Behind the Velvet Rope

- D. Foster  dfoster56@hotmail.com  White House Advance

"dear chris. just to let you know that father monty has linked your site to his story about the clinton center's birthday bash at hope, arkansas. father says your photos
are superb!! the ones from 'behindthevelvetrope' he just loves. regards, rev'd canon henry white.
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view father's story at:

>>www.fathermonty.org/hope.htm<<

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- rev'd canon henry white, m.a. (oxon)  archbishops@archbishops.org  churchman , new orleans,la

"I just had a chance to view the Usher images and I'd like to thank him for an enjoyable viewing experience. Thanks.

Denny"

- Denny Simmons  den4life@yahoo.com  newspaper photojournalist , Evansville, Ind., USA

"Chris Usher's images of the scenes behind the scenes of today's white house are thoughtful, evocotive, and incredibly well executed. My hat is off to you Chris, Dave"

- David Scull  dscull@mindspring.com  White House Photographer

"The photographs of behind the velvet rope are outstanding, and images that I like to take here in Vancouver some times.Very inspiring images and just what I needed to see. From time to time we get over tired in our work and think that all we need is some time off in the sun not the rain like we get here so most often images become of non effect, but thanks to Mr. Halstead for the link here I have been inspired on my 10 days of holidays to go out and shoot some photoraphs for me, just me. I get so busy doing what everyone else wants me to do I sometimes forget that I got into this Love affair/marriage with capturing images because I love the freedom to express what my heart sees.
I saw the color photo of the President walking away from the podium in Life and immediately started to look for Dirck Halstead but who could find anyone in that mass of people. A wonderful shot and what a great place to be able to be and to have the trust of the keepers to be there.
I get those priviledges here in Vancouver to do my exclusive portraits of political leaders, world leaders as they visit Vancouver and the media (press) are not allowed to be present. I know a few of my media photographer friends would love to be where I am, but I then let them get the best locations at the scrum and I work over their shoulder. I kind of always let the media have the good spots. I usually do not have the same requirements they do as my portrait is the big one for me and the news photo is important but I don't want to have the same shot.. At one shoot there were a number of us shooting and a few frames of mine were all washed out as we all shot at the same time with flash and then the shot that was used in the annual report I was told was not my shot. So for one year I believed it as I saw the other photo that was published in the paper on the public affairs directors desk. So they told me it was this other photoraphers shot. Well, I got out me negative and took a close look and saw that it was my shot, they just cropped out the other person on the right and there is no way that this other persons shot cold match mine even though we were shoulder to shoulder. I found the spot on the negative that prooved it was my shot. Close call.!!

Thanks for sharing your work with me, I like it very much.

Dave Roels
http://www.daveroels.com"

- Dave Roels  droels@daveroels.com  portrait photographer/newsphotographeer , Vancouver, BC Canada

"What I meant to say was: I can only wonder if the King were still with us, how would Mr. Usher capture the essence of Elvis?"

- pamela  yula35@excite.com  midwestern housewife , Dubuque, IA USA

"I can only wonder, if the King were alive today - how would Mr. Usher capture the essence of Elvis? "

- pamela  yula35@excite.com  suburban Iowa homemaker , Dubuque, IA USA

"Very nice quite moments and nice "loud" moments. Nice eye. It was a very refreshing and new look at an old place. I love this site. This has to be my favorite web site of all time!"

- Scott Goldsmith  ScotGsmith@aol.com  Photographer , Pittsburgh PA USA

"It was a real treat to see these scenes of the private workings of our government displayed with such sensative and elegant composition. I will check back often in hopes of seeing more of Mr. Usher's fine work."

- Victoria Carter  VCarterm16@aol.com  biomedical scientist , Seattle, WA, USA

"Very interesting look at the goings-on of the public presidency ... look forward to seeing more of the photos."

- Joseph Lowrey  jlowery@idt.net  Architect , Bay City,Michigan