veronica_rich | More Obama pix

"And I shook his hand on my way up here today ... you know, That One ..."

The rally was to begin at 12:15 today; I was on-site at 9:15 a.m. so check in with the Obama vetters, get my stuff sniffed by a bomb dog, and be metal-detected. A fine mist of rain spat throughout the next three hours as a few of us brave still photographers jockeyed for position with the national media and local TV news.

On the press risers, you deal mostly with TV cameramen; their reporters don't come around until late in the game, either working the crowd or arriving from some other location. The TV camera guys are pretty friendly if you're nice to them, and they only get irritated if you jostle or crowd their space once they've started filming - for good reason.

The lady you see in this one is the reporter with the local Fox affiliate, reading over her notes during Obama's remarks.

Part of what you do when you're standing around for three hours staking out your spot is fight off the candidate's press people. These are rather forceful guys who do their own form of crowd control - we had a couple who politely tried to dislodge us for the national still photogs (who weren't there yet; they were traveling with Obama's entourage), but a local photographer with us who was older and more experienced just as politely stood our ground and an arrangement was reached whereby the national guys were put on a cherrypicker/scaffold riser off to the side. (Hey, they got better photos anyway, I bet.)

Also, you watch the area being set up and filled with supporters. The pit around the stage was full of people, as was the lot off to the side; the grandstand itself, I think I heard, held about 9,000 people and was PACKED. I didn't get pictures of that crowd; I was standing too close.

Then, it starts to fill up:

You can see where they covered the lecturn and teleprompters with garbage bags to keep them dry until speakers showed up:

There were a few speakers who took up some time waiting for Obama's motorcade to arrive - a state representative, the Democrat candidate for governor, a campaign staffer. (I got a couple of photos of military snipers staked out on a couple of U-Hauls on either side of the stage back to the sides, but they were just too far away and blurry to post. There was also an ambulance that parked itself discreetly back in the parking lot behind the stage. Welcome to political reality.)

Then, Sen. Evan Bayh from Indiana introduced Obama (he's the one a few photos down with his hand around Obama's neck while shaking his hand). You may have seen some footage of some of these photos on major news outlets today. I warn you that my camera was not NEARLY as good, but for what I paid for it, it wasn't half bad. (Mom said later she saw on the news footage of where Obama's entourage had stopped for lunch before coming to the rally. Gee, I'm glad *somebody* got to eat at the correct lunchtime, instead of having to wait two hours! LOL j/k)

Greeting the supporters seated directly behind him. These included (from what I could tell), party faithful, teachers, a few military personnel, and others.