McConnell Stands With (and Raises Money Off) Rand Paul

After opposing his bid for Kentucky’s Republican Senate nomination in 2010, Senator Mitch McConnell is ready to Stand with Rand, Paul that is. Oh, and he’d like you to join Team Mitch while you’re at it.

In a fund-raising e-mail from Team Mitch, Mr. McConnell’s 2014 re-election campaign, the Republican leader showered praise on Mr. Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky, for his 13-hour filibuster last week of President Obama’s nominee to head the Central Intelligence Agency, John O. Brennan. Mr. McConnell, of course, had to slip in his own role in helping Mr. Paul through the ordeal, a brief appearance in the guise of an extended question that gave his fellow Kentuckian a break.

“After a busy night, I checked CSPAN around 10 p.m. to see a fatigued but determined Senator Paul continuing to fight his heart out on the floor. My staff, who had been in constant contact with Sen. Paul’s staff, told me they were focused on speaking past midnight, which was still two hours away. I wanted to help,” Mr. McConnell wrote in the fund-raising e-mail. “So, at 10:30 p.m., I came back to the Capitol to do what I am asking you to do today: I came back to Stand with Rand.”

In addition, he slipped in, “I hope you’ll help Team Mitch today.”

For Mr. McConnell, the embrace of! his junior partner is a reversal on two fronts: politics and policy. Mr. McConnell in 2010 had backed Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson in his battle against a political neophyte ophthalmologist and Tea Party favorite, Mr. Paul. In the last days of the campaign, Mr. Paul refused to say whether he would back Mr. McConnell as Republican leader in the next Senate. Mr. Paul trounced Mr. McConnell’s candidate.

On the policy front, Mr. McConnell has hardly showed Mr. Paul’s concerns for the due-process rights of suspected terrorists. Mr. Paul mounted the filibuster to demand a more explicit statement from the Obama administrationrenouncing the authority to use armed drones against U.S. citizens, especially on American soil.

But in the running battles between civil libertarians and the Bush White House over similar matters, detainee rights, Guantanamo Bay, warrantless wiretapping, Mr. McConnell stood on the side of presidential authority. On the Bush administration’s use of wiretapping without court order, Mr. McConnell said in 2006, “The overwhelming majority of the American people understand that we need new techniques in the wake of 9/11 in order to protect us. The president feels very, very strongly that he’s acted constitutionally.”

“If you are calling from Tora Bora, you are probably not calling to order a pizza,” he’d later quip, referring to the Afghan redoubt where Osama bin Laden slipped from the grasp of the U.S.! military! in the early months of the Afghanistan war.

But if Democrats worried back then about a slippery slope toward infringement of civil liberties, Mr. McConnell now appears convinced of a cascade toward totalitarianism.

“This battle is so important because the Obama administration and their allies in Congress are out for total control,” the fund-raising e-mail said, “total control of your money, total control of your liberty, total control of your health care, total control of Washington.”

And in standing with Rand, Mr. McConnell is hoping for total control of his right flank â€" so he does not become Kentucky’s next Trey Grayson, an establishment Republican pushed to the side by a hard-charging Kentucky Tea Party patriot.

How to Shoot a Backlit Photo

If you use your flash only when it automatically pops up on your camera, you are missing a great opportunity to improve your portraits.

The flash is the answer to a common problem that occurs when there is a strong light behind a subject, even in broad daylight. “People pose on the beaches of Cabo San Lucas and the sun is behind them and they cannot understand why they are darkly lit or silhouetted,” said Bryan Peterson, who tackles this and a variety of lighting issues in his latest book, “Exposure Solutions.”

The reason is the camera’s light meter is setting itself based on the intense sunlight in the background. That leaves even slight shadows grossly underlit, so your subject’s face is just a murky outline.

Mr. Peterson teaches his students how to solve this problem to produce “one of the most rewarding portraits you can take,” e said. “You whip out the telephoto lens, and put your subject with their head blocking the sun.” Then use the flash. The result is a photo with golden overtones and a subject framed by a shimmering nimbus of light.

Here is Mr. Peterson’s formula for the shot.

