Reuters Washington staff photographer Jason Reed is traveling with Democratic U.S. presidential nominee Barack Obama through election day November 4. He and his colleague Brian Snyder traveling with the McCain campaign are posting daily photographers blog entries sharing their experiences and favorite pictures of the day from their campaign coverage.

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere! It’s Halloween on the Obama presidential campaign trail.

One of the quirkiest American traditions I know, which, as a child growing up in Australia I didn’t really experience and therefore still find a little hard to understand what it’s all about, is Halloween. A custom brought over to the United States in some version by Irish immigrants in the 1800’s, Halloween had its origins in a Celtic end-of-harvest festival celebrated by pagans, and in its modern form invokes ghoulish-themed activities such as trick-or-treating, ghost tours and the carving of jack-o’-lanterns from giant pumpkins.
 
Every four years the paths of Halloween traditions and the U.S. Presidential election collide and so it played out once again in front of the cameras Thursday, during our travels with Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama in Florida. Following a campaign rally in Sarasota, Florida, we passed by the United Methodist Church’s pumpkin patch and stopped by for Obama to buy a couple of pumpkins.

 
Positioned a few vehicles back in the motorcade behind Obama’s car, gathered in a bus were the ‘embedded’ photographers, journalists and cameramen, plus a smattering of local tv news crews and newspaper writers. The bus door flung open and we all spilled out onto the pavement, rushing like a stampeding herd of elephants over garbage cans and roadside curbs, resembling a Japanese game show where the winner is subjected to a series of punishing and humiliating hurdles in order to win the prize. Our prize today was a prime spot in just the right place to cover the five-minute pumpkin circus.

After a short walk around, trying to lift up what must have been the largest and heaviest pumpkin in the patch and feigning a sore back from the experience, Senator Obama narrowed his choice down to two more modest sized offerings and paid cash for them to the Methodist church volunteer. The proceeds of the pumpkin sale went to help the needy.
 
Once back at the airport, enroute to the next frenzied stop on the campaign tour in Virginia, one of the pumpkins took a flight of its own, thrown up the stairs of the campaign plane by Obama Trip Director Marvin Nicholson to Obama’s Special Assistant Reggie Love.
 
Hours later and hundreds of miles away, rounding out what became the theme of the day, Senator Obama took to the stage during a late night election rally in Columbia, Missouri, where the stage was decked out with carved jack-o’-lanterns with a distinctly political theme, spelling out Obama’s name and encouraging the American people to vote in the November 4 election.

Actress Jessica Biel arrives for the premiere of “Easy Virtue” in Leicester Square, London October 28, 2008.   REUTERS/Luke MacGregor   (BRITAIN)

London-based Reuters photographer Luke MacGregor shot the picture above by using a slow shutter speed, around 1/50th of a second, and continually shooting frames with no flash in the hope that he would catch the moment a flash from another photographer illuminated Jessica Biel posing on the red carpet.

This reminded me of an earlier red-carpet picture of Jessica Biel where Luke had used the same “catch flash” technique. The picture of her arrival at the BAFTAs, below, caused a mini stir of discontent amongst the desk editors in Singapore. Some editors championed the picture, others wanted to reject it, or ’spike’ it in journalistic terminology. One editor even said the technique was like “shooting by accident”.

U.S. actress Jessica Biel arrives at the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) awards ceremony at The Royal Opera House in London February 10, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor   (BRITAIN)

Luke himself says “I guess it is a little like shooting by accident - except that I have planned to shoot by accident and have thought through the situation to try and get what I want using some form of judgement”. 

The technique only works when there are enough photographers using flash. You have to judge the optimum time to shoot. You have to wait until a subject reacts - waving or gesturing to the crowd for example - and then you stand more chance of catching other flashes.

It is an imprecise science, often resulting in blank and over-exposed frames. The combination photo below shows the frames before and after the picture Luke chose (top right) from the Easy Virtue premiere.

Luke likes the “catch flash” technique as it gives a similar effect to off-camera flash. It doesn’t illuminate the immediate background and so avoids the harsh shadows of direct flash.

