Monday, November 24, 2008
But what an amazing experience it was for us regardless of our politics (Ron Paul was robbed!). The celebration was held in their ballroom and was wall to wall people ~ all so happy and hopeful. There were projection screen tv's and drink stations set up in each room and Obama paraphenalia for sale. At first I just went from room to room taking portraits of individuals like this gentleman who happily posed for me. I love his posture, he looks so empowered! (This picture is going to be entered in a contest at our school.)
Right at the perfect moment James and I happened into a room that turned out to be the main room where all the speakers were. The tv cameras were set up in the back of the room and all the photographers were lined up in front of the stage snapping away. As soon as we walked in our Senator walked up to the podium and started speaking. About the time we pushed our way thru the crowd to the middle, the Talking Heads on tv started announcing the results for Virginia and the crowd went wild ~ screaming, crying, jumping around. I just held my camera up and started laying on the shutter (that's how I got the picture that ended up in the paper). James dragged me up front and I got several great shots of some lady who talked a lot about her father but the crowd was so loud when they introduced her that I didn't catch her name. I just liked all the emotion she was showing. When I got to school and was editing them my teacher couldn't believe that I didn't even realize that I was taking shots of Lucy L. Johnson in the very room that her father gave his acceptance speech! But here is the learning experience that I had. I'm standing there taking pictures up by the stage. I've taken hundreds of pictures that night. Obama has won, the crowd is giddy and I'm thrilled with how well my assignment is going to turn out, when the Executive Director of the Travis County Democratic party steps off the stage and asks me to take her picture with the woman who turned out to be Lucy Johnson. Of course I said yes and hold my camera up to take the shot only to have my camera do nothing! My battery died!! And being the rookie that I am, I had no backup batteries with me. So what do you do in this situation? You press the flash and announce that you got it...and then run!
