Barack Obama

I was really lucky on April 10, 2010, to be able to attend President Barack Obama's speech in Portland, Maine! (Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them)  And because the news that THE MAN was in our town speaking has already made to the Flash section of Portland Magazine, I can show these off now!  These are my three favorite shots from the speech.  My father very kindly helped me out by loaning me his wonderful Pentax DA 55-300mm f/4-5.8 lens, which allowed me to get these pictures that I couldn't have done with any of my other lenses.  Thanks Dad! 

It was quite the ordeal, really, despite all the excitement.  I had to be vetted by the White House first, and then show up almost three hours early to get in line and wait for an hour until they let all of us press people in the side door.  There were tables for the "traveling press" which I didn't understand.  Who was this traveling press?  (I guess it was CNN, NPR, etc, etc--the big guy!)  And across from where President Obama was going to be speaking, was a big stage, with masking tape strips on the floor, denoting where all the video camera people (such as CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc, etc) got to place their ginormous tripods and fifty pound cameras.

We poor schmoes with simple cameras had to find spaces in between all of the video cameras.  Everyone was very nice, of course, but those video cameras take up a LOT of space--what with all the cords snaking this way and that.  I ended up sitting on the front of the stage between two video cams and taking all of my shots from there.

It was really sweltering hot in the auditorium--everyone was excited--people had been lined up for blocks, five across the sidewalk, just wall to wall people, so the energy was palpable.

And finally, five minutes EARLY, in walked our President!  It was so exciting and so LOUD it was unbelievable.  I noticed in the taped speech coverage, that CNN had blanked out all of the screaming that was so intense it made my eardrums vibrate.  I've never even had that happen in a rock concert!

The President's speech was great, just as I expected, but being able to share space in the same auditorium with him and several thousand people who were just thrilled to see him was the best.  Once again, thank you Portland Magazine!

Cindy