Albright Family: Sarah Graduates Summa Cum Laude ...

Sarah graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography. She earned highest honors, Summa Cum Laude. For those of you who may not know, The University of the Arts is among the oldest [est. 1870] and most respected art schools in the US. It's difficult to express just how proud we are of her and her accomplishments.

As usual, just click on any image to get the full resolution.

Kristin, Seth and I got to Philadelphia on Wednesday and had dinner with Sarah at the Capitol Grille on Broad St., just a few blocks from her school.

Sarah greets us in style ...

I don't know what to say. Moving on ...

The dinner was lovely ... a lot of food ... great atmosphere. Sarah was very excited and I think a little nervous about graduating, and we all fed off that energy and had a great time.

I got the chance to experiment some more with my Canon SLR ... taking photos in low light without a flash.

Kristin really likes this photo of me [left]. Sarah took this photo, and it shows how well she captures the essence of people in her work.

There are more portraits online and other beautiful art photography at her Web site http://www.sarahhelenalbright.com. Shameless plug. How can I help it?

I also tried out taking photos in dual format, each photo taken being saved as both a JPG and RAW. After downloading the photos onto my computer and viewing the RAW images, I see why they are used by the professionals ... the quality of image can't be compared, really. Too bad they're too big to upload. The photos displayed here are the JPG option. They're still really good, I think.

Blurry, yes, but who can resist the sheer spontaneity?

After dinner we went over to Sarah's apartment, which wasn't too far.

She packed up some of her photos for us to take home.

Flashing back to college apartment living.

The next day Kristin and I got up early to stand in line for the graduation ceremonies. We were staying once again at the Park Hyatt, which is convenient to her school, and only about a block away from the building in which the ceremonies would take place.

Kristin took this photo with her cell phone camera of Sarah in line waiting to enter.

Here's a view from our gallery. We got pretty good seats, I think.

The graduates finally started to file in ...

I managed to get closer and caught this photo of Sarah as she was entering. Not a good one, I know, but the best I could get at the time. I was lucky to get it, I think, as I really had no idea how far Sarah was down the line.

You can just sort of make Sarah out here near the center of the image. She's facing the camera and smiling. You can click the image [as usual] to get the full resolution.

There were a LOT of speeches and a LOT of awards and honorary degrees to hand out.

Lisa, Sarah's mom, was there too. We all had a great time together. We laughed, we cried (really), it was better than Cats.

Seth chose a seat between his mom and Kristin ... and ended up getting battered on both sides with motherly advice, etc. He took it in good humor as usual.

Here are photos of Sarah getting her diploma and shaking hands with the school's Deans, etc.

Sarah and some of her buddies ...

There was a drum line playing Brazilian percussion. Well, it is an art school after all.

Here's a view of the reception after the ceremony in Hamilton Hall. This is the same atrium we came to four years ago when Sarah registered for the first time as a student at the University. Sans chocolate fountain, of course.