Over the years, I must have photographed over thirty university, college, and high school graduation ceremonies. Mostly the ones for the University of New Brunswick and St Thomas in Fredericton. The challenge was always finding something interesting…because they are pretty much the same every year.
The students line up at the student union building, fix their gowns and hats, and have pictures taken. Then they walk up the hill and wave to their parents and have their pictures taken. They enter the Aitken Centre, more waving, more pictures. They take their seats. The University President gets up and speaks. Some people get honorary degrees, and one of them speaks to the graduates. Then the hundreds of grads line up to get their degrees, and their family members cram into the photo area to get pictures. (You can see examples of all of these in this post about taking great photos at a graduation ceremony.)
The key is finding something interesting, and that involves paying attention and looking around.
I was at the edge of the graduates as they stood during God Save the Queen, and as I looked to my right I saw these two heads popping up from the crowd. Remember, we are all STANDING up here. I thought to myself “Holy moly, those two guys are tall!”
I got myself into a bit better position to get a clearer shot of the these 6 foot 5 inch twin brothers Tim and Chris Beatty as they towered above their classmates. As always, I needed to get their names, so I made my way quietly and an unobtrusive as possible through the grads.
When I told them who I was, one of them remarked “Let me guess, you took a photo that makes us look really tall, right?” To which I replied “Yeah…sorry.” But they were good sports about it and gave me their names. I even got a nice letter from their dad saying how much he liked the photo. Always appreciate that!
Technical info:
Lens: 70-200mm
ISO: 1600
Shutter Speed: 1/250
Aperture: F2.8
Whitebalance: Flourescent
Metering: MANUAL of course!
Noel Chenier
Photographer and teacher
Connect with Noel on INSTAGRAM or TWITTER or via EMAIL
Want to make sure you get all the latest posts and info? Subscribe!
More Stories Behind The Photo Post
Canada Games Athletes-Wrestler Megan Getchell
Today’s portrait is of Canada Games wrestling team member Megan Getchell. This was another indoor portrait, which as previously mentioned, can be beneficial as you have total control over the light. I started out with some standard portraits. For these shots, I used a single flash in an umbrella, which …
Canada Games Athletes-Soccer’s Cassian Ferlatte and Marisa Duguay
This was the second shoot done for this series, this time it is soccer players Cassian Ferlatte and Marisa Duguay. As previously mentioned, the first day of shooting was an overcast day. Which is good in that the light is lower and makes for better flash control, but the skies …
Making Something Out Of Nothing: The Boardroom Shot
There is nothing more challenging that trying to make an interesting photograph in a boardroom…. On this particular day, I had to photograph William Stanley of Atlantic Hydrogen at the office as he was coming through town. Normally we would have gotten him with some of the company’s technology, but …
Canada Games Athletes-Swimmer Jacqueline Murchison
Today’s Canada Games athlete portrait is of swimmer Jacqueline Murchison. I wanted to start off with some portraits outside the pool. Figured it would be easier to shoot them first, that way she wouldn’t get all wet and have to stand around. Since we were indoors, it was easy to …
Photographing a Luthier….What’s A Luthier?
One of the best things about being a newspaper photographer is that I get to meet lots of interesting people who do lots of interesting things. I was given the assignment to photograph a Luthier. What’s A Luthier I thought to myself… (261)
(270)