No Awards for My Flash Photography

 

So nice of the high school to protect the #1 son's blog privacy when they showed his slide!

The Mister and I are busting our proverbial buttons over our #1 son, who is finishing up his junior year in high school. Last night we went to the high school’s spring awards night to watch our pride and joy walk across the stage and accept his two honors: Best student in advanced (non-honors) Algebra II and in advanced Music History. Before we left for the school, I pondered my photographic options for documenting this grand occasion.

Sidebar: Early on in the #1 son’s high school career, he declared that as long as he passed every class, he’d be happy.

Me: “You’d be satisfied with making all D’s?”

#1 son: “Absolutely!”

Me: “Think again!” Where does he get these ideas? Why in the world would he think that his father and I would accept D’s when he’s capable of mostly A’s? Boys!

That put him on the road to better grades, culminating in this year. He made straight A’s the first semester and is close to duplicating that success once again (hold good thoughts for his Webmastering I final grade!).

But, as usual, I digress. I once tried using a point and shoot digicam when #1 won a math award, and the photo looked awful. So I opted for my trusty Nikon D300 and Nikon 17-55mm lens, figuring that I could up the ISO, all the better to throw the built-in flash further. As the Mister and I settled into our cushy seats in the school’s auditorium, it suddenly dawned on me: Duh . . . I need my big, external flash, not the underpowered built-in! Bad timing, unfortunately. Definitely a V8 headslap moment.

This is what happens when the "ace" photographer forgets her external flash.

The above photo was the best I could get while the #1 son walked across the stage to get his medals. Thanks to Photoshop CS3, I was able to lighten the photo enough so you could tell who’s in the photo. I used ISO 1250 and barely got enough light for a barely acceptable picture.

Sidebar: Yes, the #1 son is wearing a polo shirt, shorts, and sandals at an awards ceremony. Yes, his mom did tell him that he needed to wear long pants, which he hates (good thing we live in south Texas). Believe it or not, there was one other boy there who wore virtually the exact same outfit . . . and I’m sure there was an equally exasperated mother also sitting in the audience.

"Hurry and take the picture! I'm not going to smile!"

My strategy for good awards photos? Take pictures after the ceremony where the light is good. The above pic was taken outside with my grumpy guy. I wanted him to smile, so, of course, I pulled out my handy, dandy, guaranteed-grin trick: I asked him to say “horseradish.”

At first, the #1 son was determined it wasn’t going to work. But I just patiently waited . . . and soon he cracked—a smile!

Horseradish gets him every time!

I guess #1 has never heard those pearls of wisdom from the musical “Annie”: “You’re never fully dressed without a smile!” Especially if you’re wearing shorts and sandals to a somewhat-dressy event!