Birds-eye view

Well, it's been a crazy few days, getting ready for the ubiquitous right of spring — graduation.

Students at colleges, universities, high schools and middle schools across the country are getting ready to close out the educational year and advance to the next level.

Lucky for me, I've only got two to cover this year and they're both this weekend. In years past, I've covered many more.

And the images that come from graduation ceremonies can start to look the same after a while. That, I think, is part of the challenge of being a photographer, particularly for a newspaper. The folks who are making photos of their children, grandchildren and friends don't have to work to find different images. They're perfectly happy as long as it's their kid in the viewfinder.

But I often have to try to find a different way to look at things to keep them interesting and to stay excited about my job. Let's face it — doing the same thing, over and over and over and over and over (you get the idea) . . . It gets monotonous.

I was lucky while I was working in Texas. The local high school held its annual commencement ceremonies in the local college coliseum. The facility had a cat-walk that was accessible. Every once in a while, we'd shoot from up there for basketball or volleyball and, one year, I decided to try it for graduation.

I had other images from this assignment, with more graduates in their places as the seats filled up. But I like this one from near the beginning of the processional. To me, it shows the idea of beginnings — students beginning the next chapter in their lives.

As I've said previously, I'm trying to keep this blog more up to date than I have on previous attempts. Let me know what you think. Drop me a line or add a comment. Let me know someone's out there!

Thanks for looking