Behind the scenes at Apple’s iPhone 6s event

Apple took over the famous Bill Graham Civic Auditorium for its September 2015 “special event’ in San Francisco last week. It took the company more than two hours to reveal all of the updates to its product line.

The entire southern edge of the venue plaza was roped off for an estimated 1,500 attendees, and millions more watched the live stream online. The Bill Graham Civic Auditorium was originally built in 1915.

Government buildings and cultural institutions, including San Francisco City Hall, the Supreme and Superior Courts of California, the Asian Art Museum, and San Francisco’s Public Library, surround the rectangular plaza around the venue.

Apple covered much of the venue with widely recognized logos. Journalists, analysts and special guests checked in at the front of the building, while Apple employees entered from the sides and filled much of the hall’s upper-level seating area.

A swarm of journalists and analysts breathing down each other’s necks waited not-so-patiently for Apple to open the floodgates.

Many of the attendees immediately started staring at their screens as soon as they got inside. Not surprisingly, Apple devices were the dominant gadgets.

Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, spent more time on stage than anyone else. He’s shown here discussing the upgraded cameras on the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus.

Children used to aspire to become astronaut or professional athletes. For far too many young people, today’s heroes are those that get to demonstrate new apps during one of Apple’s media events.

Apple CEO Tim Cook ended the marathon of product announcements with a surprise performance by what he called “one of his favorite bands,” OneRepublic.

The real stars of the event waited for attendees in an adjoining hall where the company set up a temporary Apple Store of sorts to show off its latest hardware, including the massive new iPad Pro.

The iPad Pro docked with Apple’s new Smart Keyboard.

The iPad Pro’s new multitasking features let you enter a split-screen mode with two applications running concurrently side-by-side.

Apple’s Smart Keyboard and the new multitasking features provide a glimpse of Apple’s vision for the future of iPad and workplace computing.

Apple expanded its iPhone lineup with a new pink (Apple calls it “Rose Gold”) device, shown here on the far right.

A rear view of the iPhone 6s lineup sits on matching docks.