People young and old lined the streets to get a glimpse. I wandered in and out of pedestrian traffic looking for the best angle to gather my next shot. I took wide shots, close up shots, shots looking up, shots looking down, tripod shots, on the shoulder shots, steadybag shots, on the ground shots, walking backwards shots, through the legs shots and any variation you could possibly think of from all of those.
About 20 minutes after the band first hit the streets, and two blocks down the road, I saw the money shot. At least, the shot of the person who all the hoopla was about. Erskine Bowles has worked in politics with Bill Clinton, has been successful in finance and made a failed bid at the US Senate. But now Bowles has been named and today inaugurated to the post of President of North Carolina's University system.
I didn't realize he was among the crowd of cap and gowns parading into the Aycock Auditorium when I first started gathering my shots, and when my roving reporter tapped me on the shoulder and said, "He's talking!", I couldn't believe it when I saw Bowles across from me talking to another camera. I jumped in on the action with Bowles while simultaneously passing my digital camera to part time WGHP staffer, slash, Intern, slash, UNC-G student Stephen George and instructing him not to screw up.
He made two pictures. And he did good.
After all the to-do was well inside the Aycock Auditorium we retreated to the Live truck, looked at some XDCam footage, edited 2 minutes worth of TV for noon and waited for the magical hour which is neither AM nor PM.
10 past that we were on our way back to High Point having seen a new president installed for the future education of kids in North Carolina.
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