I got to be the OFFICIAL photographer!

Ok, so whether you like President Clinton or not, this was an experience not to miss — photographically. 🙂 And he and Hillary *certainly* have plenty of Apex supporters!! 🙂 The environment was awesome, the event simple and actually quite humbling. It’s amazing how much goes into a 1 hour event. It was meet and greet, speak, greet and sign autographs and then one more line of handshakes.

When I finagled my way into this “role” I expected only to be at the back of the gymnasium, with the press, taking photographs from afar. Instead I was given a FRONT seat, reserved front seat, at stage right. Then to my surprise, upon arriving at 6:45am, I was asked to photograph the meet and greet before and after! Talk about shocked!! Of course that just made me nervous, but hey … roll with the punches, right? And so we did. Enjoy.

If this synopsis isn’t enough, all the photos (nearly 200 of them) are online here … Gallery of Images

The stage at 7:00 am

My reserved seat. 🙂

Starting to fill in the “seats”. It was nearly standing room only. ADA “members” had some reserved seats as did a few note-worthy Apex residents. 🙂 I took this while I behind the curtain waiting for the President to arrive.

The President as he arrived. I really like this photo. He just looks Presidential.

He shook the hands of at least a dozen people and stopped to talk with each one. I particular loved that he stopped and chatted with the two teens that were part of the group.

Last minute preparation before walking on stage. I got shoo’ed away by secret service after this shot. 😉

The scene as the President arrived on stage.

If nothing else you can say (and have to admit) that this man is an ELOQUENT speaker. Whether you like/believe/stand behind or detest his message, he speaks with certainty and confidence. And he speaks a lot with his hands.

After his speech, he went through the crowd shaking hands and making his way out. He actually took quite a bit of time doing this. So many people waited just to get a chance to shake his hand!

One even got to be held. 🙂 That’s a photo this little girl will either always look back upon … or detest when she gets older. 😉

And that’s it for a short summary. Of course, none of this speaks to his message … which I did listen to and did take a few things to think about. But I’m not going to get into the politics of it … just the experience from one small-time photographer who had the right phone numbers and dialed fast. 😉 My thanks go to John Brown, Shawn Daley and Bruce Radford for getting me to the right place at the right time. 🙂