Blog | ERIN SUTHERLAND

17 May 2025

Erin Uncategorized Permalink

[Not so] Backlog: Newly published edition!

Erin May 17, 2025

Well, hello! This might be the closest update I’ve done to another in… too long. But I have some great work I’ve made in the last few months that published, and I want to make sure to capture it before the social media timelines bury it all. I can’t put any of my work directly on my site, but I can link to others’ posts. So here we go!

One of the most popular video requests we’ve been working on are for coffees – weekly open-house style meetings with the senators, where constituents can come and visit, get a few words in to the senator and their staff, and then get an official photo. I’ve done a number of them for Senator Husted in the last few months, and they’ve been well received by the office and constituents alike.

The projects I’ve worked on can range from quick-turnaround social media posts, like this reel-style video for Senator Warnock meeting with a Georgia marching band who were in town to perform in the Cherry Blossom Parade, to on-location studio-quality teleprompter recordings, like this announcement video from Senator Gallego for his immigration plan. It’s been busy and interesting, that’s for sure.

And then there’s the still photography work! Here’s some I’ve been able to dig up as examples of the things I might see in a day. (The photos of Senator Collins in red are mine; the other two are a coworker’s.) Meet and greets, grip-and-grins, hearings, special events… there’s so many amazing photos I’ve taken in the last year that I wish I could share here, but you’ll just have to believe me when I say I’ve been doing the best work I’ve ever done. Helps to have a camera in hand nearly every day, multiple times a day. I’m so much faster at editing and better at finding moments and balancing color than ever before. I’ve taken lovely candid portraits, wild moments in hearings, scenics in the heavy snow, and funny things kids do around the office buildings. Maybe someday an office will publish my favorite photos and I can share them here.

Until next update…

28 Feb 2025

Erin Uncategorized Permalink

Backlog: Big changes edition

Erin February 28, 2025

Look at that, it’s only been a year since my last post!

In all seriousness, it’s been a big year. In the early summer, I landed a dream job, in a field I worked towards in all of graduate school with my presidential/political imagery research, and I still pinch myself every so often that this is now my life. I am serving as a Visual Information Specialist for Senate Photographic Services – in other words, I’m an Official Senate Photographer Who Also Does Video. I’ve spent the last eight-ish months helping to build a new video service and also learning how to be a Senate photographer. I forgot how much there is to learn at a new job!

Here’s where I would normally show you some of my most favorite images and projects I’ve worked on… but since we don’t publish our own work, I can’t put any of that here. But I *can* put some screenshots and links to things that Senate offices have published! So here, have some screenshots.

Senator John Thune published two of my images in a gallery from President Jimmy Carter’s lying-in-state ceremony. What an incredible honor to photograph this moment.

One of my big early video projects was a Veterans’ Day video with Senator Tom Carper before he retired. This was a very involved setup for the interview, lit by my coworker who is excellent at lighting and created exactly the look I wanted. And then I built out the rest of the edit with b-roll, archive photos, and music. As of publishing this post, it still lives here on his Facebook page. Take a watch!

Another video project that got published was a set of b-roll I filmed (on a gimbal! finally!) and provided to Senator Jon Ossoff’s office for editing. They created this little reel-video with my footage, and they used it as one of the first two posts on his new Bluesky account. (The other were the stills from the event.) Simple, yet effective.

I hope to have more published things I can share, but for now, I’ll leave you with this. It’s an honor to serve and bear witness to the history being made every day in the Capitol complex.

26 Apr 2024

Erin blogging, IBEW, photography Permalink

Backlog: Perhaps that should be the name of this blog

Erin April 26, 2024

Seven hundred and thirty five days. 7.3.5. I even rebuilt this website nearly from scratch in that time. To be fair – this website was non-functional for much of that time, until the rebuild recently, and not of my own doing. Anyways, let’s not dwell on the time, but look at the adventures.

Let’s start here, last week.

President Biden in 2019, smiling

Look familiar? Why yes, it’s the image from 2019 that never got published. Worth the wait. We have a new person on our team who is really good with social media and has been pushing us to post more. He made these rapid-response graphics with my photos of the conference’s main speakers of the day.

(L to R – President Biden, IBEW Secretary-Treasurer Paul Noble, Maryland Governor Wes Moore)

I’ve had some other adventures that do not involve politicans in this time, too.

I spent a VERY cold day visiting a CSX rail yard in Maine.

My multi-day, multi-location adventure in Vancouver (mountains in the background of a photo make me so happy) was also VERY cold, with the only snow I saw all winter. It never snows in Vancouver. I was warned to be careful on the roads and maybe not go out in it.

Of course I went out in it.

There were a lot of portraits.

