Scenes from Capitol Hill
On election night, I and about a dozen friends watched the returns and the speeches at a co-worker's house. Eventually, things wound down and we all made our goodbyes, and drove home. We'd seen something about spontaneous demonstrations on the streets of a couple cities, including Seattle, but I didn't give it much thought until we spotted hovering helicopters on the way home. It's like watching buzzards circling a kill, really. Between that and the police roadblocks we figured there was something going on in the Capitol Hill district. Once I got home, I went back outside, trusty camera in hand, in search of this newsworthy civil disturbance. What I found were a few hundred screaming, nutzo, jovial people blocking the intersection of Broadway and East Pike. So I headed in to get some pictures and maybe break off a piece. And if the cops decided that they wanted to reprise their "WTO Smackdown" performance, I figured I might survive long enough to get some pictures of that, too.
As before, the first I saw was the police roadblocks. This time, the game plan was to leave the demonstrators alone and just make sure traffic was directed around them.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
My first glimpse of the maelstrom. This is the point where the batteries in my camera decided to die. Fortunately, my work office was close by, and I knew there were rechargable batteries I could borrow.
After I'd gotten fresh batteries, and was headed back to the intersection. I ran into a group that had broken off to join another, similar demonstration going on down by the waterfront at Pike Place Market.
The police roadblock, approaching from the west.
My first shots from close up, with a tight grip on the camera. I shot a lot of pairs of flash/no flash shots because I'm not a big fan of flash photography, but taking a decent picture with this camera in low light is nigh-impossible without a tripod. I had to hold very, very still and hope that I didn't get bumped. And most of the low-light stuff still came out smeary and smudgy.
Sometimes the no-flash shots turned out better. Go figure.
A cheering participant with two very overwhelmed dogs. Lots of folks brought their dogs, and the poor guys just didn't know what to make of so many noisy hairless apes. So they kept quiet.
Some uncommented pics, for your dining and dancing pleasure.
These two are actually standing on the traffic light control box. And neither fell off.
Meanwhile, this crew is busy climbing further up the corner pole. At one point one of them started banging on the street sign with his feet, which makes noise more than anything else as they're built to bend in the wind. Another reveler, feeling some civic responsibility, immediately ran up and reprimanded him. "No, that's not us! We're optimistic and … blah, blah, blah … " Which amused the cops, no doubt.
This toga-clad trio ambushed me before I could get better pictures. I'd been zoomed all the way in on something distant when the appeared, and barely got zoomed back in time. I definitely don't have the reactions of a professional photographer.
So, who's got the cardboard cutout Barack Obama now? Oh, there she is …
This is me being ambushed by a conga line, featuring what looks like an Obamabot. Yes, they actually exist.
Eventually, all good things must come to an end. Around 3 AM, the cops suddenly abandoned their roadblock positions and drove right up to the intersection. They just kind of insinuated themselves into the crowd, like, "Oh, wow- the cops are here." One of them got on the loudspeaker with something to the effect of "Um, like, we totally have to clear the intersection now. If you could all get up on the sidewalks and parking lots and stuff and out of the street, that'd just be super. Oh, and if you could clean up a little on your way out, we'd really, really appreciate it. Tha-a-anks!"
Which beats the hell out of a line of riot cops.
And, wouldn't you know it, people actually did clean up. At least the big pieces. It still wasn't safe to ride your bicycle across that intersection, even a day later. The party moved on to a nearby park, but I went home instead.
As before, the first I saw was the police roadblocks. This time, the game plan was to leave the demonstrators alone and just make sure traffic was directed around them.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
My first glimpse of the maelstrom. This is the point where the batteries in my camera decided to die. Fortunately, my work office was close by, and I knew there were rechargable batteries I could borrow.
After I'd gotten fresh batteries, and was headed back to the intersection. I ran into a group that had broken off to join another, similar demonstration going on down by the waterfront at Pike Place Market.
The police roadblock, approaching from the west.
My first shots from close up, with a tight grip on the camera. I shot a lot of pairs of flash/no flash shots because I'm not a big fan of flash photography, but taking a decent picture with this camera in low light is nigh-impossible without a tripod. I had to hold very, very still and hope that I didn't get bumped. And most of the low-light stuff still came out smeary and smudgy.
Sometimes the no-flash shots turned out better. Go figure.
A cheering participant with two very overwhelmed dogs. Lots of folks brought their dogs, and the poor guys just didn't know what to make of so many noisy hairless apes. So they kept quiet.
Some uncommented pics, for your dining and dancing pleasure.
These two are actually standing on the traffic light control box. And neither fell off.
Meanwhile, this crew is busy climbing further up the corner pole. At one point one of them started banging on the street sign with his feet, which makes noise more than anything else as they're built to bend in the wind. Another reveler, feeling some civic responsibility, immediately ran up and reprimanded him. "No, that's not us! We're optimistic and … blah, blah, blah … " Which amused the cops, no doubt.
This toga-clad trio ambushed me before I could get better pictures. I'd been zoomed all the way in on something distant when the appeared, and barely got zoomed back in time. I definitely don't have the reactions of a professional photographer.
So, who's got the cardboard cutout Barack Obama now? Oh, there she is …
This is me being ambushed by a conga line, featuring what looks like an Obamabot. Yes, they actually exist.
Eventually, all good things must come to an end. Around 3 AM, the cops suddenly abandoned their roadblock positions and drove right up to the intersection. They just kind of insinuated themselves into the crowd, like, "Oh, wow- the cops are here." One of them got on the loudspeaker with something to the effect of "Um, like, we totally have to clear the intersection now. If you could all get up on the sidewalks and parking lots and stuff and out of the street, that'd just be super. Oh, and if you could clean up a little on your way out, we'd really, really appreciate it. Tha-a-anks!"
Which beats the hell out of a line of riot cops.
And, wouldn't you know it, people actually did clean up. At least the big pieces. It still wasn't safe to ride your bicycle across that intersection, even a day later. The party moved on to a nearby park, but I went home instead.
