Kea Dupree Photography

Today was such an amazing day and kind surreal in a way.

I found out on Thursday that President Obama and his family were going to attend Metropolitan AME Church, the church I have attended  since I was very young.  Of course I already knew I was going to have to be up and out the door no later than 6am so I could be in line by 6:45 for the 9am service.  Well I am not a morning person, so I prayed the night before for God to wake me up on time. I guess I could have just set my alarm clock, but sometimes I just need a “sign” to get me moving . Well, 6am, on the dot, my 2 year old comes crawling in my bed and giving me all his morning kisses that I love so much. LOL   I took that as my sign!  So, I got up, dress, and was out the door in record time.

By the time I got down to the church and parked, the line was about half way down M Street. We waited for about 45 mins for the church doors to open. Surprisingly security was not the nightmare I thought it was going to be.  I actually didn’t even bring my camera in fear of being told to take it back to the car.  We thank goodness my dad decided to bring his camera and he saved me great seat in the balcony!  One of my best childhood friends sat with me so she could have a good view with her video camera. While we waited for service to start, we talked one of the secret service agents ears off! He was very nice and I think he thought we were funny… or crazy! LOL

Anyway, fast forward to service starting.  The First Family walked in behind all of the church officials and of course the congregation roared with delight.  This was my first time seeing The Obama family in person and they could not have been more than 75 feet away!  They are such a beautiful family, but even better looking in person! They all shook a few hands and then sat in their reserved second row seating. The service itself was great.   The church sang Happy Birthday to Mrs. Obama and Rev. Marie Braxton (and they kind of sang to each other) which was really cute! The sermon was awesome and Rev. Ronald Braxton reminded the Obamas that we keep them in our prayers and for them to keep God first in their lives.  I really hope they come back and worship with us again!

OK I am starting to carry my story on a little long. On to the actual pictures.  So remember I didn’t bring my camera and I ended up shoot with my dad’s Canon D60 which was great because his ISO goes up to 3200 but his lenses only went down to an apeture of 5.6 and we couldn’t us flash. UGH… my photogs know what a pain in the butt this can be! I had to shoot at a really slow shutter speed without a tripod, so while the pictures are not my best work, I am just really happy that I was able to take a few. The pictures were actually featured on DC’s local channel 9 news and will be featured on ABC World news with Diane sawyer!  I think that’s pretty cool!

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