Back Again & Let the Grads Begin

[Delyed post from May 2, 2014]

Things are almost back to something you might call normal after a herniated disc in my neck sidelined me for a while. Today my first grad of the spring season with Village Photographers. (OK, actually I shot Life University back in March, but that's more of a pre-season grad.) It's good to be able to get back into photography work.

It was Faulkner University's graduation day today. I've shot Faulkner a number of times, and they're great people to work with. This was the first time--at least in recent history--that they'd held an outdoor ceremony. I had previously taken pics at ceremonies in their old gym and at the Renaissance Hotel and Conference Center. I missed the air conditioning and consistent lighting, but the scenery was much improved.

There were a little less than 400 graduates receiving various degrees today. That's a pretty big graduation for us. I could tell afterward that I'm still out of shape. It could have been bigger, but I guess some people just don't value participating in such ceremonies. 

It surely wasn't the weather that kept anyone away today. It topped out around 71 degrees, which is great compared to the 80-95 degree range of most outdoor commencement ceremonies. We could have had some better cloud coverage, though. We set up with no clouds and eventually God graced us with a thin but consistent cloud layer that held for most of the pageantry. It started to break up about halfway into the graduates crossing the stage. I was adjusting my aperture as often as every two or three graduates. 

 

We had no major issues; things went smoothly from start to finish. The only hang-up was getting out the parking lot. I was out in under 15 minutes because I had to park far from the stadium. The rest of the crew who parked close to unload and load equipment were unable to even start out of their parking lot for around an hour.

I'm looking forward to the, I think, 15 ceremonies I'm on this season. Did I mention how nice it is to be close to normal again? Eventually I'll get around to posting the results from my first official wedding photography gig. That was last weekend, but I'm still going through the pictures. You may also see a photographer's guide to having a great grad picture taken when you get your diploma. It's amazing how consistently people mess up their own picture.

That's it for now. Stay peaceful!

So Whatever Happened to At PEaCe Photography?

The previous post is from October 2013. It is now 2014. You might be wondering, "What happened?"

There should have been a post about Tallassee Trade Day 2013, and one about Holiday Market, and at least one about graduation season with Village Photographers. But there's not. Here's why.

In June, I developed a pain in my shoulder. Thinking it was just the result of me sleeping on it funny, I did nothing about it. Fast-forward to September, it's getting worse. I started seeing a chiropractor (a graduate of Life University, whose commencement I've shot many times). My shoulder/arm problem turned out to be a neck problem. I was getting better for a while, and then I got terribly, horribly, suddenly worse. Chiropractor to physician, physician to neurosurgeon, it was a herniated disk in my neck--uncorrectable by therapy.

So there, I had neck surgery in early December and have been recovering slowly ever since.

Trade Day would have probably been a bust since there was rain and low attendance. Holiday Market is one I'm kind of bummed to have missed, along with the Tallassee Christmas parade. That was the weekend after my surgery, and I was pretty sure my head was going to fall off at any moment. None of my Wetumpka High School church-kids are in the band or anything, so I didn't mind missing the Wetumpka Christmas parade except for the free candy and chance to practice. I felt worthless having to cast off my graduation assignments, but I had warned Village it might happen. All the crews already had a suitable replacement lead--no harm, no foul there.

I'm not able to be up and active for more than three or four hours at a time yet, but I'm getting there. I walked over a mile today, and it didn't kill me. It's going to be great to be able to get back to some random gigs here and there in 2014. I'm already looking forward to the May-June grad season. Plus, I'm supposed to shoot my first wedding in April. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for being concerned about me. :P