Personally, I think pictures like this bring a nice variety to the wire. It is a great way to have your work stand out from the many hundreds of pictures shot by the large crowds of photographers who attend these red-carpet events around the world.

The picture below, taken at the Cannes Film Festival this year, gives you an idea of the competition Reuters shooters are up against.

Photographers work at the 61st Cannes Film Festival May 18, 2008.   REUTERS/Christian Hartmann   (FRANCE)

Reuters Boston staff photographer Brian Snyder is traveling with Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain through election day November 4. He and his colleague Jason Reed traveling with the Obama campaign are posting daily blog entries sharing their experiences and favorite pictures of the day from their campaign coverage.

One of the very first frames that I exposed on the McCain campaign this morning also turned out to be one of my favorites of the day. The Defiance, Ohio high school band lined up for Senator McCain’s entrance for his first early morning campaign rally of the day and showed more than a little enthusiasm.

However, later in the day, good old “Joe the Plumber” himself was trotted out to actually join Senator McCain on the campaign trail and lend his support and those images will surely totally overshadow the ones that we made earlier.

Reuters Washington staff photographer Jason Reed is traveling with the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama through election day.

Bill Clinton finally stands on the same stage with and endorses Barack Obama in the flesh - just days before election day.

Once a political foe of Barack Obama as the former president actively and energetically embraced the presidential primary campaign of his wife, Hillary Clinton, it was only a matter of time before former President Bill Clinton had to rally in person behind the Democratic party’s presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

The occasion finally came at a campaign rally in the ironically-named Florida town of Kissimee on Wednesday night. Throwing his full support behind Barack Obama, Bill Clinton appeared on stage with the Illinois senator and gave a rousing speech in his endorsement of the man who may become the first African-American president in U.S. history.

I would love to know what Obama was whispering into the ear of the former president as the rally wrapped up and they waved to the thousands that had gathered. As the rally drew to a close I tried to plot the best location to capture the final moments of the pair on stage together, and took a gamble to go to the back of the stage and do the reverse angle. When Obama leaned back and whispered something into Clinton’s ear, I knew it was something different that the cameras at the front of the stage may not have captured. It was striking to see the most recent Democratic president and the potential next one on stage together as the final push for the U.S. presidential election escalates, with election day just days away.

Reuters Washington staff photographer Jason Reed is traveling with the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama through election day.

The hardships that fervent supporters of political candidates go through to catch a glimpse of their man in public are sometimes amazing. In blustery rain, bordering on freezing sleet in the Pennsylvania college town of Chester, thousands gathered from the dawn hours to score a prime position in the front row of an outdoor rally with Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama at Widener University. The conditions were so poor that in a gesture of compassion, Obama brought the event forward by about an hour so that the poor soaked and freezing souls could shorten their waiting time to hear his stump speech.

To protect our cameras from the conditions, a couple of plastic hotel laundry bags and some duct tape were employed as makeshift rain covers for our gear. Even though I go into covering all the events as if they were my last, I remember that no picture is worth a drowned camera which no longer functions! Without working equipment,  a photographer is relegated to being just a spectator to history.

Likewise, the young supporters of Obama had brought along whatever coats and other protective gear they could find. They endured hours of miserable conditions in the muddy grass. Their close proximity to each other in the chilly wind reminded me of those of arctic penguins who huddle close together in a brave attempt to survive the worst that Mother Nature has to offer. Funny also to see a couple of protesters with global warming banners in the crowd (pictured) who picked the wrong day to rally others to their cause, considering the temperatures were just above freezing at the time.

In between the standard pictures of Barack Obama arriving at the rally and of those delivering his speech, I kept looking back to see the faces of those that seemed to have put their bone-chilling hours behind them and were now seeming to hang on every word of Obama’s typically impassioned speech.

In addition to those images, my favourite moment from the rally that goes some way to illustrating the appalling conditions was that of Obama’s reflection in pool of rain water that had accumulated on the stage as he spoke to the crowd.

Reuters Boston staff photographer Brian Snyder is traveling with Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain through election day November 4.

