THE THINGS I DO…

With graduation season upon us, it’s a good time to go over some photo tips for shooting these family milestones. If you’re like me, when one rolls around, you are responsible for capturing the moments…and you’d better not fail! Here’s some tips for getting great images from these fairly formal ceremonies…

• First, interrogation. Leave the waterboard behind. But do ask some questions of your graduate after he or she returns from the rehearsal. Most important, find out where they’ll be seated for the ceremony and the route of the processional.
• Next, grab a seat ON THE AISLE on the same side your target is sitting. An aisle seat will allow you to quickly move about without disturbing others. Being on the same side as your graduate will also save you some steps. Leave your camera bag here with your spouse or whoever accompanies you to allow you to move about without looking like a pack mule. If you aren’t allowed to move about (and some schools have a tendency to restrict this sort of thing), you’ll be in a great spot to get the photos that come after.
• Set your color balance, ISO and, in general, have your camera ready. A freshly-formatted memory card is a must.
• Concentrate on the action, not the speeches. Using the intel you gathered earlier, you will have an advantage over all the other mommies and daddies shooting the event. Shoot the processional, looking for your special person. No one will care about how great your photos are of the main speaker…except maybe his mom!
• Wide, medium, tight. The formula for making an interesting series of photos. Shoot a wide angle shot to show the crowd and act as a scene-setter for what’s to follow, then shoot medium shots of the action and zero in on your subject for a couple close-ups. My lens of choice for this is a zoom. It keeps lens-changes to a minimum and allows me to pack only two lenses: my 24-70mm f/2.8 and my 70-200mm f/2.8.
• Inside or out, add a pop of flash to brighten colors and freeze action. Digital images benefit from a pop of flash. It brightens the colors while helping you to stop action. Balance the flash with the background so that your flash is just adding a slight “kick” to the scene. You might want to practice on other folks’ kids before your “money shot” rolls walks across the stage.
• Remember your alphabet. Since every graduation I’ve ever attended marches the grads to their diplomas alphabetically, you have plenty of warning for when your grad will be taking the long walk to the stage. Be ready for it and position yourself in plenty of time to get the diploma hand-off. I usually spring into action when they start calling names a couple letters ahead of those I’m photographing.
• Get low and watch your line of sight. After you’ve found the spot where you want to shoot from, bend your knees and get down low. You do this for two reasons: you won’t be blocking the view of others and you’ll be able to use the sky or the ceiling as your background and not a distracting crowd of other graduates. I like to shoot at f/5.6 or wider to further blur my background…watch your focus point, though.
• Get the important shot but look for something better. Sure, the shot of the headmaster handing over the goodies is important, but don’t get so hung up on getting that shot that you miss better opportunities. A great expression is more important in the larger sceme of things.
• Don’t put the camera down after the ceremony! This is the time when the most memorable moments happen. Caps get thrown in the air, hugs are exchanged and the real memories happen. Slap your wide-angle lens on the camera and blaze away. Why a wide-angle? It forces you to get close to your subjects while making it harder for someone to walk in front of you. Believe me, the latter reason alone is reason enough!
• And finally, don’t wait to post and share your work… crank it out as soon as you can. Post your photos, e-mail your photos, print your photos to share these moments with friends and family. After all, that’s what’s most important!

After spending the morning stomping around in the brush, I thought I’d share a composition tip. Once you’ve taken the time to line up your shot, don’t be satisfied with it. When shooting animals, I find myself stop trying to improve the shot once I have the critter framed in my viewfinder. It’s a bad habit I constantly have to push myself to undo. It’s a rare photo that can’t be improved by a slight change of position. Take a look at my first frame of a great blue heron on the hunt:

Not bad, but I’m looking past the obvious fact that it’s exposed well and in focus. Look at the background. It has more than a few distracting sticks and highlights. To clean that up a bit, I could either try to throw it out of focus a little more with a wider aperture or change my camera position. In this instance, I moved two steps to the left and moved those sticks out of the frame. Here’s my second try:

As you can see, it’s quite a bit different and the background is much, much less distracting. So, next time you’re out with your camera and are ready to press your shutter, try this visual exercise:

• Move two steps to the right (from your original position), take a photo.
• Move two step to the left, take a photo.
• Back up two steps, move forward two steps, bend your knees (taking a shot each time, of course).

Don’t be happy with your first frame. I hope you see that changing your camera position even slightly can improve your photos. 

Feel free to share your experiences doing my little exercise here…

Looking for a new way to see things? Try shooting from a low angle. I found this patch of gigantic mushrooms perfectly lit by a shaft of late afternoon sunlight. From my normal, standing perspective, the photo wasn’t much to look at. Bending my knees and shooting up from ground level, however, made a big difference.

Keep in the back of your mind “would my shot be improved by going lower?” the next time you’re out with your camera. It can transform the ordinary photo to something extraordinary.

Oh, and purchase a gardener’s knee pad, they make getting low more comfortable and less messy on the knees!