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!
