OK, I "lied." Oakland Raid...

richardman

Oakland Raid. Need to sleep now... More later

Richard

Whoa! Terrific shot.

lizzard_nyc

damn.

torags

Excellent. Liar, liar - pants on fire......

kdog

Amazing shot. Back story?

RSL

Great shot, Richard. Bravo!

WillCAD

Iconic! That's an awesome shot.

And a little frightening, since you were in FRONT of the police line, which can often be a very dangerous place during protests.

bfjr

A Keeper

Glad, You Lied

Angelo

one of the best photos I've seen! Very well done

(however - it seems a bit muddy. what were your settings?)

.

M38A1

That's a GREAT shot....



How do you take shots like this without fear of being 'part of the crowd' and being plowed over should they decide to start moving? I've always wondered about how one does this....

richardman

I will write a full blog post later, once I handle some "work stuff" and eat etc. (only 4 hours of sleep...) but generally I DO want to keep safe :-) So initially I made sure to hang out with the pro newspeople with their LIVE video cameras, figuring that if they started teargassing, they would shoot the pros last?!!

But yes, this is the first time I had a police line walking right toward me...

Quincy T

Always good to see images with a little bit of testicular fortitude involved. Forgive the one-sided reference ladies.

Islandcrow

Excellent shot indeed! I don't think this one could have turned out better even if you set up the scene yourself. Very well done.

richardman

More photos and a blog post here:
http://www.richardmanphoto.com/blog/?p=3143

I went to Oakland at around 3:45PM. There was tension in the air for sure, but even more so, there was a sense of anticipation. As the police had served the encamped 3 eviction notices (which the protesters promptly tore up), people expected the police to come. The ustream TV #OakFoSho was doing his live streaming again, but now with a Sony digital camcorder with Nightshot capability. We waited and by 5AM the police started to march in.
For anyone who had not lived through the 60s, seeing tens of police in riot gear marching toward you is quite an experience. I took a quick look at the four routes (we were at a corner intersection of Broadway and 14th) and noticed that two were wide open, so I trusted that the police were there mainly to clear the encampment and not to arrest everybody (like they did with the Brooklyn Bridge protesters a month or so ago). As the police got REALLY close, I moved to the network newspeople, assuming that if they were to start shooting, they might think twice about shooting network news people.
Fortunately, soon it was apparent that they were only interested in “clearing the camp,” and the protesters on the street resumed their chanting and drumming, while some of them attempted to talk to or otherwise engage the police.
About an hour and half later. The bulk of the “support police” left, but he end of the story is yet to be written.





Selected ones:

black mamba

A really outstanding initial photo, followed up by a terrific series. All-in-all, your work here has given me the best feel for these protests than I've gotten from any other source. EXCELLENT.

Tom

cbbr

Fantastic!

torags

Excellent series well shot.

#1 is iconic (Tianamin Sq. like), looking almost staged with the protestor sitting on "Turn".

One of the things that impressed me in the series, was the restraint of the police

What a rich environment for a photog

M38A1

torags wrote: »

Excellent series well shot.

#1 is iconic (Tianamin Sq. like), looking almost staged with the protestor sitting on "Turn".

One of the things that impressed me in the series, was the restraint of the police

What a rich environment for a photog

Sam

First image is excellent. I don't get the title. Who lied? You? The police? The occupy people? What was the lie?

Sam

bfjr

Sam wrote: »

First image is excellent. I don't get the title. Who lied? You? The police? The occupy people? What was the lie?

Sam

He had put up a post a day or so earlier, saying this would be his last, then he put up this one.

richardman

Hi Sam,Ben is correct - I was ready to work on other projects and posted a photo on the thread "My Last street photo for awhile," and then the raid happened...

Rags, yes, the police acted with professionalism. Any time there is a line of raid police standing two feet from you could be a recipe for disaster. I read the situation as "they are here just to clear the camp" rather than "shoot and arrest everybody" so I stayed. I could have read wrong though of course.

And yes, the Protest is an environment rich for practicing PJ/street photo, the opportunities are there.