145th Battle of Chickamauga

As much as I loathe the man in the photo, it's not every day that the Vice President of the United States comes to town. As I understand it he is a bit of a history buff making the trip to honor an ancestor, his great grandfather served in the 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry at the Battle of Chickamauga. Which is ironic considering he defered five times during Viet Nam and the hipocrit has the nerve to impliment a Stop Loss program upon being a civilian leader making decisions in our current war. But I promise I will try not to go off on too much of a tangent. When going thru the credentialing process a few people I know asked if I was excited about the VP, to which I responded I am looking forward to the experience.
The credentialing process and Secret Service involvement was the most interesting part for me. The credential itself is another keepsake reminder of this diversely voyeuristic view of life and community that I get to call a job. The processing and handling by the Secret Service was smoother than expect. I was thinking they would be like a TSA agent that was up for promotion, but surprisingly everyone from the screeners to the advance people, all were friendly and more importantly accommodating.
We anticipated long lines to get in and arrived two hours early. Fortunatley we (media) got a golf cart ride via S.S. agents only to be taken to the front of the line. Once inside it was just sit around and wait time, which would result in a bit of a sunburn for me. The press, both video and print were herded into one area, and were persistantly reminded to stay there. Not much shmoozing with the political types, once you were in you were there to stay. To leave the 15' by 25' media area required a S.S. agent escort. Had to be an agent, its amazing how structured the agency is. Only specific agents could take us up to the two secondary camera shooting positions we were alloted.
This shot is from the first position which required about 30 ft of "duck walking" or crawling to get into position, a mere seven feet from the podium and the Vice President of the United States. The shot was good, but two things stand out when I look at it.
First, Cheney looks much older and more frail than I would have thought, like he is in his mid eighties and sickly loosing weight. The second was the flag (12' x 36' I think) came crashing down, narrowly missing an S.S. agent that was guarding the podium an hour before Cheney arrived, along with the supports due to the gusty day we were experiencing that day. A frenzy of county workers were able to put it up in time, but not at the desired height or position. Maybe it's just me but maybe both of these are Karma's way of saying "Here's your Sign" - Bill Engvall

This shot is from alternate position # 2, it had a great picturesque quality with our great Georgian mountains in the background. It was probably also set for a great crowd shot, which didn't really happen. If it weren't for the two thousand-or-so school kids on hand, there would have only likely been about 400 to 500 adults that showed up. The VP came for an hour and fifteen minutes to this ceremony, then attended a brief private memorial in the Chickamauga Battlefield for a half hour.

An advance team of five Secret Service agent were on site for a week, not to mention dozens of deputy's, and security personnel for the two days leading up to the event. The essential motorcade escort of maybe 20 motorcycle cops along with state troopers , an ambulance, along with Federal and State level politicians. I find the organization and work they put into one little event like this truly amazing, and to think of the expense of it!!!!!

I rather like this photo, and plan to do a composite poster with this being one of the central images, which of course I will post on here once it is completed.

The way it used to be.... It was rather interesting to watch the techniques that the original war photographers had to use, like Matthew Brady. Not to mention the heavy camera, or the exposure times that lasted several seconds, thus the frozen almost constipated look of nearly all those who posed.

Dennis Boggs was an amazing Lincoln presenter at the event, it ws great to listen to his speeches along with a candid interview of what it is like to do historical impersonations. I love this shot because I knew it would happen eventually, I just had to wait and be in the right spot for the 2 or so seconds that it afforded me to take it.

Young yankee cavalry on the move....