Thursday, February 14, 2008

Hillary (or, Media Access Rocks)

You never really miss something until it goes away. On Tuesday, the Hillary Clinton machine came steam rolling through town, and it didn't take long for me to really miss the perks of being a credentialed member of the media. The event was free and open to the public. The media, however, was to be restricted in a pen at the back. In attempt to beat the system and try and get some different shots, we decided that I would just walk in with the regular crowd. Of course that meant I had to wait in line with all the regular people. Seating was first come, first serve, and we were worried that people were going to start lining up early. The venue was kind of small and I didn't want to end up in the overflow area, so at 8 a.m. I rolled up to get in line for a 1 p.m. speech.

It turned out that media wasn't really restricted, and I could have just skipped the whole wait-in-line thing. I was able to get pretty close, but I ended up standing behind possibly the tallest girl in attendance. She and her friends also didn't mind telling me how much they disliked our close proximity, and they got tired of my cameras touching them whenever I squirmed around trying to grab different equipment. It's a thankless job sometimes.

I really didn't get any spectacular photos. Despite the long day, though, I did have a good time. Big events like these are always stressful, yet fantastic at the same time. I think what I liked most was how excited the people were. It had the atmosphere of a rock concert at times. Even though I was trapped in the mosh pit, I was excited to be part of it all.



I also put together a little audio slideshow with photos and audio collected by all the photographers. It has parts of her speech mixed with reaction from some regular people thrown in. It's an idea I've wanted to try out for a while, so I'm glad I finally got it done.

5 comments:

Melissa said...

I hope you cherish that moment with Mrs. Clinton, forever.

Z-Man said...

Great show. I forwarded a link to my friend jammer who is working for Hillary at her main HQ in DC. Mayby he'll pass it on and she'll leave a comment.

Ken said...

Great job on the multimedia. The voices were great, never redundant. Keep it up!

Anonymous said...

it scares me to think she could be president. good job on pics

Marc F. Henning said...

"they got tired of my cameras touching them whenever I squirmed around trying to grab different equipment."

that's freakin' hilarious. you should've grabbed a handful of "her equipment." a 50/50 chance after that you'd either have an unobstructed view or be flat on your back unconscious on the floor. considering your subject matter i would've preferred the latter myself. :)