This week featured a monumental election, a surprising Maryland football win against Penn State and a baby raccoon.
Monday
I took this photo on Nov. 2, the last day of early voting at the University of Maryland’s Xfinity Center. About 15 minutes after sunrise, the sun was shining bright on the sidewalk that led to the entrance, where Prince George’s County voters walked to vote in the 2020 elections. The area was not crowded at all; there were more volunteers there than voters.
– Taneen Momeni, staff photographer
Tuesday
Election Day brought many voters to Xfinity Center. The day was a whirlwind, with university students and Prince George’s County residents coming to cast their vote. Along with the voters, a cast of Diamondback reporters and photographers rotated in and out throughout the day, documenting the scene. We got to meet a wide variety of characters from across the political spectrum, including a man who voted for a Clint Eastwood movie character.
– Julia Nikhinson, Joe Ryan and Eric Harkleroad, senior staff photographers
Wednesday
Over the summer, Wyatt Wisnosky, a senior economics major at this university, teamed up with a friend to found Boost Innovation Company. We met up at Memorial Chapel, one of my favorite spots on campus for portraits. I’m getting a bit tired of using the chapel as a backdrop lately, but it does make for nice backgrounds on a campus littered by construction sites.
– Eric Harkleroad, senior staff photographer
Thursday
These cranes are part of a construction site near College Park Towers, which students have said is quite loud. I arrived just before golden hour to catch the light off jumping off the metal. The construction site was full of scrap and machines. The way the cranes loomed above was striking; they obstructed the sky just as the loud noises obstructed the students’ peace and quiet next door.
– Kurt Leinemann, staff photographer
Friday
After I finished interviewing David Murphy, a 38-year-old UPS worker from Hyattsville, outside of Xfinity Center on Election Day, he invited me to come meet a baby raccoon. Murphy and his wife, Olga, decided to take the raccoon home with them after they found it in the middle of the road on Halloween. As I approached the car with reporter Khushboo Rathore, Murphy reached into the backseat, pulling the creature out of a cage along with a hair brush and a clear gel. Squirting the gel onto the brush, Murphy sat down on the curb and began cleaning the raccoon.
– Julia Nikhinson, photo editor and senior staff photographer
Saturday
On Saturday morning, I made my way up to University Park, Pennsylvania, for the Maryland football game against Penn State. Along the way, news of former Vice President Joe Biden being projected to win Pennsylvania — and the presidency — broke, so I stopped in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s capital, to photograph the celebrations.
At the game, photographers stood in the stands, near the dozens of cardboard cutouts serving as the game’s “crowd.” In the first quarter of the game, freshman Rakim Jarrett ran for the end zone, scoring his second touchdown of the game. The Terps cruised to an easy, albeit unexpected, 35-19 win over the Nittany Lions, their first since 2014. It was a big day for Pennsylvania.
– Julia Nikhinson, photo editor and senior staff photographer
Sunday
After news outlets projected former Vice President Joe Biden will become the next president of the United States on Saturday, people flooded to Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., to celebrate. The streets were packed, making it nearly impossible to move through the crowds. I estimate that in the three hours I was there, a record number of champagne bottles were opened. The celebration was unpredictable. Every time you looked up, it seemed like a new person had climbed one of the stoplights. Mass dance parties erupted out of thin air the second anyone with a speaker showed up and disappeared just as quickly when a new bottle of champagne appeared.
– Joe Ryan, assistant photo editor and senior staff photographer
