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I was invited to go with some friends to this event in Washington DC. I am not normally a political type person, however, I decided to take the trip to experience the event.
It was impressive, we caught the first Metro in the morning at an originating terminal and by the third stop it was pretty much full. An aside here – there were literally hundreds of people waiting to even get into the station itself as we pulled out on time. I am sure a delay in departure of even five minutes would have filled it.
We walked from the main Metro station to the Lincoln Memorial area. It was easy to find – just follow the people. When we arrived around 8:30ish (1 1/2 hour before the start), there was already a large crowd, however there was still room to set up chairs. I took pictures from about 1/3 of the way back from the Lincoln Memorial building itself. The people kept coming in and soon the area was pretty much people getting very close to each other.
When Sarah Palin was speaking, I had decided to work my way back to the WWII Memorial, it took me through her speech and into the next speaker to get there. It literally was a chore to work through the press of people still arriving. A couple of pictures in that area and I headed up to the base of the Washington Monument to get some height. Along the way I took shots with both the 8mm Peleng and the Canon 28-135 IS – with and without the 1.7 extender. Most of the distant shots of the overall rally areas were taken with the Washington Monument directly behind me – to give some scale. The distance between the 2 is ~ 6200feet or ~ 1.2 miles. The wooded areas to each side of the reflecting pool are hiding additional open areas where screens and speakers were set up. Theses areas were also full of people.
I wandered around to the front of the Washington Monument and took some shots of the other event that day- Reclaiming the Dream. It had not started as yet when the pictures were taken (1038AM from EXIF).
Here are some of the 217 images I took. Click on the small image to open it to a larger view.
Edit 1) I just added a larger size image of the ‘Big Brother Is Watching You Dangerous Taxpayers Helicopter” – click on the lower image to expand it – not either of the smaller thumbnails.
Edit 2) Added a pic of the other rally of the day.
