Enjoy the Pomp and Circumstance - Hire a Graduation Photographer

Watching your friend or family member graduate can be a highly-charged experience that just might leave you wiping tears from your eyes as you helplessly scramble for your camera. Hiring a graduation photographer is a great way to ensure that all of the special moments are captured without having to worry about faulty lenses and dead batteries.

Know the Rules
Before you can even consider hiring a graduation photographer, you need to check with the school to find out if there will be any media restrictions at the ceremony. You may need to request a special pass or ask that your photographer?s name be added to an approved media list. If your potential photographer has worked with the school before, he may already know the ins and outs of the school?s policies and can explain them to you.

Break the Rules
If you find out that the school?s policies might relegate your graduation photographer to the top of the bleachers, it?s time to get creative. Give your photographer one of your family tickets and ask that she take shots from your vantage point.

Create a Shot List
Whether your graduation photographer is seated next to you or corralled in a media holding tank, he?ll need a shot list. Here are the basic shots you?ll want to snag:

Establishing Shots
Ask your photographer to snap establishing shots of the students as they sit together at the beginning of the ceremony. These wide shots will provide context to people who are not able to attend the event.

The Processional
Have your photographer snap several shots of your graduate entering the ceremony. You?ll also want some reaction shots of your guests as they share in the moment.

The Waiting Period
Some of the best candid shots your graduation photographer can snap will come when your graduate is waiting to receive his diploma. Snag a few shots as he waits and chats with friends.

The Diploma Shot
The handing off of the diploma is the most important moment that your graduation photographer will need to capture. Consider getting a reaction shot of parents and family members as they watch the handoff.

Posed Shots
Make sure to get posed shots of all of the family members with the graduate. Snap a picture of the entire group as well as individuals.

Shots of the Past
Dig through childhood photos to find a younger cap and gown moment of your graduate (ie: pre-school or kindergarten graduation). Mimic the pose and feel of that photo for a great, frameable before and after shot.

Shots of the Future
If your child knows where she?s heading for college, bring along some paraphernalia to use in a few after-ceremony shots.

Capture it on Video
Of course, having a graduation photographer on-hand to capture all of these shots will mean nothing if you spend the entire ceremony with your eye glued to the viewfinder of your camcorder. If you really want to memorialize every second of your child?s first step into adulthood, consider hiring a videographer as well.