Wednesday, November 5, 2008
What it's like to cover the presidential campaign
Since most people don't get to photograph the things that I've gotten to over the past month, I though I would share what it is like to photograph the presidential campaign.
I'm a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis and a staff photographer for our paper, Student Life (studlife.com). We hosted the VP debate at our school, and while I didn't get to photograph the debates themselves (was not on staff before the credential request deadline), I did get to travel to the airport to photograph the vice presidential candidates arriving.
The campaigns don't give you much notice when it comes to events. Our office received an email from the Obama campaign with Biden's arrival time the night before (at something like 11 PM, since the debates were going on the next day, lots of our staff was in the office). I was assigned within minutes. The candidates were arriving at the executive terminal at Lambert-St. Louis Airport, Palin at 2:00, Biden at 2:45. Media was required to be there 11 AM for preset....3 hours early.
We pull up to the security gate at the executive terminal, show press credentials, and are waved right in. Media preset is an interesting thing. For security reasons, the media is required to place all their equipment on the pavement next to the secure area. We then walk away from it (It's quite safe, the secret service is there remember?). The secret service then goes over it with bomb sniffing dogs (who like to drool on your expensive stuff....). After it's cleared, we are then aloud to claim our gear.
Once we've picked up our stuff, we are scanned with a handheld metal detector and receive full pat downs. Then we finally get to go into the secure area. At his point, all there is to do is stand there and talk, you've got a few hours to kill. I found myself hanging out with some photographers from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (see photo below, I'm on the left). We then spend the next hour or so whining about how we are shooting backlit. News photographers like to complain.
A few hours later, Palin arrived. Before the plane even stops, the motorcade surrounds the plane, secret service gets out, and we wait some more. About 5 minutes after the plane parked (but it feels like half an hour) Palin appears in the door. We then have about 7 minutes of excitement as she waves, walks down the stairs, shakes some hands, and gets in a car. Then, 70 pictures later, it's over.
We repeat 45 minutes later for Biden. Then we rush back to the office, download and edit the photos, and wait for something exciting to happen again.
For the Obama rally we were also informed fairly late, given a three day heads up, which really wasn't that bad. For Obama, media preset was 5 AM. He was speaking at noon. Refusing to believe that we had to show up seven hours early, we called the campaign, who told us photographers should plan on arriving at 9:30. Much better.
After we finally found a parking space, we ask a police officer where the media entrance is. He says it was where the main entrance was, the middle of the arch grounds. We head over there. Ask a officer from another agency, he says it's on the left side of the arch by the river (where our car was). We go there. Once there, secret service informs us that the entrance is actually right along the river, just on the other side of the arch, but we can't walk up the road that would take us right there. Instead we have to go all the way around the arch grounds (60+ acres). Fun stuff.
Once we actually got to the media entrance (below) things went smoothly. The usual pat downs and metal detectors, picked up our credentials and we were on our way. An official from the Obama campaign directed us to the press risers (also below, with shooters from AP, NYT, and Post Dispatch, and a really irritating CNN iReporter woman who really shouldn't have been there) and we staked out our spot.
At these events, you need to be very protective of your territory. If you leave a good spot, you can come back and find people from say the riverfront times standing there like they own it. While our other shooter wandered the grounds, I defended our turf. What's really fun is the power you seem to wield as a member of the media. If we point our cameras at people, they all start cheering and jumping up and down. It makes you feel important, even though you're not.
When you cover big events, you can't waste time changing lenses. In that photo I have two D2H camera bodies with a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 17-55mm f/2.8. The third body is a Canon 1D Mark IIn with a 300mm f/2.8 and 1.4x Teleconverter. You never know how close you will be.
Like at the airport, it was another hurry up and wait type of situation. More chatting with other photographers. The conversations typically go something like this:
Me: "Hey, I saw you covering the VP Debate, who are you with?"
Other person: "Oh, I'm with the (pick one of the following) New York Times/Associated Press/USA Today/BBC/Post Dispatch/Washington Post. How about yourself?"
Me: "I'm with Student Life, the independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis."
Them: "Oh, you're a student. That's really cool that you get to cover such big events"
Me: "Yes, yes it is. What kind of gear do you have on you."
Them: "Oh, just the basics. Three 1D Mark III bodies (or D3) with a 16-35 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, and 300 f/2.8. I've got a 500mm on the ground over there"
And you can see where this conversation is headed.....
