A day of change

First, a disclaimer:

I will always try to keep politics off of this blog. This is place for happiness and joy in the photography I make of the lives of some very special people. Politics can divide even the closest of friends, and I don't want that to happen in the lives of any my photography friends.

OK, onto the fun. :)

I've been given the task of teaching News Photography to a class of journalism majors at Butler University. With one of the most historical times in our country's recent history about to happen during the second week of class, I made the assignment that the class try to find a local side to the inauguration of President Obama.

In keeping with the spirit of the class, and I thought it was too historic of an opportunity for me not to complete the assignment as well. So, on Tuesday, I headed over the Reilly Room in the Atherton Union building and photographed the students, faculty and staff's reaction as they watched the inauguration ceremonies on the big screen.

It actually felt good to get back into the news-photographer mode. Even though I go into a similar mind-set at each and every wedding, there was a subtle difference in how I approached this (self) assignment. Since my goal was to act as a journalist during this time, I found it easy to drop back into the mindset for journalism: record the event/don't be the event.

Click the pic above to see the slideshow of what I did. If you'd like to leave a comment, please try to focus on the photographic and historic aspects, and keep the politics in your comment neutral.