Go Manual. To get this shot consistently you must learn to use your camera’s manual settings. So first, get your camera’s instructions and find out how to turn off the automatic mode. You will also need to know where the ISO, aperture, shutter speed and flash settings are. It’s not as hard as it may sound.

Low ISO. Choosing an ISO is like picking a film speed, and as with film, the faster the speed, the more that a grainy texture called noise will show. Higher ISO can also cause problems synchronizing with some flashes. Mr. Peterson prefers a low ISO of 200. “You have greater contrast and greater sharpness because there is no noise,” Mr. Peterson said.

High Depth.! Do you want the background artfully fuzzy or sharply focused If you have a beautiful sky, you want a lot of depth of field, so close the aperture. The higher the F-number, the more closed it is, so pick F16 or F22, Mr. Peterson said.

Closed Aperture. With the aperture set, adjust the shutter speed until the meter shows you are in the correct exposure range, or minus one stop, to make the sky richer in color. Don’t aim the camera right at the sun though; take a meter reading off to the side a bit so the clouds will be exposed perfectly.

Auto Flash. The final setting is to make sure your flash is on automatic exposure mode; again check your instructions. It will make sure the subject in the foreground is properly lit. With more practice, you can get more creative using the flash set on manual, too.

Put the sun behind your subject’s head, and voilà. Not only will you have a shot worth framing, but, as Mr. Peterson has discovered from his classe, the motivation to keep learning new techniques. “The elation people feel from that one little flash tip,” he said, “keeps them gong for years.”

How to Shoot a Backlit Photo

If you use your flash only when it automatically pops up on your camera, you are missing a great opportunity to improve your portraits.

The flash is the answer to a common problem that occurs when there is a strong light behind a subject, even in broad daylight. “People pose on the beaches of Cabo San Lucas and the sun is behind them and they cannot understand why they are darkly lit or silhouetted,” said Bryan Peterson, who tackles this and a variety of lighting issues in his latest book, “Exposure Solutions.”

The reason is the camera’s light meter is setting itself based on the intense sunlight in the background. That leaves even slight shadows grossly underlit, so your subject’s face is just a murky outline.

Mr. Peterson teaches his students how to solve this problem to produce “one of the most rewarding portraits you can take,” e said. “You whip out the telephoto lens, and put your subject with their head blocking the sun.” Then use the flash. The result is a photo with golden overtones and a subject framed by a shimmering nimbus of light.

Here is Mr. Peterson’s formula for the shot.

Go Manual. To get this shot consistently you must learn to use your camera’s manual settings. So first, get your camera’s instructions and find out how to turn off the automatic mode. You will also need to know where the ISO, aperture, shutter speed and flash settings are. It’s not as hard as it may sound.

Low ISO. Choosing an ISO is like picking a film speed, and as with film, the faster the speed, the more that a grainy texture called noise will show. Higher ISO can also cause problems synchronizing with some flashes. Mr. Peterson prefers a low ISO of 200. “You have greater contrast and greater sharpness because there is no noise,” Mr. Peterson said.

High Depth.! Do you want the background artfully fuzzy or sharply focused If you have a beautiful sky, you want a lot of depth of field, so close the aperture. The higher the F-number, the more closed it is, so pick F16 or F22, Mr. Peterson said.

Closed Aperture. With the aperture set, adjust the shutter speed until the meter shows you are in the correct exposure range, or minus one stop, to make the sky richer in color. Don’t aim the camera right at the sun though; take a meter reading off to the side a bit so the clouds will be exposed perfectly.

Auto Flash. The final setting is to make sure your flash is on automatic exposure mode; again check your instructions. It will make sure the subject in the foreground is properly lit. With more practice, you can get more creative using the flash set on manual, too.

Put the sun behind your subject’s head, and voilà. Not only will you have a shot worth framing, but, as Mr. Peterson has discovered from his classe, the motivation to keep learning new techniques. “The elation people feel from that one little flash tip,” he said, “keeps them gong for years.”

In a Break for Senate Democrats, Durbin to Run for Re-election in Illinois

After a half-dozen senior senators have announced their retirements, it now passes as news when a Senate veteran up for re-election in 2014 decides to try to stick around for another six years. Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate’s second-ranking Democrat, has decided to do just that, according to Senate officials familiar with his decision.

