Three of us, Michelle, Cinthia, and I, were in our own hotel room, sleeping as everyone should be at 5am, when our phone rang. It was Professor Yawn. “Can you wake everyone up and put me on speaker phone,” he asked, in a way that suggested it really wasn’t a question. “There’s been a change of plans,” he noted. “President Biden will be speaking at our morning session, so we’ll need to get up and get to the conference early.
And that is how, four hours later, we were seated about 15 rows from where the President would be speaking. We hadn’t brought our telephoto lens, and the Secret Service made sure everyone stayed in their seats. So, we had to wiggle and reach a bit to get the shots we wanted.
We were pretty excited by this opportunity, and we found it someone difficult to toggle the camera work while we also tried to get photos and video on our phones.
We also found it difficult to get a clear shot of Biden as security and the press changed positions, sometimes obscuring our vantage points. We accommodated this by passing the camera to different LEAP Ambassadors, an advantage of all us being trained.
And, fortuitously, my sight lines cleared when I had the camera, when Biden moved from beyond the podium, and when he made photogenic salute to the audience, and I got my shot–and the experience of a lifetime.
Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics 