Barack Obama's face moments before he went to take the oath of office.



This is a detail from a larger image, which reveals Obama is actually looking at himself, in a mirror.



As I've said here before, regardless of the intent, the official White House photography of the Obama administration has been excellent, sometimes intimate. occasionally surreal and often surprisingly revealing.

Here are a bunch of detail grabs from larger official White House photos :














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For those who enjoyed 2008's blurry, dodgy-camera, light-trailing New Year's Eve fireworks photos, here's some from NYE 2009 :













Photos by Darryl Mason