PORTLAND, Maine - Congress is back in session, facing momentous decisions about the future of health care, the Supreme Court, taxes - just to name three. But amid all that, Maine Sen. Angus King plans to continue snapping photos: of trees, churches, trains in the snow, constituents, holiday lights - even his interviewers. And you can see them on the photo-sharing service Instagram.
SEN. ANGUS KING: It took me about six months to convince my staff that I could be allowed to do this by myself. It was a concern I would post something dumb or write something and...I think they're still a little nervous about it, but I really like taking pictures. I particularly like capturing a moment that's a little unusual; a view of Washington that people might not otherwise get. And then I write mini essays. It's a challenge to try to make sense of an event or a place in time, in a very short period. I really enjoy it; it's one of my favorite diversions, if you will, from the intensity of the work that I do.
IRWIN GRATZ: Has this been a long-time pursuit of yours, photography?
SEN. ANGUS KING: I've always been interested in photography, but never in any kind of systematic way. But, of course, the I-phone has allowed us all to become photographers and the beauty of digital pictures is you can take a lot of them and one of them is going to be pretty good. But I've always enjoyed visual arts and design and those kinds of things - architecture. But also I like to tell stories. The post that I did on New Year's Eve was of the American flag and the Washington Monument and I quoted Lincoln's inaugural about appealing to the better angels of our nature. So, often I'll try to tell a little story, along with whatever the picture is. Usually they're around Maine, on the road, sunsets. Sunsets are big on Instagram. If you want to find a lot of friends, people seem to like sunsets.
IRWIN GRATZ: The time of office-holders like yourself, especially members of Congress, can be very full. Even when you're in transit, there are calls to return, briefing papers to read. I just wonder why you take the time to do this.
SEN. ANGUS KING: Well, often what I'll do is take the picture and then, at night, when I'm finally done, 9, 10, 11 at night, that's when I'll post it and write the little caption. For example, I had a meeting in the fall in Dick Durbin's office in the Capitol and happened to glance out the window. There's a spectacular view down the mall toward the Washington Monument, sun was setting. So I snapped the picture and then, several hours later, wrote the caption. So it's not quite "Instagram." It may be, sometimes, "Latergram," but that's how I do it. Or I may see something at the airport, take the picture and write the post on the plane and then post it when I get back.
The guy on the left is someone you know, but may not recognize. He's Irwin Gratz of Maine Public Radio. His voice wakes a lot of us up most mornings (I listen on the internet in Washington), filling us all in on the Maine news of the day. And today, he interviewed me about this Instagram account, so listen in this week! #mainepublic #irwingratz A photo posted by Angus King (@anguskingmaine) on Jan 2, 2017 at 10:33am PST
Now, Irwin, you haven't asked me the most important question, which is @AngusKingMaine; that's how people find the Instagram. I mean, if you're going to interview me, I want some followers out of this deal.
IRWIN GRATZ: We're going to get there, we're going to get there (laughter). Do you have a favorite filter that you're using on your camera?
SEN. ANGUS KING: I use an app called "Snapseed," and it used to be a stand-alone; I think Google owns it now. They've upgraded it. I'm not crazy about the upgrade, so I use the old Snapseed and it allows you to crop and balance and do that kind of thing. There is a kind of purity on Instagram. There are those people who are very proud of not using any filters, but I find if you have a picture and, for example, the background is bright and the foreground is sort of dark, you can use a filter that bumps up the light on the foreground so you can see people's faces, for example. So, I'm not a purist in that sense.
IRWIN GRATZ: I will say my favorite photo is the boys playing baseball in Mapleton.
SEN. ANGUS KING: Wasn't that unbelieveable?
IRWIN GRATZ: The green fields, the dark gray clouds, and that double rainbow.
Here's a post of a post of Irwin Gratz Instagramming @anguskingportland posting an Irwin/King selfie. Story at http://www.tinyurl.com/h8ocgm4 #MoreMeta #WeNeedToGoDeeper #SorryNotSorry A photo posted by Maine Public (@mainepublic) on Jan 4, 2017 at 2:35pm PST
SEN. ANGUS KING: Yeah, it was one of the most beautiful evenings. I was in Aroostook County for the weekend and there wasn't anything on the schedule. And I said, 'Something must be going on in town.' And they said, 'Well, there's a little league game. And I said, 'Great, let's go.' And so we went and hung out at the game and then this storm went by and this just vivid rainbow, one of the most vivid that I've ever seen...Now, I did move around so I got it so the rainbow was coming right down on the batter, right behind the batter. It was...that was a special moment for sure.
That's Maine Sen. Angus King, talking with Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz about his fondness for posting on the social media site Instagram.
