Obama visits Springfield, MO 11/01/08

I was one of a lucky few that were chosen to sit in the bleachers behind Barack Obama at his speech. Here are a few pictures I took. It was very difficult lighting to work with since there were spotlights everywhere, but I did my best.

1. Jay Nixon (running for Missouri governor race)

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Here are ISO 3200 shots I took. Not too bad, I don't think.

not bad... But some seem really soft.... what lens were you shooting with?

28-135mm on most of them. It was tough to get a good shutter speed. I missed focus on one too because I was trying to use manual with my nifty.

Manual focus I mean. I wanted to get the sharpest shot possible, but I don't have much experience with manual focusing so it turned out to be a bad choice on a few.

i understand... it seems like your shots didnt have enough SS behind them... i mean if you look at the shot of Nixon.. everything set in place is right in focus and sharp...but he is blurry... try and up the SS next time..

I'm sure it was hard to concentrate with all the chaos going on around you. I like #5 and #7.

I didn't know Secret Service guys wore pin striped suits.

Cool shots. It would be interesting going to one of those things.

You're exactly right about the shutter speed Dave. I was trying to get as good of image quality as possible, which proved to be a mistake. I should have just stuck it in ISO 1600 minumum (which is actually fairly usable in this situation for smaller sized prints) and shot away. This would have probably solved the issue. This was my first time shooting in such poor lighting, so it was definitely a learning experience. I feel like I learned quite a bit in a short period of time, so I enjoyed the experience overall. I got to actually be close enough to take a picture and I consider myself very lucky for that. I also thought it was neat that I got to shake Michelle Obama's hand. I didn't freak out about it or anything, it is just not something that everyone can say. I would recommend anybody going that could get the chance. Even if you just got to take crowd shots, you could still have a great time and learn a lot.

yup... Hey we need to get a meet going on and do something soon... Something here in springfield...

Sounds good. Maybe after the semester when things aren't so busy. I'd like to find some more people from this area and have a get together or something.

Ive met sid... hes a pretty cool guy.., he came and shot up my ultimate frisbee team one night... lol... Where do you go to school at?

I go to Missouri State. I'm a Social Work major, so I am usually in the Professional Building

really? so is my girlfriend.. shes a pre med...

do you go to the games and such? (football, basketball?) IF so you probably have seen me...

I don't catch as many games as I'd like. I am pretty busy most of the time since I am married and then have a young son, plus I work 25-30 hours a week. I will definitely check out some games at the new arena.