Ready to record history

Don't tell me this was not treated as a photo op....

" Once Obama was off the air, we were escorted in front of that teleprompter
and the President then re-enacted the walk-out and first 30 seconds of the
statement for us."

http://blogs.reuters.com/photo/2011/05/02/ready-to-record-history/

The call came at 10pm on a Sunday night at home. "How soon can you get to
the White House"? Reuters had got the urgent call that President Barack
Obama was due to make a statement within 30 minutes. It had to be something
big to bring the press back so late on a weekend night. Even if I dropped
everything now and raced down there, would I be too late?

I was there in 14 minutes - a new personal best, from my home three miles
away. Running through White House security gates with my shoe laces still
untied, I was thinking that I hadn't made it in time for whatever the big
news was. The scene outside the famous 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue address was
familiarly quiet, with a couple uniformed Secret Service officers and their
squad car. 

Inside the press briefing room, wire and newspaper photographers started
filtering in, showing varying states of preparedness but all wondering the
same question. Why are we here?

In the U.S. TV network booths, a closed circuit live shot from the East Room
of the White House showed lighting technicians, cameramen and producers
readying the Presidential lectern for remarks. They were scrambling faster
than I had seen, and these guys are always pretty slick.

After 20 minutes, a tight group of five photographers were led through the
quiet night by staff up to the state floor of the White House, waiting for
President Obama to deliver a statement. It was there that I glimpsed the
words flashing on the teleprompter that I won't forget any time soon.
President Obama was about to declare Osama bin Laden had been killed.

Eerily, the muted sounds of cheering were heard from outside the White
House. It seemed the news had just hit the streets but weren't there just a
couple of police out there a minute ago? We knew Obama's speech was just
seconds away. He emerged from the Blue Room and strode past us to the
lectern and as Obama began to read the statement to the nation and the first
TV frame-grabs were being taken back in our office, I was able to run the
camera's memory disk to Jonathan Ernst, another photographer here for
Reuters who was ready to transmit those early pictures. 

As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one
main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff
and asked to remain completely silent. Once Obama was off the air, we were
escorted in front of that teleprompter and the President then re-enacted the
walk-out and first 30 seconds of the statement for us.

After running back to send our pictures - tight crops, loose crops, walking
towards us and away from us, side angles and such, as many versions of 30
seconds of picture-taking as I could think of, it was time to see what was
going on outside.

It was now midnight and those two police and their car were now engulfed by
thousands of chanting, flag-waving revelers. It sounded like a sports
stadium. The noise was deafening and it was a sight I had never seen before
in this normally quiet and reserved political town. 

Thousands of college students pouring out of bars, tourists and residents
scrambled to the White House to take in this historic moment. People were
hanging from trees, guys were dressed in Spiderman and Captain America
Costumes and strains of the Star Spangled Banner were spontaneously being
sung. It was like a carnival. 

I can only guess that, like the recent uprisings on the streets of Cairo,
social networking sites like facebook and twitter must have contributed to a
massive gathering of random people in one place. Cars loaded with
flag-waving revelers were honking their horns into the wee hours of the
morning in celebratory scenes also echoed in Times Square that night.

By the time I got home at 3am I couldn't go to sleep. The last few hours had
been one large blur, punctuated with surreal moments not normally seen in
Washington with the exception of Presidential inaugurations and large
organized rallies.

Tonight reminded me that big news can happen in the blink of an eye and as a
news photographer it always pays to have your equipment ready to record
history. 



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