‘No Kings’ protesters rally for democracy at Hyannis rotary
No Kings Rally in Hyannis draws a big crowd at the Airport Rotary
“Simplicity is a solved complexity.” That sage advice is from Romanian sculptor Constantini Brancusi. It perfectly describes the quandary facing a photojournalist heading off to cover many assignments. How to tell the story, often with space for only one photograph, on a tight deadline.
A mantra drilled into us in photo school: there is always a photo there, it is your job to find it. Sometimes the opposite problem arises, a good photo is everywhere the camera looks. Such was the case with the recent “No Kings” rally, a 360-degree view of photo possibilities.
The infamous Airport Rotary has been the landing spot for many demonstrations over the years. But this rally was the largest I had ever seen there. The first problem is always the same at every assignment, where to park. When the deadline is tight, getting boxed into a parking space is a bad thing. My solution, park far away and walk in.
Catching my eye on arrival, many participants wearing inflatable costumes navigating around in a gusty north wind. Getting the names of people behind a fogged-over face covering was a bit more of a challenge, but a koala bear with a bullhorn is an image not soon to be forgotten.
Next up was a walk around the rotary, looking for a good angle. I was next to the airport and there were too many people to accommodate a drone flight, but I needed altitude badly. A berm on the airport side of the rotary gave a few extra feet of vertical lift for a few images.
For a long-ago story about rotary traffic, we rented a bucket truck, positioned at the edge of the circle, and shot a wide view looking out in all directions from forty feet in the air. That came to mind, but was pure fiction, not a reality in this case.
A good-sized pickup truck proved to be the next best solution, a friendly crew atop it welcomed me up. Not the most graceful crawl up, but the view was worth the effort. Finally a camera angle to help show the size of the crowd. Not wanting to hog the view, I yielded my spot to another photographer eager for the vantage point. A younger, nimbler me would have made a smoother exit, but camera and operator arrived back on ground level in one piece and the photos all made it in ahead of deadline.