Presidential candidate Hillary R. Clinton greets school children at JP Henderson Elementary during a stop in town on election day on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Houston. Clinton headed to Dallas after greeting voters at the elementary school. ( Julio Cortez / Chronicle )

Today, I hung out w/ Hillary R. Clinton.

Well, not exactly hung out w/ her. But I did spend some time making photos of the Presidential candidate as she made a stop at Henderson Elementary on the east side to greet supporters.

The cool thing about shooting photos of her is the way it all happen. Apparently, we didn’t know she was going to be in town. Kind of hard to believe, since there were about a hundred people lined up to get a photo w/ her and cheer her on. I was hanging out w/ Rick Noriega, who is running for the U.S. Senate, at a restaurant, when I got a call about Clinton’s possible appearance.

I rushed to the car. Fired up the wireless and found out where she was headed. Luckily, the school was 1.8 miles away from the restaurant and I went there as soon as I could.

“I was really proud of how you got there so quick,” my boss said, and it made my day.

…

Today was really crazy.

My first assignment was to get photos of Judge Ed Emmett as he casted his vote in West University.

Here are those images:

County judge candidate Ed Emmett, right, helps a woman, who declined to be identified, up the stairs and into the gymnasium at St. Edward’s Church, where the two, along with Emmett’s son Joseph Emmett, back, voted in the Texas primary election at St. Andrew’s Church on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Houston. ( Julio Cortez / Chronicle )

County judge candidate Ed Emmett, left, ponders as he waits to cast his vote inside the gymnasium at St. Edward’s Church on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Houston. ( Julio Cortez / Chronicle )

I was scheduled to shoot Judge Emmett as he casted his vote at 7 a.m. And then head down and find State Rep Rick Noriega, who is going for the U.S. Senate, as he casted his vote at 7:30 on the east side.

The odds of making photos at the latter assignment seemed nearly impossible. But, I don’t know how I pulled it off and still managed to get this:

State Rep Rick Noriega, right, a candidate for the U.S. Senate, gives a thumb’s up as he and his wife, Melissa Noriega, exit Cage Elementary, where the couple casted their vote in the Texas primary election on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Houston. ( Julio Cortez / Chronicle )

Unlike my first precinct, the election judge did not allow me to shoot photos inside — according to the law, the precinct judges have the last say whether it’s OK for the media to be inside and shoot images — so I had to wait for Rep Noriega to come out after he voted.

I was just lucky and happy that I actually got the two photos of the candidates. Oh… and did I mention that the media contact for the latter candidate gave me the wrong address to where he was going to be casting his vote? Yeah! It was a hectic morning, but I made it happen. Yay.

I was just going over the photos I shot throughout the day and found this one:

A lone Obama supporter is seen surrounded by Clinton supporters as they all waited for Clinton to show up and greet them at JP Henderson Elementary during a stop in town on election day on Tuesday, March 4, 2008, in Houston. Clinton headed to Dallas after greeting voters at the elementary school. ( Julio Cortez / Chronicle )