Michigan 2010 Commencement Photos
Michigan, graduation, Obama and a girl: combine these things and you get a glorious day with great photos to show.
In 5 years, I attended 4 graduation ceremonies, half split between a walker and an attendee. As you can probably guess, I love graduations! It’s almost like getting married — it usually only happens once, and is the culmination of years of effort to get you to that final day. So what if you’re not the main star (unless you’re valedictorian)? Everyone dresses up for the grand occasion and it’s all about smiles, hugs, and photo-taking.
This year, I returned to The Big House because of my girlfriend, who was graduating from undergrad, and also to see President Obama grace the university as a commencement speaker. It was my second time seeing an American president take the stage, the first one being Bill Clinton back in commencement 2006. I don’t know what is it that the school does that draws in these influential people, but I dare say it’s because of the school’s great reputation and prestige.
So I marked the start of my 3-week return to the U.S. with this big graduation ceremony. I rented a really expensive lens just for the occasion, and lots of the photos you see above are from it. Like always, my personal goal was to capture the best, brightest and beautiful moments, because I know my girlfriend and her family will look back on them many years in the future.
Because of the grand nature of the day, and also because some photos look rather good (ahem), I’ll probably be doing some larger prints of selected photos. Maybe hang them up somewhere. Now that I’m back in Singapore and look back on these photos, I’m really satisfied with my effort, and glad that I can keep my photography at a high level. That last point worries me because of a recent development, which has led to a rather uncertain future. Stick around, and I’ll fill you in very shortly.
