Last Thursday night, my husband and I attended the Junior Ring Ceremony at Xavier. Our son Andrew and 143 of his classmates were decked out in their blue blazers, definitely dressed to impress. Following a beautiful mass, each name was called and the boys walked across the stage to receive their ring from Bishop Michael Cote. At the start of the ceremony, they were instructed to pose for a picture with the Bishop.

The only problem, Ted Milardo, from Images Photography of Glastonbury, the school photographer was really only prepared to shoot candids that night. It takes a lot of planning and coordination to shoot 144 pictures consecutively and usually a photographer would bring an assistant to shoot every other. There is a certain amount of time you need between shots for your flash to recycle.

At about half way through the alphabet, Ted's flash ran out of battery power. I saw my son, who happened to be sitting in the front row, make a mad dash to Ted's camera bag to retrieve more batteries. Andrew is a pretty capable shooter and knows the routine.

I decided Ted needed my help, it's what photogs do, most are always willing to help eachother out. So, I headed out to the Jeep to grab my camera equipment and ran back as fast as I could. Completely out of breath, I walked down the side isle and I could see Ted for the most part had things under control. He flagged me over and whispered, " I cover this every year and only shoot candids, I don't think we talked about this." I knew he still needed candids and could not photograph students receiving rings and candids at the same time, so told him, "I got your back!"

Ted and I go way back and is a nice guy! His twin sons, Chris and Dan are the same age as my son and attended Xavier freshmen year. His wife, Lizz is a Mercy grad and some years ago, I helped them out with a prom or two.

Ted, I am so glad I had my camera following the ceremony. If it weren't for the "situation" I would not have had the opportunity to shoot these images of my son and his classmates having fun in St. Joseph's Hall. So here's to you Ted...thank you!