Most of Thursday was spent arriving early at the arena and preparing equipment. Also finding a restaurant for a real meal before we are stuck inside for the night. Because of the security, it’s difficult to come and go from the arena so we go out at noon to a nearby Thai restaurant. Many of the businesses close to the Tampa Bay Times Forum are almost empty, we think residents who usually come to the downtown area stayed away. There were only a few tables occupied at the Thai place, though the food was good. Later on around 6 p.m. I have a hot dog in the arena, the other food at the concessions didn’t look so great.

 The slogan for today is “We Believe in America”.

Yesterday the “balloon man” showed up for interviews and a demonstration of how to tie a balloon. Here he is blowing up a blue balloon. He organizes the balloon drop that has become the usual way to end a convention. Many times it’s the main photo in newspapers and magazines, so I spend a hour or so setting up my cameras and lenses for those few seconds when the balloons come down.  

Photographers are able to set up “remote cameras”, unmanned ones that we can trigger with radio devices from a long distance. Here I am on a too tall ladder making final adjustments to our camera. I ended up having to change batteries and re-aim the camera since the new tradition seems to be extending the stage out another 15-20 feet for the final night of the convention when the nominee speaks. This happens at both conventions, so it’s one more thing to plan for. This camera should get a photo of the nominees on the stage at the end with the balloons coming down.

It’s about 6:45 p.m. now, the speaking starts at 7 p.m., with the main ones at around 10 p.m.

A very poignant moment happened Wednesday morning (possibly the only one of the convention) when Bradley Thompson, a production manager of the convention, proposed on the main stage to Laura Bowman, a production coordinator, with the big question projected on the giant TV screens surrounding the stage. This was well before the convention convened, the arena was mostly empty. Not knowing it would happen, I almost missed it. As I was leaving the convention floor I noticed a man in a suit kneeling in front of a woman on the stage. Giant letters behind them said: LAURA BOWMAN—WILL YOU---MARRY—ME? I managed to get the happy couple and the signs in one photo. They kissed and hugged, then took a bow as various workers and media applauded.  

   The slogan for today is “We Can Change It” as a new sign was put into place, ironically, by union workers.

 I finally got a photo of the teleprompter text I wrote about on Sunday. It’s the first few words of the Gettysburg Address that appears on the giant device that the speaker at the podium can read from. We are still not sure who will read the address, or when.

And what’s the Gettysburg Address without an Abe Lincoln look-alike? I think I saw this fellow 4 years ago at the Republican convention in St. Paul. 

 Mitt Romney made a surprise visit to the Tampa Bay Forum a day before his big speech, here he’s looking a bit 2-dimentional as a German TV crew poses him in the delegates seats.

It seems like they think of everything here in Tampa. No evidence of this area being used yet.

It looks like they change the slogans every day. Today it’s, We Built It, though no one was sure what “It” is. 

Every convention around the big platforms where the tv cameras and photographers stand, workers install some sort of mirrored surface. Here I am on the convention floor reflected in the mirror. 

From 2 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. today was an endless series of speeches and procedural items. They did a ‘roll call’ and each state pledged their delegates. Of course Romney won. Some state representatives that announced their votes reluctantly said the total for Ron Paul, who drew huge attention early in the day as he walked across the convention floor. His support seems strong among the small numbers of his delegates. There is a brief break now at 7 p.m. before the evening program starts.

The new slogan of the Republican convention is: We Can Do Better. Not a hugely rousing slogan that would inspire people. The previous one, up on the walls of the Tampa Bay Times Forum for a few days was: Change. We think people realized that was the Obama 2008 slogan, so they said, “We need to Change that.”

Monday was a very short day, the convention was convened at 2:00 p.m., then about a minute later was recessed. They decided to cancel the first day of the convention due to the tropical storm, which didn’t amount to much here. But it looks like it’s headed to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast. 

I happened to be on the convention floor when I saw House speaker John Boehner being interviewed by ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer. It was hard to tell who was getting more attention from the growing gaggle of media surrounding the pair. 

Tuesday it’s the first official day of the convention, with a full night of speakers.

Welcome to Tampa! Site of the Republican National Convention and Tropical Storm Issac! I’m here for the next 5 days to cover the Republicans. Fortunately they will basically cancel the first day (Monday), unfortunately it’s due to the storm coming through Florida. So we’ll probably spend the rest of the day taking storm photos. 

Here I am at the Tampa airport with some odd creature that was wandering through the baggage area. We weren’t sure what he was about.

Since I arrived on Saturday, the inside of the Tampa Forum has been a hive of activity. All the various audio-visual things are tested including the large teleprompter screen straight ahead of the main podium. This morning it displayed a speech, presumably for someone to read and it began, “Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers….” I thought, I think that speech has been used before.

I walked out of the hotel this morning to see a big bus with “Zombie for President” painted on the sign with a picture of a zombie. Turns out it was a bus for Ron Paul supporters, who had a big rally Sunday. 

Here I am with Eva Hambach, our photo editor, at the my spot.

 

AFP assigned me to the center camera position, which is the main position in the arena. It’s from the same angle that most of the tv pictures are shot from. This involves a great deal of setting up camera platforms and computers. All the cameras are digital now and we can shoot a picture have it go directly to the editor’s desk. She can then put it out on the AFP wire where all the clients can see it. Everything is quite speedy now and puts a lot of pressure on us to get the photos out quickly.