Obama Part II

When I first sat down to write this morning (now afternoon), I fully intended upon putting together pictures and some commentary on the McCain rally I attended yesterday.  But as I flipped through my archives I thought it more interesting, at the present, to put together some of the 4x5s I shot at the Obama rally from wednesday.  

Inevitably, when you attend these rallies, you meet lots of new people.  Both press and non-press.  And if you happen to lug around lots of gear, some of it 50+ years old, then ther'es a bit of intrigue, and people tend to watch you and take an interest in what you're doing.  I decided to use this to my advantage, by taking pictures of people before the Obama rally started.  The light was fading, but pretty nice, especially where we, the picture people could stand, because, as you see, once you are behind the barriers there is no way of going back to the "other side". It forces you to interact with the people, instead of losing yourself in the crowds.

So I set up my tripod and framed some people, waited, and on some occasions, asked for them to humor me and engage in the process.  The nice thing about setting up an old camera, is that once you're set up, for the most part those on the other side aren't aware of when you are taking the pictures.  You can stand for minutes on end, shutter release in hand, and wait for things to come together...provided of course, that the area of interest falls in your narrow pre-focused zone...

Naturally, there was some mounting anticipation before the rally...

Old enough to attend, but not old enough to vote...

Waiting a short time for the rally to get started, waiting a long time for an African-American president...

Pre-rally invocation...

Obama takes the stage...