Before I bring everyone up to speed with what I’ve been working on this summer… I thought I’d start my first blog by talking about my last assignment of the Spring 2009 semester.

I’ve shot commencement for three years now at Stanislaus and it’s one of my favorite assignments to shoot. Covering graduation brings me back to my days as a newspaper photojournalist because I'm shooting a real event where a variety of stories are occurring at the same time. This year didn’t start off so well though…  I have to admit I got myself into a weird funk on the first day of commencement. Everything I shot felt like it was the same reaction, the same hand wave, the same smile. I didn't find anything different! I kept trying to find a new shot or a new angle but nothing was working. I went home a little frustrated on Friday and started asking myself if I should just go for even better smiles and better waves to the crowd when Saturday rolled around, ... because it seemed obvious to me at that moment that I all I was doing was wasting time by waiting for a different shot or moment to catch my eye.

 
When Saturday's commencement started I didn't know how I was going to shoot, (until I got into my "shooting mode" as people call it). But after taking a deep breath I told myself... "I can't just go for the normal shot." I couldn't let myself do it. ... and as luck would have it... I took my two favorite shots within 60 seconds of each other. The waiting game paid off… and after camping out for nearly ten minutes at the top of a set of stairs I got the shot I was waiting for. Once I got the picture… I knew it was time to move on and without even surveying the scene, I ran into another great moment when I started walking downstairs. I saw two students playing cards together on the steps... I couldn't have set it up any better even if I had tried. After I got the shots I let out a huge sigh of relief knowing that I got a couple of photos that were different than the ones I had taken in the two previous years… and now, I’m already looking forward to the challenge of shooting next year’s commencement.