[Leica] Re:al gore and photography

[leicachris at worldnet.att.net (Christopher Williams)]

Have to add my little political photography story.

Clinton was speaking along the Riverwalk in New Orleans during his second
election campaign. I figured I'd go and hope to get some decent shots. Only
large lens I had with me at that time, so long,long, long ago was a Pentax
SMC 300/4 and a 2x converter. So I lug this heavy ass gear down to the
Riverwalk. There are 2 lines for security, one is press while the other is
for us common folks. SS is checking everything down to your shoes. I place
all my gear on the table, SS say I'm in the wrong line, I need to go to the
press line. I tell him I'm not press, I just want some photos. He's points
me to the press line. So I wait there. They ask for a press pass, told them
my story and yet they still let me in!

I get to stand near the press bleachers so I'm about 30 yards closer than I
would have been and I'm able to get some decent photos of Bill. Fuji 800 and
1600.

He did 2 encores(what a Rock Star), and most likely drove down to Cafe Du
Monde for some beignets. Wonder how many of those he eats now - he used to
make quite a few trips for those.

Chris


----- Original Message -----
From: "Kyle Cassidy" Subject: [Leica] al gore and photography


all this talk about al gore reminded me that the first time i met sal
dimarco was at an al gore rally in 2000. it was the day he'd announced joe
lieberman as his running mate. i was there because i'd happened to be
standing in a room with a congressperson about three hours before when an
aide came in with a bunch of tickets. in any event, i had 200mm f 2.8 and my
domke vest. i squeezed into about the 76th row of what was literally an
airplane hanger at a point where a person would almost fill up the view
finder in a horizontal composition. not the best place on earth to be
standing, but there wasn't a whole lot i could do about it.

i was in place about 12 minutes when someone grabbed me by the vest and
barked "hey! you know the rules! no press up here!" i tried to explain that
i wasn't press, but the guy tugged me out of the crowd, handed me over to a
very small woman in a blue suit and said "get this one back to the press
riser." so she lead me back to a riser, about sixty feet further back,
filled with offical looking news guys with 600mm lenses on expensive
tripods. they all looked at my 200 like i was some sort of crazed imposter,
except for this one guy at the very edge who yelled "kyle! kyle cassidy!" --
it was sal dimarco. i'd never met him, but he recognized me from the lug. he
shared his taped off spot on the riser with me (it said TIME MAGAZINE, which
i thought was very cool). i took some photos of a miniature joe biden giving
what was really a great lecture about economics off the top of his head
while we waited hours for gore. sal had a cannon 300 2.8 mounted on a leica
R8.  finally gore showes up, and sal snaggs the woman in the blue suit and
points to me and says "he needs to go up front". so she lead me to this
roped off area in front of the stage, i photographed the whole thing with a
28mm lens from three feet away.

al gore's wife, before she decided to devote her life to ridding the world
of the evil that was Twisted Sister, was a photojournalist. i have one of
her books, it's not bad. and al was, for a time, a member of the fourth
estate himself.

i didn't get a single good photo of him that day though. in every shot i
have he looks like a raving madman with terrible teeth.

bill clinton, on the other hand, you can't take a bad photo of that guy. he
never blinks.

that's my story, and i'm sticking to it.

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