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.

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.

Tallassee Sunset and After

A couple weeks ago, I grabbed my camera and took to the streets to get some pictures around Tallassee of a sunset. Here are the best of that outing:

 A few nights ago featured a so-called "super moon," the moon being at its closest point to Earth in its orbit and full. I was leaving Montgomery after shooting the Huntingdon College graduation, and the whole way back to Tallassee I was contemplating pulling over on the side of the interstate to catch the moon close to the horizon (the moon is magnified by the curvature of our atmosphere when near the horizon). I held back until I got to the where Hwy-229 crosses the Tallapoosa River on the way into Tallassee. Here's the best of my attempts to shoot the moon, plus a bonus pic looking down the road.

(The one above was actually taken after I got home to my 170-500mm lens and better tripod. Thank you again, Diane Koart.)

These images were made possible, in large part, due to the fact that my wife allowed me to purchase Adobe Lightroom 4 as a reward for getting our taxes done. I've really enjoyed it.