The October 22nd protest [link] is a protest against police brutality. You can visit their website for more information. The event was interesting. You can view the photographs I took here [link]. As this is an annual protest, it loses a little of its charm. However, there were at least 50 to 70 people that turned out (possibly more). There were many interesting speakers. Some of them were relatives of civilians who suffered police abuse and even died from it.
There were also at least 50 cops that i could see at any one given time. Basically, an almost 1 to 1 ratio of civilians to police. Only if civilians who are homeless, poor, or in other ways in need of help, could get as much attention from the police and our government.
At the end of the rally and before the march began, the police actually informed the protest organizers that the march could only occur on the sidewalk not on the road, even though the protest organizers had a permit to use the road. Of course, the protesters were unwilling to compromise (specifically because they had every legal right to do so) and informed the police that they would walk on the road. Clearly, the police yielded, because they knew they were trying to hustle the protesters, and had no legal foothold.
From a photographic perspective, the rally was easy enough to photograph. Most of your time is spent trying to find a unique way to photograph the non-unique =). Speakers come and go. Some are more emphatic and emotional when they spoke, making it a little bit easier to photograph. But for the most part, nothing that photo-worthy occurs. So, you need to find ways to photograph events like this that still make the photograph good. Angles, lighting, etc.
The march was much more intense, both physically and from a photographic point-of-view. Generally, you end up running from the front to the back and back to the front of the march, trying to capture everything. You look for good broad shots that take in the whole crowd. Generally good places for this are on downhills/uphills and when the road turns. One good way to do this is with a monopod. Trying to step on your tippy toes to get a from above view is rather difficult and limited to how tall you happen to be =). A solid monopod (just make sure your camera is attached to the monopod nice and tight), will allow you to lift the camera up pretty high up above the crowd. To trigger the shutter, you have 2 options. 1. Hit the shutter with the self-timer, hold the camera up, and wait till it goes off. It works, but it allows you very little creative ability to launch the shutter at a specific point in time. 2. You can use the wired remote shutter trigger with a long enough cable.
The other type of photography for the march is closeup photography. I use my beloved 70 to 200 IS L lens to get nice closeup shots. Generally here you are looking for people yelling, throwing up their arms, etc.. You want to capture the passion, the anger, the rage. Try to get them with their signs.
Couple logistical things:
1. You will be walking the march with the protesters. But, you will be carrying at least 20 pounds in gear, and you will be running back and forth. Basically, the march will be much tougher on you. Make sure you are physically ready to do this. Make sure you have a bottle of water, perhaps something with electrolytes.
2. As with all events you photograph, find the organizers to talk with to find out the plans for the evening. In this case, where will the protesters be marching. How long is the route. Are there any stops along the way or any special events planned en route.
You can see in the photos I took, near the end, the marchers stopped and all laid down on the ground. They did this to symbolize what the cops do to people. However, I was unaware that this would occur, and consecutively, unprepared. A broad shot of that would have been perfect, but on my one camera body, I had my 70 - 200 attached. Still, I quickly just zoomed out to 70, focused, and then took pictures while panning. I had no idea how long they would stay on the ground, so I didn’t try to frame the perfect shot, which at that time of night would be difficult as is. I just hoped on luck and let the shutter do the rest =).