Graduation 2007

As I mentioned on Monday, this past Saturday my soon-to-be sister-in-law, Marjorie, graduated from high school and I was tasked with the job of photographing the ceremony and grabbing all the family shots.

Now, I'm no event photographer, but I think there are certainly a few keepers in there. If you click here you can see a gallery - created in Lightroom - of my best shots from the day (23 of about 100). Just a note, I noticed that I've had to hit refresh once the page came up in order for the images to actually load.

In these shots you will mostly see Marjorie but you will also find Kim (with and without the family dog, Buddy), their youngest sister Sarah, and their parents Ken and Terry.

One thing I noticed was that whenever I moved up to get some shots, everyone with a point-and-shoot or video camera started moving towards me. Maybe it was my Nikon D200 with a 56-200mm lens or the fact that I was using a monopod instead of hand-holding it. Granted, most amateurs don't always know what a good angle to shoot from would be so they follow the person who seems to know what he/she is doing thinking that they will get the same shot. The difference isn't just the camera or the monopod but knowing how to compose a shot.

I get this a lot during events I do with work. I'm on the primary video camera for live events and I setup where I will get a good shot of the podium, good angles on the whole stage, and the ability to get as unobstructed shots as possible of everything else. It's not always the best spot for stills. But, without fail, whenever anyone wants a shot they will gather around my position to snap a few. I can't blame them, but I do smile to myself every time.

NOTE: All of the shots in the gallery were initially processed in Lightroom. Some sharpening was added to the faces in Photoshop (before Lightroom 1.1 was released) and, for a couple of the family shots, I replaced the faces of those who were blinking or looking away with those from other shots. That is why I take multiple shots of the same setup/pose.