Group Photos Archives

I was going to write something profound about the 2015 reunion, but I need to let my thoughts simmer for awhile.

Maybe it’s my family’s brush with mortality lately; maybe it’s looking at that looping series of photos of our classmates who have graduated to the next level; maybe it’s just that the doggone stairs in the Arena building seem steeper than they used to. So, rather than post the rather melancholy thoughts that are floating around in my head right now, let’s just go straight to some happy pictures of the celebration we had.

2015 Reunion photo gallery

Click on any picture to make it larger, then use your arrow keys to move through the gallery. There are a lot of images of the photographer herding cats to set up the group shots. I’ll add that job to the list of career opportunities to avoid.

I’m not sure both of these photos are mine. This photo’s lighting and overall tone looks more like it could have been taken by Master Photographer Paul Lueders.

I don’t recognize anyone in the photo. I’m going to guess they are members of a Trinity Lutheran School confirmation class. Click on the photos to make them large enough to see the faces.

Trinity graduates, maybe?

This looks like a different group than the one above, and their caps and gowns might make it an eighth grade graduation. Trinity Lutheran School also had a kindergarten graduation, but it’s pretty safe to say these aren’t kindergarteners.

The technical quality of this photo makes me think I took it. Where the picture at top of the page is evenly lit and has a full range of tones, this one appears to have been shot with one strobe light held high and off to the left. It got rid of most of the shadows, but the light is a bit harsh. The highlights are a little blown out, too. That’s because I tended to overexpose and overdevelop “to be safe,” leading to contrasty photos. That’s not a good thing when you’re shooting people in white robes.

So, Mr. Lueders, if that WAS your shot at the top, please forgive me for stealing your picture. I imagine you are too busy taking pictures of angels lounging around on cloud tops to have noticed, though.

Dodged a bullet

While I was still in high school, I was contacted by a company that wanted to hire me to shoot photos for a church book at Trinity. I don’t remember the details, but it was going to involve me convincing families to show up at the church to be photographed. The results would be assembled into a book the company would take advance orders for. I’d get a cut of the action, plus be able to sell prints to the families.

I turned the idea down. I figured if they offered ME the job, they were shady to begin with. It sniffed of something where they used a local to rope in the marks and collect the money for a product that would never be delivered. I didn’t have confidence that I had the technical skills to pull of the job, and I sure didn’t want to get run out of town on a rail by a bunch of German Lutherans with pitchforks if this turned out to be a scam.

Cape Central High Photos

Ken Steinhoff, Cape Girardeau Central High School Class of 1965, spent half a century in the ink-slinging business for papers in Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida.

He retired in 2008 and has been spending time scanning hundreds of thousands of images because “photos once taken as news have grown enough whiskers that they’ve become history.”

Please comment on the articles when you see he may have left out a bit of history, forgotten a name or when your memory of a circumstance conflicts with his.

(His mother said her stories improved after all the folks who could contradict died off.)

Your information helps to make this a wonderful archive and may end up in book form.