And I visited Puerto Rico for the first time, where it rained so hard the entire time I was there I just had to laugh. (It did stop raining for one early morning, and I went for a run and visited the water’s edge… and promptly soaked my shoes up to my ankles. Misjudging the tide was my first mistake of the day. The second came at a restaurant that served me something unknowingly made with meat. But I wisely did not pet the dog, even if he was friendly and cute.)

Back to the politicians… with a Very Important Friend of the union in the White House, and lots of other VIF’s in congress and the cabinet, we’ve had a lot of face time at our conferences and events. There’s been so. many. podiums. And sometimes parties. And a lot of waiting. So much waiting. But I’ve heard some exciting things from Very Important Friends and it makes me feel hopeful for our future.

The crowd reacts at the Labor for Biden Harris rally in Philadelipia, PA on June 17, 2023.

Teila Allmond, IBEW International President Kenneth Cooper, and Representative Donald Norcross

Secretary of Energy Gretchen Whitmer at the 2023 Construction and Maintenance Conference in Washington, DC

President Joe Biden greets the crowd at his speech held at IBEW Local 26’s training center in Lanham, MD on February 15, 2023.

Until next time… which maybe won’t be so long. But then again, I *am* a creature of habit.

22 Apr 2022

Erin IBEW, projects, video Permalink

Backlog: Where time goes during a pandemic

Erin April 22, 2022

Neglecting a blog; apparently I’m good at it. But perhaps there’s a silver lining to only updating with backlog posts from the last [ahem] year or so? It’s the best of the best? Sure. I’ll take it.

Time seems to be seeping into a black hole in these pandemic times. What have I done in the last… 531 days? (At least it’s not as long as the last pause.)

I’ve made a lot of these Electrical Worker Shorts videos, where we recap stories from our print side and use these videos to bring attention to the stories on our website. (A few more can be seen on my VIDEO page above.)

I also got to make a video for President Biden’s Inaugural Committee, which was shown during one of the pre-inauguration programs and featured messages from other unions and labor-friendly well-wishers. It was an intense 3 days from first notice to delivery, and worth every stressful moment, even in a pandemic.

And a first for me here – I edited an organizing story that I did not shoot. It’s a very different experience taking someone else’s footage and making it into something that feels right. When I film a story myself, I retain a lot of the details in my head. Where this bit of action happened, when someone said the phrase I know I want. So when I go to put it together afterwards, it’s more like a refresher course than when I’m starting from scratch with unfamiliar pieces. I’m pleased with how this one came out, and it felt good to put together a real story with real interviews instead of just text.

I haven’t done many stills in this pandemic time, but I did get to photograph a few internal events that managed to happen in-person, and at a data center being constructed in Northern Virginia. And more recently, I got to photograph a Senate hearing for the TVA board. Those photos are unpublished for now, so I’ll have to update them once the story runs. Hopefully I remember to do it before another 531 days pass.

07 Nov 2020

Erin photography Permalink

Backlog: 582 Days

Erin November 7, 2020

Yeah, yeah. I know. It’s been a while again. To say that it’s been a weird, stressful time is an understatement. But I am here today to share a few unused images from an event in the Before Times – before the coronavirus, before the primaries, before Joe Biden even announced his run for the presidency.

April 5, 2019. Joe Biden came to speak at the IBEW Construction Conference amid swirls of speculation on whether and when he’d announce his campaign. It was a wild day. We don’t usually let press in, but with Biden’s appearance, they were practically banging down our doors. So we let them in, with some strict rules about where the could be… which left me as the lone still photographer with floor access. Exciting! Terrifying! So much pressure!

Thankfully, I was able to test lighting and positions earlier in the day so I could be cool, calm, and collected when it was go time for Biden. (I was not cool, calm, and collected at first. I was nervous! But at least my camera settings were ready.) Photos from this day were used for our newspaper – The Electrical Worker – and Political Department, and also appeared in ads leading up to Election Day in battleground states. (When the time is right, I’ll update here with some examples using the official photos.)

This photo is one of my favorites from the day. It’s a quiet moment that happened as the audience gave applause just before he walked off stage. He had his usual Biden smile and wave, and then paused here to look out at the audience. To me, it felt very personal; it seemed as though he was taking a moment to breathe and take it all in before something big happens. We knew he was contemplating running for president, but we didn’t know when the announcement would come. It ended up to be April 25, 2019. And on February 5, 2020, the IBEW officially gave him their endorsement.

It’s been a wild ride these last 582 days. I’ve thought about these photos every day, and I’m finally proud to share them today, the day Joe Biden earned the title “President-Elect.”

07 Jan 2019

Erin IBEW, multimedia, photography Permalink

Backlog: Well, it’s been a while. Again.

Erin January 7, 2019

At least it’s a shorter break than last time? There’s a new human in town keeping me busy. Here’s some highlights from the last year and a half-ish, which saw a lot less travel than usual. Sometimes it’s nice to work close to home.

