The boom camera was so cool. The camera man stands on the end and lowers the boom out into the crowd and then shifts the camera angle. That is how they get the super close ups and flying shots of the crowd. Dad called it the "Close Encounters" camera and kept joking that a laser was going to zap out of it at any time. These shots are after the ceremony, which is why we could get close to it. I love the guy in the black hat trying to get the camera's attention.
 |
| From Inauguration 2009 Obama |
 |
| From Inauguration 2009 Obama |
During the ceremony there were parts where the audience was supposed to sit or stand, every time the announcer would say "all rise" or "please be seated" the crowd on the mall would just hoot and holler. I'm sure it happened about a dozen times in the ceremony and it never seemed to get old...perhaps it was the cold air freezing our brains.
Lots of good old fashioned American entrepreneurs were out trying to make buck. When we got off the metro in the morning there were two guys selling 99cent hand warmers for 6 dollars a pop and a well dressed man whispering "I've got tickets" as we walked by (major fines for selling inauguration tickets). In the afternoon the two guys in the orange jackets were selling slices of pie for a dollar each to people in the line for the metro, they came through at least twice while we waited. Another woman came by rolling an old suitcase full of buttons.
 |
| From Inauguration 2009 Obama |
I was really upset to see the trash on the mall after the ceremony. I know first hand that it was hard to pick up things that you dropped during the ceremony, but it was really ridiculous that people couldn't pickup as they left...except of course that there was no place to put the trash once you picked it up. I carried the silver space blanket for almost 2 hours before finding a trash can that wasn't already overflowing.
 |
| From Inauguration 2009 Obama |
Portapots...zillions of them (ok, 5,000). The number seemed big in print when I saw the reports, but really, 5000 portapots lining the mall was amazing to see. I could kick myself for not getting a picture of them. From what I saw it seemed to be enough, I didn't notice long lines where we were...perhaps everyone was waiting until they got to FEMA instead ;)
Apparently President Bush asked to fly around the city a couple of times before heading to Texas. I was lucky enough to get a photo on his second flyby.
 |
| From Inauguration 2009 Obama |
I think that the Inaugural Committee tried really hard to anticipate the needs of the crowd on the mall. The jumbotrons were wonderful (even with the weird delay) and they did open up a lot of federal buildings as warming stations, but I'm not sure they really thought about the crowd as anything more than a crowd of bodies that needed to be managed. There were no communcations specific to non-ticketed attendees. Nothing to indicate that there would be very few access points to the mall itself or suggestions for what to expect after the ceremony in terms of the fact that some metro's were closed due to crowds etc. There weren't even any real nods to the fact that we were out there. I know this is the first time they've ever had a crowd this size, so hopefully they learned some good lessons because lots of people we talked to said they'd be back in 4 years.
One neat thing was that you could sign up for mobile alerts on the weather, events and transportation. I got an alert at 7:30am saying that several of the parking lots for the metro stations were full and closed (including the one we started at). Around 10 we got a note saying that the entrance to the mall we came in was now closed. Interestingly we never got a note saying that the parade had been delayed. We weren't going to the parade, but that would be the kind of info I would have expected. We did get notices that some of the metro stations were closed, thankfully after we were already on ours heading home..
I knew it was going to be a great event for people watching, but there is something extra special about watching people who are so obviously thrilled to be there. We met a 98 year old woman who had come from Mississippi, a bunch of Mom's who went to college together and used the inauguration as an excuse to get back together, people from Alaska and Hawaii...it was great.
No comments:
Post a Comment