election night

Tonight was election night for the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska (ASUN). The Daily Nebrsakan, the student-run newspaper that I work at, had one photographer covering each of the three political parties election night parties. I was lucky enough to end up covering FUSION. I say lucky because their election party was at Yia Yia’s, a pizza place that I love in downtown Lincoln. Yia Yia’s put table tents over the whole back section of the restaurant; they were told to prepare for as many as 70 people to show up.

The pizza joint filled up shortly after 8 p.m. and purple FUSION shirts were on the backs of almost everyone in attendance. Party members all ate pizza, played pool, and talked while waiting for the presidential candidate, Reid DeSpiegelaere, to receive a phone call with the results.

A bit after 9 the phone call came. Anxious nervousness was expressed on the faces of the party members while they waited for DeSpiegelaere to share the results with all of them.

The restaurant suddenly became chaotic after DeSpiegelaere stood on a booth and told the crowd about the runoff. Countless hugs and words of encouragement for the runoff election were flying around, and the atmosphere of the place shifted from anxious to elated. Schlicting and Matthew were able to find a bit of solitude amidst the chaos, and talked with each other at one of the many reserved booths for the party.

Tonight I truly felt like a photojournalist. I first picked up a camera less than a year ago, and tonight was the first time I was thrown into a situation where I had a few seconds at times to get the perfect reaction shot that the paper would need. The feeling that ran through me as I tried to manually focus in the horrible light, compose the frame, and point my hot-shoe flash to bounce in the right direction to capture the moments that were happening in front of me is indescribable. The whole walk back to the Nebraska Union to dump my photos at the paper and write cutlines I had such a good feeling. That feeling is still with me as I write these words.

I’ve never felt more alive.

© 2010 Andrew Dickinson and/or the Daily Nebraskan