Shooting Easter (For Yearbook)

As you may already know, I’m the yearbook advisor at Alliance Academy this year. I have 11 seniors on my staff and we are all very busy finalizing layouts for our final deadline on May 17th. It’s a great job, but it sure is a lot of work…and there’s still plenty left to be done!

Even though I did yearbook for 2 years in high school, being on the other side of things is completely different. My students have been truly great, but because they didn’t have much experience creating layouts or taking photos, it’s been quite a learning curve for them. I’ve had to help fill in the gaps, especially when it comes to low-light and/or sports photography. Some weeks, that means taking 1000+ photos of sporting events and various other campus activities. And even though that often means staying late after school, it’s one of the best parts of my job.

As faculty at a Christian school, we are able to share Christ’s love to nearly 600 students on a daily basis. Since many of our students are not Christians, there’s an amazing opportunity here. This Wednesday, the school held a morning Easter assembly where our Spiritual Life Director (also Angela’s boss and someone I’ve come to know well), Steve Weber, shared the true meaning of Easter with the whole school. With students ranging from 4 to 18 years old, it’s tough keeping their attention, but Steve does an amazing job!

After the assembly, as a culmination to spirit week, each class competed in a variety of events around campus. Here’s a few of my favorite photos from the day:

Downing a 3-liter bottle of Fanta with help from his friends. Onions, mustard, and green olives were also part of this eating challenge.

As part of the water relay, students had to ferry water from one container to another using only a sponge.

One of the elementary students cheers on her teammates as they compete in one of the relays.

Middle School history teacher, Adam Yoder, shows his spirit for the black team.

The red team shows of their team cheer for the judges.

Darth Vader (a member of the black team) attempts to influence the judges.

The orange team celebrates victory!

In the end, it was an exhausting day, but the students all seemed to have a great time. Hopefully my staff and I were able to capture some images that will give them fond memories for many years to come.