On a fairly basic level, campaigning is about the candidate connecting with voters.  Unfortunately, showing that connection in a still photograph is difficult.  A television videographer can pan the camera from the crowd to the candidate and back.  As a still photographer I make pictures of the candidate shaking hands with voters at nearly every event, which shows, in one frame, a literal connection to the crowd.  Looking around today during an outdoor rally in Miami, Florida, I saw Senator McCain reflected in the glasses of a woman in the front row which provided me with another way to connect the candidate to the voter/supporter in a single frame.

Reuters Boston staff photographer Brian Snyder is traveling with Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain through election day November 4.

Reuters Washington staff photographer Jason Reed is traveling with the campaign of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama through election day.

It is on extremely rare occasions that individual wire service photographers get exclusive behind the scenes access with the U.S. presidential candidates for even just a few moments during the 2008 campaign. When we do it represents a fleeting chance to grab a few unguarded moments where the candidates are more relaxed and less wary of scrutiny away from the glare of the lights and the constant presence of dozens of intrusive cameras and microphones. When you cover the same man, day in and day out, with most of the time spent jostling with dozens of other photographers to get essentially the same shots from the same positions, any chance to get a few exclusive unguarded moments with just the candidate and yourself is a huge bonus.

Reuters Boston staff photographer Brian Snyder is traveling with the campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain through election day.

I first met, photographed and spent time traveling with Senator John McCain more than eight years ago as he campaigned for the 2000 New Hampshire primary during his first try at becoming the Republican party’s presidential nominee.

Back then the photographers (as well as many reporters) rode around on the campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express, right with Senator McCain. Virtually everything was “on the record” and fair game. Senator McCain was very approachable, chatting with the photographers and reporters regularly and getting to know most of us by name. In the end, Senator McCain lost the Republican party’s nomination to then Texas Governor George W. Bush, but I came away from those weeks with a feeling that I had been able to get a rare and very interesting look behind the public veneer of a presidential campaign.

Republican presidential candidate Arizona Senator John McCain (L) talks to reporters aboard his campaign bus, between campaign stops in Moultonborough and Plymouth, New Hampshire, January 24, 2000. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Republican presidential candidate Arizona Senator John McCain (R) listens to advice from his campaign staff on board his campaign bus as his wife Cindy (L) looks on near Concord, New Hampshire January 25, 2000. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Returning to cover Senator McCain’s 2008 presidential bid has meant a return to familiar faces. But it seems that some of the lessons learned from the 2000 campaign have resulted in considerably less access to the candidate. Even when the campaign goes on a bus tour and the Senator rides on the Straight Talk Express bus, the photographers ride in a separate bus behind him. On his campaign plane, a deliberately drawn curtain consistently separates us from the candidate and his staff. Now glimpses of the person behind the public candidate are rare.

Republican presidential candidate U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), seen through the window of his campaign bus, talks on his mobile phone in Dallas, Texas March 4, 2008. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Not too long ago, those of us traveling full-time with Senator McCain sometimes barely saw the candidate in the course of a day. When Senator McCain was in Washington as the U.S. Congress worked to pass an economic bailout bill sometimes the total time we spent photographing Senator McCain in an entire day could be measured in seconds despite riding in his motorcade from dawn until well after dark. Now, our days consist of two or three rallies in different cities and states; though the states are largely, predictably, confined to ones like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado and New Mexico. The rallies are all more or less cookie cutter versions of each other.

As a photographer covering Senator McCain, I cannot get away from, and am always conscious of, his complex personal story. Watching Senator McCain through my lenses, I wonder what drives him to want to be President? What do the crowds, the press, the rigors of the campaign trail look like through the lens of his past as a Navy pilot and POW?

The task is to try to find something fresh at each event, tell the story of this campaign, and, through the accumulation of photographs, create a portrait of John McCain, Republican presidential nominee.

My favorite image from the past few days came from a stop at a farmstand in Plantsville, Florida. The plan was for Senator McCain to buy a strawberry shortcake, so I went behind the counter to shoot over the servers’ shoulders. There were a lot of ways this move could have burned me – the screen above the window would virtually obscure the Senator’s face, the Senator could have taken his strawberry shortcake, turned around away from me and taken a big taste of it. Instead, he ducked his head under and through the window to shake hands with the servers. My gamble had paid off.