By Stephen Hiltner @ NYTimes.com, June 9

Doug Mills, the New York Times photographer who captured yesterday’s viral image of James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director, seated before the Senate Intelligence Committee, is no stranger to the political spotlight. Since joining The Times in 2002, Mr. Mills has photographed presidential administrations — and the spectacles surrounding them — in Washington, aboard Air Force One, and in Afghanistan, among countless other locales. What follows is a lightly edited Q. and A. about his coverage Thursday from Capitol Hill.

Your photograph of Mr. Comey took the internet by storm — especially on Reddit, where it earned more than 60,000 “upvotes.” How did it come together?

I knew it wouldn’t be a contentious or heated hearing — or at least I didn’t expect it to be. Mr. Comey had handed out his testimony the day before, so some of the air was already out of the balloon. And for me, what that meant was: A tight shot showing one of Mr. Comey’s facial expressions wasn’t likely to be the most intriguing picture [....]

What was the scene like in the hearing room?

It was one of the most crowded — if not the most crowded — hearings I’ve ever been a part of. It was right up there with the Iran-contra hearings, in 1987 [....]