On Assignment

This past week was the start of the annual North American International Auto Show in Detroit, and along with the new cars and thousands of reporters, photographers, and other media types who flocked to it—myself included—the show also saw the frenzied tours by all three of the top Republican Presidential candidates. I was already dog-tired after two full days of shooting the auto show’s media preview events Monday night when we were told to be ready to catch Republican candidates around 5pm.

What ensued was probably the most ridiculous and out of control media scrum circus I have ever been involved with…. Mobs of hundreds of reporters, video and still photographers, sound boom operators and campaign entourage formed huge living blobs of flashing lights and shuffling feet, with all of us trying to get shots of the candidates, backpeddling, all the while attempting not to bang into the sparkling (expensive) new cars around the Cobo Hall show floor. Funniest moment was when Romney and Hucklebee came to within 20 feet of each other in the GM display and the massive media mob around the two men momentarily merged into one.

Joe Lieberman showed up first to stump for John McCain

One of the few moments I didn’t have to hail-mary my shots above a scrum

Romney is in there somewhere…

I really appreciated the technique of camera-on-monopod in being able to get shots like these… plus the monopod does a great job of keeping other press jockeys from getting in your way.

This reminded me of Dukakis in a Tank…..

Hucklebee, the family man, checks out a Hummer.

Hucklebee in the left corner, Romney in the upper right, FIGHT!

Who’s really running for President here? VP?

Way to pander to your non-existent Black vote John

Haha look at Leiberman trying to fits-bump!

Senators drive? Themselves?

McCain shows his age…

Leiberman cracked me up… looka him yaking away on the cell

I was really expecting more aggressive Secret Service protection for these guys, but we were basically in their faces…. I had to really try hard not to fall and collapse into them.

I don’t know why McCain didn’t turn around here and try and greet some of those blue-collar unit carpenters there working on the General Motors display.

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I shot an assignment this this week for AP on the story about Michigan’s court ruling on same sex benefits for public state employees, namely universities. I was sent to the home of this couple in Ypsi who had 4 adopted boys, all of whom were adorable and very hyper. Going into the assignment, I knew I didn’t want to setup a portrait with the family. Anything posed would’ve been too contrived, and especially for this topic, I felt it important to capture moments that showed how loving and positive this family was—thus extending the writer’s theme (nice he sent me the copy before hand) that a cut to the gay-couple’s health benefits because of the state’s stance on gay marriage would have profound consequences to the welfare of families.

Like any large family, these guys’ home centered around their farmhouse kitchen, so I just suggested that they go about their normal late afternoon activities, so I can catch some good candid shots. Problem was, these boys were extremely curious about me, my camera, and loved to stare and beam their semi-toothy grins, all the while pleading for me to “take my picture! take my picture!”

My solution? I just sat there, holding the camera body to the side, and waited. Little kids are like puppies in that they constantly desire attention, but they also have extremely short attention spans, so after about 10 mins of minimal interaction, they simply forgot about you. That’s when you can quickly snap a few frames of the true candid expressions. Moments that I was very satisfied with as in this picture that I transmitted to AP.

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