Graduation Ceremony Photos

ckaspar

So...My sister-in-law is graduating from High School today and she asked me to take photos of the ceremony for her family, since I have the nicest gear. Now, since I am not the official photog of the ceremony I am kind of restricted to the family seating area in the bleachers.

What tips do you guys suggest for me to be able to take more than just "regular pictures"? I want them to look good. I am used to shooting R/C car racing or my kids. Both of those are more up close and personal pics. These are going to be further away. I will be shooting outside so I won't have flash restrictions. I have a Canon 70-200, not an L series, and am planning on using that to zoom in as close as possible. I am planning on switching to my nifty fifty after the ceremony to get shots of her with friends and family.

Thoughts, suggestions, tips, ideas? I'm all ears!

maeflower

This isn't really answering your question, but hopefully it's somewhat helpful. Everyone I know who has a child that's graduated (and thinking back to my own graduations) orders the prints of the family pictures taken after the graduation ceremony of graduate and mom, graduate and dad, graduate and grandparents, etc. but no one has pictures of the actual ceremony hanging on their wall or on their desk. It certainly doesn't mean they aren't important and I wish you the best of luck, but if you're thinking about which photographs will mean the most in 5 or 10 years time, it will be the family shots or the graduate alone posed with the diploma. But then again, maybe that's because it's so difficult to get good pics of the ceremony?