When the motorcade arrives, the first thing you see is a huge mob rushing to the press risers. This is the traveling press, and they are special. They get to travel with the candidate and have good food set up for them in the media tent.
When Obama got on stage, something like 50 lenses swung to point at him at the same time. The air was filled with shutter sounds. For the first 10 minutes of the rally, all the photographers were constantly shooting, trying to get the best speaking shot. Once we knew we had one, we could afford to be creative. At that point, people took out their fisheyes and wide angle lenses to get crowd shots and started changing positions. I went up on a scissor lift to get an aerial view of the rally.
Once he finished speaking, photographers rush to the stage area to try to get a good shot. Of course, nobody really gets one. Except for one guy who happened to be there before we all swarmed. Everyone hates that guy :-P. Once he is safely in the motorcade, all the photographers head over to the media filing tent, download their images and sent them off to the wire services.
We went in search of a secret service pin. Secret Service agents carry pins that they sometimes give out to the media, we didn't get one this time.
McCain was in town that Monday. His rally had 3,000 people, in contrast to the 100,000 for Obama. Same ordeal getting in. Same early arrivals for pre-set
At this rally we were set up shooting backlit. I took my place on the main riser, facing McCain and shot from there for most of the time.
Since the rally was smaller, we had slightly better access. At this one I was able to enter the buffer (the empty space between the candidate and the crowd) for about 30 seconds to photograph up close. This is much more challenging than you would think. With 30 seconds to shoot, you have to immediately make a focal length decision, frame correctly the first time, and you better get exposure right. When you're in the buffer you have only one chance to do everything correctly. Mess up and you get no shots.
Big events like these are a challenge to shoot no matter what the conditions. In addition to the pressure to get a good photograph of the speaker, you also have a crowd to watch. Sometimes the best photo is not the photo of the candidate, but of the crowd. It's important to have your head on a swivel, always searching. You don't want to miss a moment.
After the rally we ran around looking for pins again. One of the secret service guys remembered me and actually brought some this time.
(In the shot below, that's me in the middle. I'm surrounded on both sides by secret service)
Anyways, thought I would share what it is like to cover these things. Hope it was at least slightly interesting.
I'm a freshman at Washington University in St. Louis and a staff photographer for our paper, Student Life (studlife.com). We hosted the VP debate at our school, and while I didn't get to photograph the debates themselves (was not on staff before the credential request deadline), I did get to travel to the airport to photograph the vice presidential candidates arriving.
The campaigns don't give you much notice when it comes to events. Our office received an email from the Obama campaign with Biden's arrival time the night before (at something like 11 PM, since the debates were going on the next day, lots of our staff was in the office). I was assigned within minutes. The candidates were arriving at the executive terminal at Lambert-St. Louis Airport, Palin at 2:00, Biden at 2:45. Media was required to be there 11 AM for preset....3 hours early.
We pull up to the security gate at the executive terminal, show press credentials, and are waved right in. Media preset is an interesting thing. For security reasons, the media is required to place all their equipment on the pavement next to the secure area. We then walk away from it (It's quite safe, the secret service is there remember?). The secret service then goes over it with bomb sniffing dogs (who like to drool on your expensive stuff....). After it's cleared, we are then aloud to claim our gear.
Once we've picked up our stuff, we are scanned with a handheld metal detector and receive full pat downs. Then we finally get to go into the secure area. At his point, all there is to do is stand there and talk, you've got a few hours to kill. I found myself hanging out with some photographers from the St. Louis Post Dispatch (see photo below, I'm on the left). We then spend the next hour or so whining about how we are shooting backlit. News photographers like to complain.
A few hours later, Palin arrived. Before the plane even stops, the motorcade surrounds the plane, secret service gets out, and we wait some more. About 5 minutes after the plane parked (but it feels like half an hour) Palin appears in the door. We then have about 7 minutes of excitement as she waves, walks down the stairs, shakes some hands, and gets in a car. Then, 70 pictures later, it's over.
We repeat 45 minutes later for Biden. Then we rush back to the office, download and edit the photos, and wait for something exciting to happen again.
For the Obama rally we were also informed fairly late, given a three day heads up, which really wasn't that bad. For Obama, media preset was 5 AM. He was speaking at noon. Refusing to believe that we had to show up seven hours early, we called the campaign, who told us photographers should plan on arriving at 9:30. Much better.