Although nothing is official, Mr. Durbin’s re-election bid will give a little breathing space to Senate Democrats, who already faced a third straight election cycle in which their majority could be at risk before four of their most senior members announced their retirements in recent weeks. The departures next year of Senators Tom Harkin of Iowa, Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Carl Levin of Micigan will result in a major changing of the guard in a body once known for stability and longevity. Between them, those four have logged 21 terms, and by retirement, 126 years in the Senate.

Those departures also present unexpected headaches in states that could give the party real election trouble.

Republicans are losing Saxby Chambliss of Georgia and Mike Johanns of Nebraska to retirement next year as well, but those states are considerably less open to a Democratic charge.

Political prognosticators have been ruminating for months over a possible retirement of South Dakota’s Democratic senator, Tim Johnson. But at least in Mr. Durbin, Democrats are likely to keep a Midwestern state off the battleground list.

Mr. Durbin h! as $2.6 million in the bank now, and with pending fund-raisers, he expects to near $3 million by the end of the month, according to officials watching his re-election efforts. He has held more than 20 political events since November and will spend the spring traveling around the country, raising money for his own re-election, the campaigns of colleagues and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

Follow Jonathan Weisman on Twitter at @jonathanweisman.

Obama to Address Gathering of Donors and Activists

President Obama will speak Wednesday night at a dinner for donors and activists at the first gathering of Organizing for Action, the nonprofit group created by former campaign officials to help advance the president’s agenda, according to officials with the new organization.

The group is meeting in Washington for its Founders’ Summit, a two-day event aimed at revving up supporters behind the president’s initiatives: immigration overhaul, gun safety and the budget fights that will consume much of the fall. The meeting was first reported by Politico.

Advisers to the group said the meeting was intended to help set its direction and to gather guidance from former campaign staff members and contributors. The meeting will include sessions on the timing of the presidentâ™s agenda and how the group needs to adjust its tactics in the wake of the campaign.

Conference participants were chosen from a group of donors, campaign volunteers and staff members who expressed interest in being involved with the organization, but there was no fund-raising requirement for individuals to attend.

Mr. Obama’s presence at the event follows a report in The Times that donors contributing or raising $500,000 or more for the new organization would be named to a “national advisory board” and would have quarterly meetings with the president.

That report stirred criticism from Republicans, who accused Mr. Obama’s former colleagues of selling access to the president. Jay Carney, the White House press secretary, said the president may meet with the group as he does with any other constituency organization.

“Any notion! that there is a set price for a meeting with the president of the United States is just wrong,” Mr. Carney said at a briefing last week.

In addition to the president, other speakers at the summit will include David Plouffe, a former senior White House adviser who managed Mr. Obama’s first campaign; Jon Carson, the executive director of the new group; and Jim Messina, who managed the president’s re-election campaign and is chairman of the group.

Follow Michael D. Shear on Twitter at @shearm.

A Headset for Professional Gamers (and Amateurs, Too)

The Ear Force XP Seven from Turtle Beach features a programmable digital signal processor.

Turtle Beach’s Ear Force XP510 gaming headset is wireless.

Turtle Beach wants to be the go-to brand of gaming headsets.

The company, based in Valhalla, N.Y., offers more than 40 headsets through its Web site, and last year it signed a partnershi with Major League Gaming, an electronic sports organization that holds tournaments around the United States. Turtle Beach has designed a lineup of licensed gear in time for the organization’s next tournament, the MLG Winter Championship next week in Dallas.

The new line includes the Ear Force XP Seven, the official headset of Major League Gaming. Even though that’s just a marketing gimmick (after all, Dr Pepper is the group’s official soft drink), the XP Seven holds its title with pride.

The headset features Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound and a programmable processor with eight preset buttons that allow users to personalize their audio, like adding more bass or treble or increasing the chat volume. It’s compatible with the Xbox and PS3, as well as PCs. And it can be connected to a mobile device, which allows you to take a phone call without pausing your game.

