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May 15, 2005
Gallery Posting -- Farewell to a President
On the day of Ronald Reagan's Funeral Cortege down Constitution Avenue in Washington, D.C., I was working on Capitol Hill. Just before I was to leave my office to make the walk down the hill to a vantage point that I had scoped out that morning, all of Capitol Hill was evacuated due to a small private plane that was in restricted air space. Apparently the governor of Kentucky had clearence to fly into National Airport (sorry, old habits die hard -- I can't remember to call it Reagan National Airport). The only problem was that someone forgot to tell the people who are in charge of evacuating Capitol hill that fact. It was frightening. People were running -- being told to run -- from the buildings. Only after a few minutes did anyone realize that it was a false alarm. We get a lot of those these days, but I guess you can never be too careful.
Covering the Reagan funeral cortege was an experience that I probably won't ever forget. I was not a fan of Ronald Reagan. But his funeral service was memorable and the massive display of military pagentry and reverence for a fallen Commander in Chief was a sight to behold. Mind you, I am a licensed funeral director and have worked many, many funerals at Arlington National Cemetery so it takes a lot to impress me. Reagan's funeral impressed me and being there was memorable.
It was difficult to get good shots at the time because the police that were lining the streets were so thick that you had to somehow shoot around or over them. Some of them were polite and moved a bit to one side when the casket actually passed by. It seemed as though I was not the only photographer who decided ahead of time that the intersection of Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenue was going to be the vantage point for getting the Capitol dome in the background so there were a number of us staked-out there. Everyone was helpful to each other -- knowing that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to photograph an event of this magnitude. Photographers moved aside to allow others to get a shot and rotated positions as much as space would allow. It wasn't the stereotypical image of the press pack that you would normally see at an event like this. We were all decent to each other and that was good to see. But then Hill photographers usually are pretty good to each other and don't tend to get fight over turf very often -- at least that is my experience. Perhaps some of the politicians could take a lesson. . . .
The gallery can be viewed here:
Or click on the link under the "Galleries" listing on the main page of this blog.
Posted by Lana at May 15, 2005 9:13 PM
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