Day three of the Republican National Convention turned out to be by far the most exciting. Sarah Palin’s speech with the unveiling of her whole family made for many opportunities for pictures. Since I am here alone I don’t have a single position to cover the convention like the wire services do, so I roam around looking and anticipating the best angle. I positioned myself center stage because I heard a rumor that Palin’s family and possibly John McCain himself would join her on stage and I wanted to be sure to get a clean shot of the whole family together. In doing so I also had a decent view of the family who were seated in a VIP section before they were ushered backstage.

My position allowed me to capture a bunch of sweet moments of Palin’s 7-year-old daughter Piper. Below are some of my favorites that show this little girl just being herself.

Piper Palin, kisses her infant brother Trig as her father Todd looks on

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, leans down to shake the hand of Piper Palin

OK, so we weren’t supposed to feed the ducks at Long Pond in Harwich but when my nephew Mike noticed that the ducks were interested in the spilled Pirate’s Booty snack food his six year-old sense of humor kicked in.

Buried nearly neck deep in the beach sand his cousin sprinkled some of the snack on his sand covered chest and the mallards took over. They didn’t waste any time in scrambling over and around him to snap up the puffed treats and despite his impishness he held very still while the ducks ate away!

Shot this with the same Canon Powershot 850 I made my niece with.

I got a taste of pepper spray today while in St. Paul, Minnesota covering the Republican National Convention. This morning before the Convention started, I photographed a large group of protesters as they marched from the Capital towards the convention. The group of mostly college-aged people got into a scuffle with bike police who used pepper spray to remove the unruly group from blocking the streets. The pepper spray did its job and the protesters left the area, but a bit bleary-eyed. Many photogs shooting were unfortunately also peppered.

Spc. Jared J. Raymond, 20, of Swampscott, died on September 19, 2006 in Iraq when an improvised explosive device detonated near his tank. According to the Dept of Defense, Raymond was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 66th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, Fort Hood, Texas. I had the honor to photograph this young man’s funeral, in my hometown of Swampscott, nearly 2 years ago. A small selection of my photos from that day appear below along with a photo of Jared. On September 20, 2008 the 2nd Annual Jared Raymond Memorial Fundraiser - 5k Road Race is set to commence at 9:30 am at Swampscott High. Proceeds will Benefit the Jared Raymond Memorial Fund. For more info http://www.rememberingjared.org

By Nancy Lane

The climax to a long week in Denver was all it was cracked up to be. Barack Obama’s historic nomination as the Democratic Presidential candidate took place at Invesco Field in Denver as nearly 80,000 delegates, spectators and media jammed the home of the football Broncos to salute the newly minted nominee.

I’ve covered a couple of conventions before and the outdoor event was very impressive. Although the “greek” columns on the stage were a bit much, I was looking for a signature picture to wrap up the week of coverage. Like my picture of the Bidens the I posted earlier I really like all the different elements in this photo. As newsphotographers we try to make that one picture that tells the entire story. Switching to my 80-200, I pulled back to see what else I could include in this picture to give a sense of the pomp that accompanies political events. I really like the flag in the foreground anchoring the picture as the throng of delegates cheering completes the framing. Even tough some of the confetti obscures some of Joe Biden and Barack Obama’s faces it is part of the celebratory element of the event.

As I explained in an earlier post I artificially raised the ASA rating to 1600 so I could use a faster shutter speed, 1/320 sec, to help freeze the action. I’m heading home to get ready for the fall sports season but this was quite a week in Denver. Look for my colleague Matt Stone’s pictures from the Republican Convention starting Sunday.