Graduations and Such

I mentioned this a little yesterday, but I wanted to tell you more about it.

Several months ago, my friend Kari came to me and asked if she could reserve me to serve as her official photographer for a few events during her son's senior year. She is a scrapbook lover just like I am, and she wanted {of course} many pictures from his senior year...but she didn't want to sacrifice being a mom on those nights and the chance to enjoy watching him be a senior.

Honestly, I think it's a perfectly brilliant plan. We don't have kids, but if we did, how great would it be to have someone there to photograph the stuff we really wanted to just enjoy?

So I was really excited about it - until I realized she was handing me her son's one and only high school graduation and completely trusting me to get good pictures. This is like childbirth. There's no backing up and doing a take two. You get it or you don't. Those are the options.

But having said that, I did successfully photograph four childbirths, two of them before the age of digital cameras, so this should have been no big deal. Explain to me, then, why I was sweating it big time when the ceremony rolled around? {And it wasn't all because of the temperature in the gym.}

I was doing okay until I realized that with the exception of a few phone pictures, no one in his entire family surrounding me had a camera in hand. This thing really was on me! EEEK!

Praise the Lord {no, SERIOUSLY!!! Praise the Lord!!!} for good lighting and slow moving graduates. Between the two, and the spare memory card I THANKFULLY packed, I got through the ceremony. {Yes. I filled up one whole card before the night was over. How AWFUL would it have been for that to run out while he was walking across the stage???}

Okay. So this is not the graduate. But I had to take practice shots to mess with lighting...

This guy gave the opening speech. HILARIOUS. Actually, all the speeches given at this graduation were superb, in my opinion, and those 18 year olds delivered with poise in front of FAR more people than I've ever addressed. I was truly impressed. They had character, great pauses, funny lines, meaningful lines, and good diction. Nice job, graduates. {And thanks for keeping me entertained since I knew none of you!!}

Whew. Got it. {Actually, even though some were blurry, it was funny to scroll through all the pictures taken in such rapid succession that you can actually watch him walk across the stage.}

The mess of confetti and streamers in the air....it's a Where's Waldo adventure in finding the graduate of your choice.

Thanks, Kari, for trusting me with one of the biggest days of your son's life. It was an honor to share the night with you - and a bigger honor once I knew the pictures turned out!! :)

After graduation, the family went out to celebrate with dessert and coffee, and they invited us to go along. We rarely turn down dessert and coffee, so we went!

 Three cups of coffee each and one piece of cake each later...we headed home, happy campers!!

 Ryan's....

...and mine. Delicious.