I am the art director for the National Security Science magazine, which showcases the work done at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

For our warfighter issue, I really wanted a cover that showed our active military collaboration. After some serious brainstorming I came up with the idea of a flag being raised in front of Los Alamos National Laboratory's iconic building, the National Security Science Building. This photograph, taken by Daniel Owen and Kevin Sutton, was no easy task as there was cars, traffic, signs in the way, and was taken in January when the mountain weather was unpredictable, and there wasn't much wind to blow the flag. The building was also at an odd angle, but a spot on the other side of the street was finally determined to create the perfect shot. It was a cloudy morning, so the golden hour of sunrise was not as predicted–but Daniel had about a two minute window when the lighting on the clouds made a beautiful pink color. Daniel had to take the image from across a busy traffic street, and work with Kevin via phone on the other side of the street to position everyone just right, and take the shot the moment the wind blew the flag within those two minutes. The coordination with security team was also necessary (several veterans, so they were very supportive!). The end result was an impactful cover that has lead to several requests of the image and a successful magazine cover. The people on the cover include a B-2 pilot and a missileer. Los Alamos works closely with the military to serve and these unsung heros got some much needed recognition.