Carl Hutzler’s Blog

I shot John Edwards’ visit to Portsmouth, NH last Friday. It was his second stop on his “announcement tour” after the initial announcement of his candidacy in New Orleans the day before. The event took place in an elementary school gymnasium. The staff did a good job setting up the patriotic backdrops for the TV cameras, but as usual, gym lighting leaves a little to be desired. I white balanced off the white posts of the small chain separating the podium from the crowd. I was able to shoot around 1/30 or 1/60th by bumping my speed to 400/800. I tried using flash but it was hard to get good color and exposure. Most of the other photographers went with existing light too.
I found a few places where the lighting made for some dramatic angles and generally think the shoot came out well. It was a fun experience and I look forward to doing more of this type of photojournalism work.

More here.