The Insane Lengths Photographers Went to Capture a Historic Shot of President Trump

The Insane Lengths Photographers Went to Capture a Historic Shot of President Trump

President Trump was out golfing when news broke of President-Elect Biden's projected win of the presidency, thereby ending Trump's time in office at one term. Capturing Trump during this moment was not easy, however, and took significant effort and extreme equipment to accomplish.

The difficulty arose from the fact that Trump was golfing at the Trump National Golf Club in Virginia, which does not allow photojournalists access to the course. So isolated is the course that the nearest vantage point that offered occasional views of Trump was in an entirely different state on the other side of the Potomac River, three-quarters of a mile away, requiring a significant crop even at the already extreme focal length of 1,200mm. You can see just how hard the photojournalists had to work to get the shots and one of the resulting images below.

Even crazier was that the photographers then had to run with all that heavy equipment to the next spot as Trump moved across the course in a golf cart. Nonetheless, the photographers succeeded in capturing a pivotal moment in history. Kudos to them! 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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26 Comments

Not bad: Canon EF 1200mm f/5.6 L USM Lens 36.4 lbs. - 16.5 kg
It is no longer produced, I found two occasion to buy used ones, they wanted $ 165k, resp. $ 180 k for it. OMG!

It's coming in the RF mount next year.

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Actually, the term has no formal definition and can be applied to the current state of affairs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/President-elect_of_the_United_States#cite_...

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The head of GSA is a Trump appointed person. She's waiting for her boss to concede which is not happening any time soon. She won't do anything against his will. So it's a pretty laughable argument as you can see...

A one term impeached president is more accurate.

Fortunately, a partisan impeachment doesn't fly in the US, so he was only "impeached" by the group wearing foil hats. In the real world, the impeachment attempt failed, and Trump has remained our President to this day.

"And not to start an argument", if said it's untrue.

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Why do Trumpers always pretend they are not?

Trump is golfing like 1/4 of all his time. So what kind of reaction it should be? :)

I see it now, but it won't be much surprise here neither - if you look at his photos or videos - he's rarely smiling. Pretty much always angry and unhappy. The last time he was pretending to smile - the Goya beans promo shoot.

Google is your friend. Type “trump” and click at the images.
Love that smile. That’s how you smile too, right? ;) Trump fans are odd...

By suppressing you’ve meant “fact checking the lies”? ;) yeah, I understand - truth hurts, and it was never a friend of the “conservative” crowd.

LOL what a coincidence - I’m thinking the same about you from the beginning of this conversation.

Trump golfing? That's just a Tuesday, or Wednesday or Saturday... No news here but pretty impressinve effort.

I was there. I live in VA about 1.5 miles upstream from the Trump Golf Course. A friend and I rowed a boat packed with our bicycles accross the Potomac to MD where we encountered this crowd of photographers. I thought it rather odd because the public Potomac Heritage Trail passes through the middle of the golf course on the VA side - a far better vantage point. There is a tax easement for the PHT and I've ridden through it many times while Trump was there, so it seems they have no right to prevent your use of it.

https://trumpgolfcount.com/ 285 times, tax payer costs $142m. Not bad.

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Trump is a former president pal, but I assume you've meant Obama. How many trips has Trump made to his resorts, golf clubs, hotels? Once he even wanted to pocket a few $$ by hosting a G7 summit... And no, it's not cool to spend 1/5 of your entire term playing golf.

I’m aware of the timings pal. I’m not sure if you comprehend the situation though... the orange criminal has lost the election. He’s now a thing of the past aka “lame duck”. Even Boris Johnson mentioned him as a “former president”. I do acknowledge that you’re probably consider yourself smarter than the British PM, with your five grades of school, but not everything in this world should be understood literally, and that’s why you should seriously consider the sixth grade ;)

Hate? lol no... people like me are not attacking campaign buses on the highways of Texas, not stealing or bulldozing yard signs, not organizing militia groups and shooting BLM supporters, not spreading lies and conspiracy theories to protect their angry loser-in-chief. In your world a definition “hate”is probably different than mine.

How many people did you and your fa[scist] crowd run over, AA Pang? "Very fine people on both sides", right? ;)

I have the Canon FL-mount 1200mm "convertible" lens. (The front half is removable; fronts were made in 400mm, 600mm, 800mm, and 1200mm). From the top of the Tuscarora Mountain just off PA-74, I can read the courthouse clock six miles away in Mifflintown, Pennsylvania. Which is convenient because I don't wear a watch.