September 1st, 2008 RNC 2008

You won’t find any political content on this site (though the media I intend to collect is by it’s nature is political, it’s un-avoidable).  I have been preparing/training (i.e. how not to get arrested, treat pepper spray/mace, legal contacts, etc) over the last few days to document the RNC 2008 convention in the Twin Cities which is a pretty big deal, traveling to another state to attend a DNC/RNC convention is just not ever going to happen for me.  While kicking back at home and watching Hurricane Gustav sounds pretty attractive, this is not a type of event I have covered before (street level large scale protest/demonstration/march).  This morning I intend to hit the RNC protests starting at the State Capital.  Bringing a bunch of photographic/video gear I am going to immediately stick out as a target, it’s going to be cheap/old/low end photographic/video gear and use it to the best of it’s abilities and hopefully document both sides of the protests since my RNC Press Pass never showed up, I figure I will cover the action on the ground outside.  I am charging the rest of my batteries, I will have quite a bit of gear on hand, and will likely switch off both media, and hardware through the day depending on how far away my car is.  Final preparations include filling out medical forms, writing legal defense numbers on my arm with a sharpie, as well as packing first aid and precautions for chemical weapons attacks (mace, pepper spray, tear gas), etc (hopefully non leathal weapons of mass deterence).  If all goes well and I get some dramatic photos of some police lines in full riot gear, arrests, and some interesting looking protesters/demonstrators and other interesting looking props.  If all does not go as well as planned I get free meals, medical care, and lodging courtesy of Ramsey County.

In any event I intend to head to the capital grounds in the morning, take a bunch of stills and video, if I can park close enough, swap out my gear and follow/lead/or embed myself with the best organized march leading up to the RNC, perhaps grab a bite to eat, get some shots/footage, then maybe even head over to Republipaluza for a third round.

A bit disturbing since 9/11 is the number of photographers harassed, arrested, equipment seized in the name of homeland security, yet, I can fire up google earth and peer down in a satellite view or get street level views of the metro area from anywhere in the world.  This is going to be a pretty good judge of tolerance since I have never yet encountered this issue personally but, one thing is for certain is that I will most likely be 3 feet behind a guy with a much larger & heavier camera.

Post Event Update

Made it out alive with actually little problems.  I decided to take an older Panasonic PV-GS300 with optional directional mic, along with an old Rebel (the original 300D) and a couple of Sigma lenses.  I felt like I walked 12 miles with a 30 point back on (gallon of water, change of clothes, other equipment, etc).  I spoke with the Ramsey County Sheriffs department officer and he assured me that their would be no very few issues (besides a few arrests and that we would be quite safe).  After the event I would agree that most law enforcement did an outstanding job protecting the mainstream protester/demonstrator.  However, their were several direct action type events, other incidents, as well as people being in the wrong place at the wrong time resulting in arrests, the number I head was 73 were charged with felonies, 42 with gross misdemeanors, and 48 with misdemeanors and the day is early yet.  I saw law enforcement from quite a few agencies including Federal DHS, Secret Service, and the National Guard.  Here was the route I took the first 100 photos I shot were have not been geo-coded yet, I took about 310 stills and 30 minutes of video.

08 RNC Protest/Demonstration Route

I will be posting segments as I get time, my time is very stretched right now with both additional activities as well as just catching up.

Once again I distributed cards, if I gave you a card e-mail me for the original digital media but, please include details such as time of day, what you might have been doing/holding at the time and I will direct you to the downloadable media.  It’s likely your photo will not be posted simply due amount of media I captured.

September 1st, 2008 RNC Rude Mechanical Orchestra »« August 29th, 2008 MAS Messier Marathon @ LLCC