After we finally found a parking space, we ask a police officer where the media entrance is. He says it was where the main entrance was, the middle of the arch grounds. We head over there. Ask a officer from another agency, he says it's on the left side of the arch by the river (where our car was). We go there. Once there, secret service informs us that the entrance is actually right along the river, just on the other side of the arch, but we can't walk up the road that would take us right there. Instead we have to go all the way around the arch grounds (60+ acres). Fun stuff.
Once we actually got to the media entrance (below) things went smoothly. The usual pat downs and metal detectors, picked up our credentials and we were on our way. An official from the Obama campaign directed us to the press risers (also below, with shooters from AP, NYT, and Post Dispatch, and a really irritating CNN iReporter woman who really shouldn't have been there) and we staked out our spot.
At these events, you need to be very protective of your territory. If you leave a good spot, you can come back and find people from say the riverfront times standing there like they own it. While our other shooter wandered the grounds, I defended our turf. What's really fun is the power you seem to wield as a member of the media. If we point our cameras at people, they all start cheering and jumping up and down. It makes you feel important, even though you're not.
When you cover big events, you can't waste time changing lenses. In that photo I have two D2H camera bodies with a 70-200mm f/2.8 and a 17-55mm f/2.8. The third body is a Canon 1D Mark IIn with a 300mm f/2.8 and 1.4x Teleconverter. You never know how close you will be.
Like at the airport, it was another hurry up and wait type of situation. More chatting with other photographers. The conversations typically go something like this:
Me: "Hey, I saw you covering the VP Debate, who are you with?"
Other person: "Oh, I'm with the (pick one of the following) New York Times/Associated Press/USA Today/BBC/Post Dispatch/Washington Post. How about yourself?"
Me: "I'm with Student Life, the independent newspaper of Washington University in St. Louis."
Them: "Oh, you're a student. That's really cool that you get to cover such big events"
Me: "Yes, yes it is. What kind of gear do you have on you."
Them: "Oh, just the basics. Three 1D Mark III bodies (or D3) with a 16-35 f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8, and 300 f/2.8. I've got a 500mm on the ground over there"
And you can see where this conversation is headed.....
When the motorcade arrives, the first thing you see is a huge mob rushing to the press risers. This is the traveling press, and they are special. They get to travel with the candidate and have good food set up for them in the media tent.
When Obama got on stage, something like 50 lenses swung to point at him at the same time. The air was filled with shutter sounds. For the first 10 minutes of the rally, all the photographers were constantly shooting, trying to get the best speaking shot. Once we knew we had one, we could afford to be creative. At that point, people took out their fisheyes and wide angle lenses to get crowd shots and started changing positions. I went up on a scissor lift to get an aerial view of the rally.
Once he finished speaking, photographers rush to the stage area to try to get a good shot. Of course, nobody really gets one. Except for one guy who happened to be there before we all swarmed. Everyone hates that guy :-P. Once he is safely in the motorcade, all the photographers head over to the media filing tent, download their images and sent them off to the wire services.
We went in search of a secret service pin. Secret Service agents carry pins that they sometimes give out to the media, we didn't get one this time.
McCain was in town that Monday. His rally had 3,000 people, in contrast to the 100,000 for Obama. Same ordeal getting in. Same early arrivals for pre-set
At this rally we were set up shooting backlit. I took my place on the main riser, facing McCain and shot from there for most of the time.
Since the rally was smaller, we had slightly better access. At this one I was able to enter the buffer (the empty space between the candidate and the crowd) for about 30 seconds to photograph up close. This is much more challenging than you would think. With 30 seconds to shoot, you have to immediately make a focal length decision, frame correctly the first time, and you better get exposure right. When you're in the buffer you have only one chance to do everything correctly. Mess up and you get no shots.
Big events like these are a challenge to shoot no matter what the conditions. In addition to the pressure to get a good photograph of the speaker, you also have a crowd to watch. Sometimes the best photo is not the photo of the candidate, but of the crowd. It's important to have your head on a swivel, always searching. You don't want to miss a moment.
After the rally we ran around looking for pins again. One of the secret service guys remembered me and actually brought some this time.
(In the shot below, that's me in the middle. I'm surrounded on both sides by secret service)
Anyways, thought I would share what it is like to cover these things. Hope it was at least slightly interesting.
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Temptation
Part of my body of work in my advanced photography class. I don't like to talk about this one much, I just let it speak for itself.
Fireworks
I finally figured out how to successfully photograph fireworks, and it was much easier than I expected.
