Two covers and 15 years: How a portrait of Nancy Pelosi brought my career full circle

November 17, 2011, was an unusually exciting day in my young career as a photography assistant. Working in a creative field meant I didn’t usually wear a button-down shirt and tie on the job, but that blustery autumn afternoon was different. I was at the U.S. Capitol in the large, ornate office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. I had just finished setting up the lighting for photographer Tim Coburn on a magazine cover shoot. As Pelosi entered the office right on time, her aide reminded us that she had only a few minutes for photos on an otherwise packed day. As she moved through the planned portrait setups, I stood off to the side near her desk, taking behind-the-scenes photos with my BlackBerry. Mike Nelson was a photo assistant on The Advocate's cover shoot with Nancy Pelosi in November 2011.Mike NelsonOver breakfast that morning, I had been reading the news when The Hill reported that it had obtained a letter from then-presidential candidate and Republican Texas Gov. Rick Perry challenging Pelosi to a debate. Now I was standing in the office of the most powerful woman in Congress, and there, on her wooden desk, was the same letter I had read about only hours earlier.I was at the epicenter of news and power, and it was intoxicating. Yet the real significance of that day would not reveal itself for nearly 15 years.Related: Nancy Pelosi on AIDS, trans rights, the legacy she resists claiming — and why Democrats must ‘win big’The assignment that brought me backThe evening of June 22 this year was a typical warm and muggy Mid-Atlantic summer night. I was packing for my flight home to Los Angeles after a three-week visit with family in Northern Virginia when my phone buzzed with a text from equalpride Politics and News Editor Christopher Wiggins. I had photographed new headshots for him three days earlier, so I assumed he was sending retouching notes on his selections.“Sorry for the late text, but with you traveling tomorrow I wanted to make sure you got