John Boal Photography

The primaries for Feb 12. are only a few weeks away. DC, MD and VA all hold their respective primaries on the same day, and today DC held their Democratic Pre-primary delegate selection Caucus. Sound complicated? It is. What the heck is a delegate? Why are they necessary? See here for a quick explanation. What makes strange caucus events like the one today in DC interesting is their increasing relevance. I found the process to be fascinating, but mostly for who showed up, and what they had to say. Enter Faith (shown above with her two bugles). The first caucusing room I entered was full of Hillary Clinton supporters. I gravitated to Clinton supporters first, mostly because of the difficulty I've had in locating any volunteer-organized events willing to allow me to photograph their activities. No problems here. It became increasingly difficult to avoid looking at and watching a woman enter the room with the head wrap, fashionable sunglasses and two bugles. The delegat...

This is simply an update to the project ongoing where I'm following the variety of volunteer organized events and such.  Last night I went to a Huckabee debate watching party.  Sounds fun, right?  Well, it actually was very interesting.  Not that I thought I'd encounter a bunch of Bible waving evangelicals, although I half-hoped I would, but I thought it might be evident, visually, somewhere.  But it wasn't.  Nope, not a crucifix necklace to be found.  Instead, what I found was a group of people (just as young and enthusiastic as any I found at a Ron Paul, or Barack Obama event) who were moved by his message of conservatism, and character.  I spoke with a couple people about why they supported Huckabee.  One woman (pictured) had supported Huckabee since 1993 when he became Lt. Gov of Arkansas.  Now that's a long time of supporting an obscure politician, and she's not even from Arkansas.  She's from Manassas.   Another man, about my age, simply felt Huckabee was...

Voters are swooning over Obama. The McCainiacs are in full swing. Or is it "Mac is Back"? Maybe Romney makes a late surge? Clinton? Well it seems as if everyone has all but written off the "inevitable" candidate. There was an opinion piece in The Post I found intriguing. The Simpsons, this past Sunday, presented a wonderful array of satire aimed at the political process. I loved how the Simpson family posted an "Undecided" sign outside their house, only to be descended upon by all the media. What is it mean if you're undecided? Is it that you're weighing all your options? Maybe, in this two party process, falling somewhere in the middle (which I believe is a larger portion of the American public than those who are devoutly Dems or Reps) makes it difficult to choose a candidate. Sometimes I wonder when someone is so decisive about voting for a candidate if they haven't simplified the process for themselves. I think this is where the...

Ok, so I think the presidential election has officially started.  Certainly there have been lots of stumping and canvassing, but tonight it's official.  The Iowa caucuses are done.  Obama and Huckabee won.  Maybe in no small part their ability to speak to the masses effectively.  How interesting the disparity between the two.  I can only imagine the polarization of the nation if Huckabee and Obama were to win their respective party's nominations. But I digress, because I can't possibly pretend to be an expert on politics.  I did, however, decide fairly recently to try to figure it out...as a photojournalist.  I was thinking (as I'm want to do on occasion) that I wanted to go to Iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina.  I was going to cover the most newsworthy event this side of the Middle East.  I haven't been a photojournalist very long, and I felt that if I was going to be a "legitimate" one, then covering the primary season would be something for me t...

Ok, so I'm not so young anymore.  I stopped going to into the city for New Year's about 5-6 years ago. And last night was no different, of course.  I stayed home, played games and drank some sparkling wine with my girlfriend (we settled for the CA version, when we saw that a half-bottle of  Veuve was $25).  This got me thinking about a map in the October '07 issue of National Geographic . Essentially the map redraws wine country indicating the current rate of climate change over the next 100 years should yield some really nice sparkling wines from southern England.  Imagine that.  Enjoying a nice bottle of Southhampton, or a vintage from the vineyards of Brighton sounds pretty strange. -John