Before I even set up my camera, I contacted the people in charge of the event to determine where the launch site was, and the Idaho State Trooper who was stationed there to determine where I could position myself.
Once I had that information, I set myself upwind (so that the smoke didn't make my photos hazy). After making sure there would be no bright lights in my frame, I set up my camera on the tripod.
For this shot, I unfolded the legs of my tripod so they were almost parallel to the ground, allowing me to position my camera at ground level. This permitted me to include both my foreground subject (the truck), and enough of the sky for the fireworks. How much of the sky to include is a guess, based upon how high the show was last year, how close you are, pure luck.
After the camera was set up, I placed it in manual mode at an aperture of f/8 for a decent depth of field. Fireworks are quite bright, so wide apertures really aren't that suitable for this technique. Shutter speed was set to bulb, and I connected my camera's remote cable and configured it to immediately trigger the shutter when pressed.
Once the show starts, exposure is a matter of timing and guesswork. I pressed the remote's button when the explosion started, and held it down until the explosion dissipated (about 7 seconds or so I think). It's important to use a long exposure to include the entire pattern, as a short exposure would freeze only a small portion of the design.
After about ten tries, I started to get about a 90% success rate.
Before I even set up my camera, I contacted the people in charge of the event to determine where the launch site was, and the Idaho State Trooper who was stationed there to determine where I could position myself.
Once I had that information, I set myself upwind (so that the smoke didn't make my photos hazy). After making sure there would be no bright lights in my frame, I set up my camera on the tripod.
For this shot, I unfolded the legs of my tripod so they were almost parallel to the ground, allowing me to position my camera at ground level. This permitted me to include both my foreground subject (the truck), and enough of the sky for the fireworks. How much of the sky to include is a guess, based upon how high the show was last year, how close you are, pure luck.
After the camera was set up, I placed it in manual mode at an aperture of f/8 for a decent depth of field. Fireworks are quite bright, so wide apertures really aren't that suitable for this technique. Shutter speed was set to bulb, and I connected my camera's remote cable and configured it to immediately trigger the shutter when pressed.
Once the show starts, exposure is a matter of timing and guesswork. I pressed the remote's button when the explosion started, and held it down until the explosion dissipated (about 7 seconds or so I think). It's important to use a long exposure to include the entire pattern, as a short exposure would freeze only a small portion of the design.
After about ten tries, I started to get about a 90% success rate.
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Night Shots 7: San Diego Bay
Yeah, I'm skipping around. But this is the latest one and I felt I should post it closer to when I took it...
I was out photographing at the airport when I noticed this scene behind me. Orange glow from the sodium vapor lights over at the navy base, plus a blurry boat and smooth water from the long shutter speed made for a pretty surreal image.
I also grabbed the basic skyline reflecting in water photo, but I felt that this one was the strongest from the night.
I was out photographing at the airport when I noticed this scene behind me. Orange glow from the sodium vapor lights over at the navy base, plus a blurry boat and smooth water from the long shutter speed made for a pretty surreal image.
I also grabbed the basic skyline reflecting in water photo, but I felt that this one was the strongest from the night.
Night Shots 2: La Jolla
When I go shooting at night, I typically do it with a friend of mine. I picked the first location. He picked the second.
This photo was taken in La Jolla, CA at a place called Windansea (spelling?). This time, the various light sources made for some really nice colors.
The green from the florescent, orange from sodium vapor street lights, and the whiter from the sky. Shutter speed was pretty slow, thus the blurred water and clouds. The full moon made for some pretty nice lighting
This photo was taken in La Jolla, CA at a place called Windansea (spelling?). This time, the various light sources made for some really nice colors.
The green from the florescent, orange from sodium vapor street lights, and the whiter from the sky. Shutter speed was pretty slow, thus the blurred water and clouds. The full moon made for some pretty nice lighting
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Night Shots 1: Dog Beach Bridge
The first photo of my latest obsession, night photography. The world changes at night. Scenes that would normally be perfectly normal and unremarkable in the day become emotional and fascinating at night.
The first photo of the project was the Dog Beach Bridge in Del Mar, CA.
My tripod was set up on the sand under the bridge, at some points almost in the water. The light you see in the center is from passing cars.
The first photo of the project was the Dog Beach Bridge in Del Mar, CA.
My tripod was set up on the sand under the bridge, at some points almost in the water. The light you see in the center is from passing cars.
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