Granted, I didn’t use the h! eadset in a tournament, just in my living room, but I can understand why gear like the XP Seven is so crucial to professional gamers. The sound was astounding, and the audio customization took just a few touches. With a game like “Batman: Arkham Asylum,” you can pinpoint every sound, like dripping water, crackling electricity and approaching footsteps, and relish in the satisfying crunch when you snap the bones of a Joker thug. Even with a SpongeBob SquarePants game intended for children, the XP Seven helps create an atmosphere so immersive that you feel you can keep going for hours. Fortunately, if you do play that long, the over-ear swivel cups are very comfortable.

But all those features don’t come cheaply; the unit costs $280. The headset adds clutter, too; eight cables crisscrossed my living room to connect to everything except the philodendron.

If you’re not a competitive player but still want amazing sound, it might be worthwhile to consider the Ear Force XP510 wireless headset. A $290, it also features the same Dolby Surround Sound and programmable presets, plus you can sync it to a phone or tablet via Bluetooth and stream music when you’re not hunkered down in front of the TV.

Q&A: Importing Camera Photos to an iPad Mini

Q.

I want to get an iPad Mini, but will the iPad Camera Connection Kit I have for my iPad 2 work with it

A.

The original iPad Camera Connection Kit â€" a pair of white-plastic adapters that connect a Secure Digital card or a USB cable to the tablet â€" uses the older 30-pin Dock Connector port. The Dock Connector port is the long, narrow slot on the bottom of the first three generations of the iPad. However, the iPad Mini and the fourth-generation iPad (released last fall) use the much smaller Lightning port to connect cables and devices.

Accessories made for the Dock Connector port will not work with a Lightning port without an adapter. Although a few third-party adapters have appeared, some products are unauthorized by Apple and may not work properly. Adapters made by other companies do tend to be cheaper than Apple’s own gear, though, so check the product revies for reliability or look for Apple-authorized gear on accessory sites around the Web.

Apple itself sells a chunky one-piece Lightning-to-30-Pin Adapter for $29, as well as an eight-inch Lightning-to-30-Pin Adapter cable for $39. Either of these should work to link the old iPad Camera Connection Kit to the iPad Mini to import photos from the camera.

A Lightning adapter can be useful for connecting other old accessories designed for the Dock Connector port to the newer iPad models â€" except for those that were designed for video output, which Apple’s adapters do not support. If your interest is mainly in importing photos from the camera directly to the iPad Mini, you can also get a Lightning-to-SD-Card Adapter or a Lightning-to-USB Camera Adapter from Apple for $29 each.

Buying a dedicated Lightning accessory for importing photos does mean forking over more money, but it saves you the trouble of having to keep track of both the Lightning adapter and the iPad Camera Connection Kit ! gear when you travel. Apple’s page of Lightning adapters and cables is here.

The Early Word: Silver Linings

In Today’s Times

• Though the automatic budget cuts were never intended to go into effect, administration officials - and even some Pentagon officers - see the cuts as a possible opening to argue for reductions in programs long in President Obama’s sights, David E. Sanger and Thom Shanker report.

• Vermont’s 625,000 residents have two United States senators, and so do New York’s 19 million, giving a Vermonter 30 times the Senate voting power of a New Yorker, Adam Liptak writes. That gap is not an anomaly. The growing disparity in citizens’ voting power is affecting the political dynamic on issues as varied as gun control, immigration and campaign finance.

• Though Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona has won respect in conservative circles or her previous legislative battles, she is having a hard time persuading fellow Republicans to come on board for a measure that would expand Medicaid in her state, Fernanda Santos reports.

• Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida appeared on all the morning talk shows on Sunday for two purposes: to promote his new book and do damage control over some of its content, Jackie Calmes reports.

• As President Obama goes to Capitol Hill this week to try to salvage a big deficit-reduction deal, he faces complaints from Democrats who say he mishandled his last attempt at a “grand bargain,” Richard W. Ste! venson and John Harwood write.

Around the Web

• President Obama is likely to nominate Thomas E. Perez, an assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, to be the next secretary of labor, the Washington Post reports.

• Politico: For one group of senators, silence isn’t golden - it’s priceless.

• It’s a tough time to be a conservative Congressional staff member whose specialty is health care, Politico also writes.

Happening in Washington

• Michelle Obama will host a Q&A on Twitter at 11:05 a.m. about her “Let’s Mov!” initiative.