Arriving in Springfield at 7:15 a.m., the morning Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama was scheduled to introduce his long-awaited vice presidential pick, Joe Biden of Delaware. I was not there early enough to get a first-come, first-served spot on the main riser. We had a three-hour window, from 6 til 9, to get a position. A number of media had come and gone, already claiming their piece of real estate with tape and markers, tripods, computer bags, hats, whatever.

On the surface, it was rather upsetting, not getting on the main riser. I was even teased by one of the AP shooters for being “too late.”

I’m a little new at this.  And I don’t pretend to be above ANYone else in this biz. But I found the view from there awful! Main riser: a misnomer, I thought. The press badges granted to gain access to it had stars on them - like it was so much better. The photogs were all giddy because they had the majestic pillars of the old state capitol building in their frames. I understand why they swarmed so fast. Initially, I was quite angry. My backgrounds from the cutaway riser (the second raised area set up for television coverage to have another angle so they can mix up their points of view) seemed crappy and busy at first. A second study revealed that you could see more of the upcoming staged events from better angles for longer periods of time from the nearly-vacant cutaway riser. Sections of the main riser had some visual flaws as well. (See the Springfield State-Journal Register’s T.J. Salsman getting blocked by the teleprompter.) I saw that T.J. made a number of great frames from there. But I’m sure even he wished he had security clearance to go move that darned thing before it got started.

Settled into my spot, feeling much better about my chances, I looked over at all those earlier birds. I was still a little jealous.

But I was a little more confident. I made all these photos from the same standing position; impossible from the main riser: