon, 5, plays on a tank at Patton Park in Hamilton on Thursday afternoon. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News. (Run of the paper.)

Dorothea Nixon, 88, laughs after trying on a Victorian-era hat left over from the Girdler House's 125th anniversary celebration. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.

Visit my page on The Salem News' photo archive for more photos.

Photos and Stories from APS News

Here are some photos I took while working as a science writing intern at the American Physical Society. Each of these photos ran in their member newspaper, APS News.

The twenty members of the 2011 U.S. International Physics Olympiad team enjoy a rare moment of relaxation during their week-long intense training camp at the University of Maryland. Photo and story by Mary Catherine Adams. Read the full story in the July 2011 issue of APS News.

In December, about 150 physicists gathered at APS headquarters to sort abstracts for the 2011 March Meeting in Dallas. In the photo, Birgitta Whaley (UC Berkeley, left), David Rueda (Wayne State University, center) and Weigun Peng (George Washington University, right) forge ahead, undaunted by the more than 7500 abstracts that needed to be placed in sessions on the big board. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams. Originally appeared in the March 2011 issue of APS News.

AGU Fall Meeting: David Perlman and Andrew Grant

David Perlman (left), the legendary science editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, speaks with Science News' Andrew Grant, in the press room during the American Geophysical Union's Fall Meeting last month.

Grant received the David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Journalism–News Award in 2014, accepting his award during the meeting.

The award "recognizes excellence in science news reporting," for stories "prepared with a deadline of one week or less," and comes with a $5,000 prize.

At Andrew's request, I snapped a few photos of him standing with the man for whom the award is named.