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

Tallassee Homecoming 2013

Tallassee High School's Homecoming was last week, and that meant there was a homecoming parade last Friday. I was going to be there in support of the students in my youth group, so I figured I'd take some pictures while I was at it.

I posted the pictures to Facebook in two separate albums, and prints are available for purchase through my SmugMug.com site (it's a trial membership which I may not keep, but I figured it couldn't hurt).

Here are a few of my favorite pics from the day:

My camera's for the task were my Nikon D70 with a 170-500mm lens attached for close-ups and an 8MP Sony Cybershot for wider shots. (Yes, I know I'm in need of an update to my personal equipment. It wasn't worth the trip to borrow a couple D90s from Village Photographers. I do have a newer/better point-and-shoot, but I can't find the battery charger for it. I digress.)

I got swarmed by kudzu bugs, and most people assumed I was with the newspaper, but it was a good learning experience. I should have bumped my ISO up another notch and gone with a tighter aperture for a greater depth of field; there are a few pics where the float rolled quick enough to bring part of the subject(s) out of focus. That's just part of the trick to using a long lens on approaching subjects, I guess. A headband would have also been nice too keep the sunscreen and sweat from running into my eyes. A sign reading "Smile and Wave!" would also have been helpful.

Good times. I'm looking forward to the Christmas Parade already. Tallassee, AL is a fun little town to take pictures in.

Montgomery Dragon Boat Race and Festival

The Montgomery Dragon Boat Race and Festival was August 24, 2013, and I was happy to be on the scene shooting all sorts of pics with Village Photographers as the official event photographers for the entire festival encompassing--I'm guessing--a couple thousand people. I know I shot around 2,000 pictures. You can find those pics in the mix with other photographers' pics through the Village Photographers website. I started the day by the stage and in the Athlete's Village and moved to the marshaling area after lunch. (Thanks for the tasty vittles, Dreamland BBQ!)

Here are some pics I took on my iPhone 3GS just to document the day and catch some cool moments:


Beginning of the day:

Overlooking the Athlete's Village, Stage, and River: 

Big Al pitching a fit after the Oar Eagles won the Battle for the Iron Paddle (War Eagle!):

Overlooking the Riverfront and Marshaling Area from the Harriet II:

On the Harriet II (Happy for some cloud cover!):

 End of the day bad duck-face selfie:

 Dramatic lighting on the Riverfront sign:

Cool old advertisement for Wrigley's Spearmint Gum:

Troy University Sorority Bid Day Kappa Delta Group Pics

August 10 was sorority Bid Day at the main campus of Troy University in Troy, AL; and I was happy to be on the scene shooting with Village Photographers. Bid Day shoots involve both candid and group photographers. Early in my days with Village, I shot the candids. I graduated to shooting the groups a few years ago. Thankfully we had enough photogs on the scene that I didn't have to pull double duty. Also thankfully it was a beautiful day and easily ten degrees cooler than last year.

Below are some shots I took on my iPhone 3GS during some down time. Again, these are random iPhone pics I took to document the day, they are NOT pictures taken for Village Photographers on a professional camera.

Grad Season in the Rearview and Ahead

From late April to early June, I was in varying degrees of grad season mode. I shot 22 ceremonies with Village Photographers during that time. For 9 of those ceremonies I got the wonderful pleasure of NOT being the lead photographer. (That's a pleasure as a veteran photographer because you get the opportunity to shoot public relations photos and have fewer things to worry about other than your pictures.) I took pictures of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, President of the Alabama Public Service Commission Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh, and many other less notable notables. I lived most of May fueled by coffee, fast food, and Emergen-C. I suffered through a pretty intense sinus infection during a week of back to back grads. And, most significantly, I made a heap of money. :P 

Before grad season got into full swing, Village sent me to Clayton State University to shoot two days of cap and gown portraits at their Grad Finale in the Loch Shop campus bookstore. Here's a little sample of what that was like (as I played around with the driver mode on my multipurpose, waterproof, point-and-shoot Pentax Optio W60).

The first grad of the season for me was Jacksonville State University. Jax State has an outdoor ceremony, and we couldn't have asked for better weather this year. I got to shoot PRs on this one, and I got to shoot them with a 55-300mm lens attached to a Nikon D90 (D90s are standard equipment for Village events, but glass like that is not). It was sweet, and I got some of the best PRs I've ever taken. Here's a sampling I was emailed by the photo manager with congrats.

In fact, I was so in the groove of shooting graduation ceremonies that I took my camera and shutter-bugged it up when I went to see a number of my youth group kids graduate 8th grade at Southside Middle School and from Tallassee High School. Results from those two events would have been better if I had been able to borrow some Village equipment, but they're kinda funny about loaning stuff out during the busiest part of grad season--go fig. The Tallassee High School principal, Coach Battles, even kicked me off the field shortly after taking the picture second picture below. That's what I get for being unofficial. I hope the one official guy they had got a good one of everyone, but I couldn't help but think, "Who shoots a graduation solo? No second or third shot, really? These kids have no options!"

Check my facebook page for more on those Tallassee City Schools ceremonies.

Whew! Glad to get this posted finally. In the next few days I should be getting the schedule for summer graduations...happy, happy, happy to work.

Ian's Cap and Gown Portraits

When I'm not being a photographer, which is most of the time, I'm a youth pastor. As a fundraiser a while back, we auctioned off many of our youth as slave labor. I auctioned myself off too as a good model of expecting no more from others than I am willing to give.

I went for $60, and my task was to take some cap and gown portraits of the (follow me here) boyfriend of the oldest daughter of a lady in our church.

After shooting two graduation ceremonies for Village Photographers that day, I met up with Tallassee High School class of 2013 graduate Ian et al for the pics below. These are my ten favorite, but we got over 20 really good photos at two locations in just over an hour.We started at the Patterson Log Cabin, the oldest home in Tallassee, AL. Our second location was below Thurlow Dam, also in Tallassee.

I shot using my Nikon D70 and SunPak 522 (or just natural light in some shots).

 

It was a great experience, and I'm glad my photography skills were able to bring in some funds for the ongoing ministry of our youth group. I'm also thrilled to finally get these posted here.

Tallassee High School Spring Show 2013

For the last three years, I've been missing the real Spring Show. The last two years, I was fortunate enough to substitute teach on the day they were performing for the 4th graders, but it's not the same. Not this year! I had to drop money off at the school early on a day I was headed out to of town to shoot a graduation and exchange a bunch of text messages with one of my LibertyYouth, but I would not be denied.

The young men and women of Tallassee High School's various choirs put on a great show. Choir Director Mr. Cunningham put together a wide range of songs--serious and silly--pulling from current radio, Broadway, YouTube viral videos, and classic hits. They even sang my Thompson High School class song from 1999, "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan. And let's not even go into how many costume changes they rolled through. Wow, just wow.

I took my 170-500mm lens and my regular 18-70mm lens with my Nikon D70. This was a great learning/reminding experience. The harsh realities of setting my shutter speed to low and shooting without the help of a tripod made me cull a load of shots; camera shake can't be helped in Adobe Lightroom. One of these days, I'll be able to upgrade to a camera that can really get the job done in lower light. But the short-comings of my equipment aside, I still got a few great shots.

You can find the other reasonably decent shots on my Facebook page.