Today I will be taking a school class photograph of the students in staff standing in this shape. It is an overambitious project, with a lot of variables.

Above is my diagram of the school playground with the school at the bottom of the photograph. And below is my location scout made from the roof of the school. Notice that it took about 5 seconds for kids to scream: “Scott Stoll is on the roof.” I think they’re a lot like prairie dogs.

I’ve been observing the weather, waiting for the snow to melt, hoping for a cloudy day to avoid the high contrast and shadows, and also hoping to schedule a time when the playground will be in the shadow. Among my challenges, will be:

• Drawing a giant picture in chalk
• Calculating the correct perspective and space for the students to comfortably fill the lines
• Organizing the students into groups of red and blue shirts. Fortunately the teachers are great at this.
• Accounting for all the unforeseen variables
• And accomplishing this all before everyone goes stir crazy and breaks formation.

I seem to learn all these things the hard way. If life was easy, it wouldn’t be new.