I attended the Glenn Beck “Restoring Honor” rally at the National Mall this weekend. Because of the ban on signs, the wackiness associated with similar events in the past was mostly non-existant. So I was relegated to crowd shots, for the most part.
I managed to snake my way across the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial, behind the stage, where I could get a good look of the crowd, looking back up towards the Washington memorial and the Capitol. The sun was shining straight in on me, but once I remembered to pop on the polarizer the pictures perked up.
In post-processing I added a slight vignette and desaturated a few of the images. For the crowd shots the desaturation seems to minimize the distraction of the crowd, bringing into focus the Lincoln memorial in this shot. I particularly like the shot of Palin from the back, with the crowd focused on her while a suited man walks off toward the right.
I bailed fairly early, a combination of the heat and crowd-photo fatigue. I front-loaded the full gallery with a few of my favorite shots (the first 6 or so).