It isn’t often the the President of the United States comes to Madison, Wisconsin. As a matter of fact it was apparently Harry Truman who last did so. So when I heard that Barack Obama was going to be at Wright Middle School here I called in all my favors and got press access to the event. Previously I’d photographed the President in Green Bay and knew that I wanted to be able to get tighter pictures of him this time, so I rented and enormously expensive 600mm lens from Calumet in Chicago.  The lens arrived early on the morning of the President’s appearance.

Lens in tow, a fellow photographer and I had sweaty palms as we moved past all the police barracades up to the Secret Service checkpoint. There was always this sense that maybe we would not get it somehow. But we succeeded. Once inside there was a terrible crush in the press section, which was way in the back of the gymnasium on some low risers. Everybody had an idea of what territory they were going to stake out and, in order to hold that territory one had to literally stand in place for two hours.

Once the president arrived it was go-time, a frenzy of attempting to shoot at the exact right moment, keeping the autofocus rectangle on the bridge of the President’s nose, recomposing and then firing off volleys of shots. The buffer on my camera soon filled up as my camera isn’t really optimized for sports shooting, and I would have to wait for the images to write to the card. Despite all of the visual and technical machinations occupying my mind I was able to listen to the speech, which I found to be articulate, intelligent and moving.  I am very much a fan of our President.

Me with the venerable Canon 600mm f/4 IS L