When I woke up Thursday morning, I had nothing to do today. But as often happens in the world of photojournalism, that changed real fast. My phone felt like it never stopped ringing Thursday. First a call from USA Today asking me to shoot a portrait, no problem. Then a couple hours later, the Daily Mail in London calls and needs a portrait of a guy claiming to be related to the Royal Family. Apparently, he is 309th in line to the thrown. The thing about this was that they called me at 3pm and needed the photo by 8am the next morning. So, I hit the phones and juggle the schedule around and try to get a hold of the subject and schedule the other shoot to not conflict. Finally I get all the ducks in a row and schedule the Daily Mail shoot for 6:30am so I can make the London deadline and the USA Today shoot for 9am. Then, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama decide to come to town this morning and throw a huge wrench in everything. Reuters calls me and wants me to cover Hillary while their regular Portland guy shoots Barack. The problem is that the Hillary event is at 9:30, have to be there by 8:30 for the Secret Service to give you the special treatment (cavity search). So, back to the phones. I knew I would be ok with the first job, I could shoot and transmit that by 7:15 or so and make it to Doernbecher in plenty of time. But now I had to try and move around my second assignment, so I give her a call and the latest she can go is 11:30. That’s going to be cutting it close, but it will have to do. Here is the image from shoot #1:

Wesley Berger , who claims to be a descendant of the Royal Family poses for a portrait at Gino’s Resturant in Portland, Oregon, USA on May 9, 2008.

Shot and sent with time to spare. Next I head up Pill Hill to the hospital to get in place for Hillary. Luckily, they have table and wi-fi setup so sending from the event will be a breeze. I figure I need to leave by 10:58 to get to the next assignment in time. 8:40 rolls around and the tiny outdoor courtyard begins to fill up with doctors and sick children. It’s cold out. 9:15 they bring out some blankets, 9:45 the traveling press corps comes in, so you figure it will start soon. But no, 10:40 Hillary finally graces us (and the sick, cold children) with her presence. How hard is it to show up on time to the first event of the day? I was annoyed because I only had a very short time to make some pictures, so I get busy.

US Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (D-NY) waves to children peering through a window during a roundtable discussion on health care at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon May 9, 2008. REUTERS/Craig Mitchelldyer

You can see more from my file here. So anyway, I shoot as long as I can, run to my car and sent 3 photos while driving to the next assignment. I made it with a couple minutes to spare, shot some portraits and then went back to my car to file more Hillary photos. I’d post one of the final job photos, but the story will publish next week so I have to wait. Anyway, so after sending to Reuters, I go back to the office and file to USA Today, run a DVD to FedEx Kinko’s and then go home to say hi to my wife and kids before coming to the airport to fly down to San Diego for a wedding tomorrow. Whew! Anyway, so now I’m on my way down south and I will be staying an extra day to hang out with my brother who lives down there. We are going to go to a Padres game Sunday, should be fun!

This entry was posted on Friday, May 9th, 2008 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Editorial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.