Photographing Obama's Visit to Boeing
Since 2008 I have had some great opportunities to photograph for NYCAviation and represent the site. Out of those, this one probably places in the top five. As many already know, I was lucky enough to photograph the presidents visit to the Boeing factory north of Seattle. In short, it was exhilarating and nerve-wracking, and pretty much just awesome. I wanted to share a little bit about the experience, and then add some of the other photos that did not make it before publishing on Friday or were dropped to the cutting room floor.
We received an invitation on Tuesday of last week and decided without question that we had to go for it. I ended up filing with the White House, and then waited a few days nerve-wracking days to pass background and relevancy checks before getting the green light Thursday afternoon. Being limited to only 200mm, I picked up a 300 f/2.8 and 15 f/2.8 fisheye for some specialty shots and packed up my bag for the next day. Directions were very clear about security expectations and cooperation: correct ID, full gear and body search - any lack of cooperation equals at least going home.
I arrived nice and early at 0800 (last call for security checks to enter the factory were 1000). Despite being on the first bus to leave just after arriving, our bus didn't end up leaving until nearly 0900...a tad bit frustrating considering at least one other school bus full of media had already gone over. Once arriving secret service checked me out going through every item in my camera bag and verifying its functionality (take a picture, make a phone call, etc) and wanded me down. Then they give you a sweet looking white house temp. press pool badge and you're off to find a spot on the press risers.
It turned out the late arrival didn't really matter anyways because at least half the space on the risers was already predesignated to various outlets and there was enough left to grab a spot. Then it was a nice long waiting game. It was only 0930 and we still had two hours to go. It gave me some time to chill with the story's writer, Amy, and catch up a bit with the professional media folks I only see a few times a year. I had forgotten how much fun they are, and how much I wish I could do this full-time.
Speakers began around 1045, just after the Blackhawks could be heard going overhead, and included both Albaugh (CEO, BCA) and McNerney (CEO, Boeing). Shortly after the Obama appeared from the UAL 787 and made his way along a crowdline of Boeing employees to the podium, where he spoke for about 30 minutes. I managed to put down about 2600 shots over the course of the 3 hours - 2349 of which came from a 45 minute span. The speech was nothing incredibly surprising or earthshattering but it was super cool to be less than 100 feet from and photographing one of the most powerful people on the planet. Once finished speaking, he worked the crowd line again and passed within about a dozen feet...which again like him or not, is pretty impressive. It doesn't feel like you should be standing so close, and yet there he is.
Of course watching the media was equally as fascinating. The only other event I had attended that had nearly as much media presence was the 787 first flight. Both national and local TV crews were flooding the press area, along with radio personalities and staff from the few remaining regional newspapers - plus eventually the White House press corp. I knew that this event would probably be pretty competitive as the photogs jostled for position to get "the shots". And it was, but unlike the chaos & territorial protection of locations I expected it was pretty orderly and chill with folks shifting into and out of and around the various prime locations. The TV camera crews were different though, and they were very territorial and very protective of their space, which matched experiences from prior events. At least this time they didn't yell at folks, which I'd seen in the past (thankfully never at me). Still, the excitement among the folks in the pool was palpable, which is unique in that most events I've been at the atmosphere is just another day at work. TV anchor and radio personalities snapped cell phone pics between spots, and even a few of the photogs whipped out a wide angle and did a self-shot or two.
It was cool...very cool. And probably the only time the airplanes weren't the most interesting thing in the factory!
Anyways, I won't drone on any further - I feel like neither my write-up nor photos really do the uniqueness of it justice. But here they are:
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And my favorite:
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