In June of 2015, my colleague Niels Lesniewski sent me an email about a moose coming to the Capitol. A what, in the where? This sounded like a prime feature photo. 

Al Drago, then our photo intern, and I scrambled to the Hart Senate Office Building loading dock to capture Marty the Moose and Kodak the Bear being transported from a U-Haul up to the 5th-floor office of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H. Thus was born an annual photo-op, which, 10 years later, has expanded from just a Roll Call feature into a crowded media melee. 

These moose on the loose photos have even won Roll Call three awards over the years in the White House News Photographers Association’s “Eyes of History” contest. 

Marty and Kodak have traveled to Capitol Hill each year, except during the COVID-19 pandemic, for the New Hampshire State Society’s “Experience New Hampshire” event held in the Russell Building to showcase the state.