I’ve been in the House…

Rep. Nancy Pelosi questions an IBEW staff member representing the union on a labor committee panel in 2017. In January 2019, she was re-elected as Speaker of the House.

and on the Hill.

This was the windiest day EVER and I chose to shoot video beauty shots for a project. Not smart.

On a big, famous bridge…

IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson and IBEW Local 3 Business Manager Chris Erickson march across the Brooklyn Bridge with striking union members against Charter Spectrum in September 2017. The strike is still going on as of January 2019.

Rally and March to Support On-Strike Local 3 Members from IBEW on Vimeo.

and on a little, famous bridge.

IBEW members work on changing the lights to an LED system on the Trenton Makes The World Takes bridge in 2017.

IBEW Lights Up Trenton Makes Bridge from IBEW on Vimeo.

And I’ve witnessed trainings…

IBEW members demonstrate manhole safety training in a new, portable lab that was formerly a race car trailer.

promotions…

A new director position for a long-time employee.

and aspirations.

Rep. Tim Ryan speaks at the 2018 IBEW Political Conference. I personally feel like he might run for President someday.

I spent a week with amazing women in Minneapolis…

2018 IBEW Women’s Conference (St. Paul, Minn.) from IBEW on Vimeo.

and met some newly organized members in Ohio.

Organizing East Central Ohio from IBEW on Vimeo.

I also got to climb around a new soccer stadium under construction in LA, but uhh… that project still hasn’t been published yet. (It’s a long story.) So images will have to wait.

It’s been a really rich year-and-change, both professionally and personally. Here’s to the next being even better.

26 May 2017

Erin IBEW, photography, politics, projects Permalink

Backlog: Years and a lifetime ago

Erin May 26, 2017

Hi. It’s been a while. I’ve been a little busy. And busy at work, too.

I’ve been in the sky.

Constructing the Wilshire Tower in Los Angeles

And underground.

Digging the SR-99 tunnel under Seattle with Bertha

And on Capitol Hill.

Jim Hunter, former Utility Department director, testifying on the hill

Ralph Norcross, congressman from New Jersey and IBEW member

IBEW International President Lonnie Stephenson, before giving testimony

And to protests against things happening on and around Capitol Hill.

Solidarity protest with Trump Hotel workers in Las Vegas

Senator Sherrod Brown, speaking at a larger-than-I-expected mineworkers’ rally

Women Workers Rising protest

I’ve met some incredible people.

Dave, center, has kidney disease. Rob, left, was a potential donor. It didn’t work out. 🙁

Documented transitions in and out of the office.

Our new political director, Austin

And witnessed history unfold.

Heading out to count the votes on whether or not Local 410 would soon exist. We won.

So, yeah. I’ve been busy. In a really great and rewarding way.
Let’s not let two-and-a-half years pass before another update, okay?

25 Nov 2014

Erin blogging, IBEW, photography, travels Permalink

A whirlwind tour of New England, pt. 1

Erin November 25, 2014

Last week, I went on an adventure with the president of our union (plus his assistant, a director, a VP, and a writer coworker) to New England for a handful of events supporting the FairPoint strikers up there. Yes, we have members out on strike, and it’s a really big deal. (Go to Fairness@Fairpoint for all the information.) Here are a few of my favorite shots from the rally in Vermont. Did you know that Montpelier is the smallest capital city in the country?

For more photos, go to our organization’s Flickr page.
Parts 2 and 3 coming soon.

19 Jun 2014

Erin family, photography, travels Permalink

Besties. Love. Chicago.

Erin June 19, 2014

I haven’t seen Diane and Phil for way to long. We spent quite some time this past weekend trying to figure out when we’ve seen each other since our wedding… and we could not come up with a time. There was the failed attempt to get to Rehoboth last summer, and the summer before, and a few gatherings that we remembered from even longer ago. But no gatherings since September 25, 2011.

WAY TOO LONG.

I love you two. I’m so thankful for our short visit on this work trip. Let’s make it happen again, soon.

07 May 2014

Erin blogging, IBEW, photography Permalink

A conversation, a message.

Erin May 7, 2014

This assignment reminded me of doing environmental portraits in grad school. I like shooting them so much more than the standard background-lights-stare-into-the-lens portrait. There’s definitely a time and place for those, but I think conveying personality through surroundings adds a lot to an image. The plan – show our president in conversation, as the accompanying story was a Q&A style story.

Serious and stern, but not angry or belittling. That was the goal. I did get some nice shots of him laughing or smiling in the course of the conversational shoot, but I’ll save those for another day. This and the top image ran with our story.

This was one of my favorite images from the shoot. It didn’t fit with our serious theme, so it’s just an outtake now. But I still like it.

Original story: On growing the IBEW