Cape Class of 2024 captured by drone

A Cape High tradition continued Oct. 18 with the drone photo capture of the Class of 2024 assembling strategically on the turf at Legends Stadium to spell out and encircle the number 24 to represent their graduating year.

Computer art and photography II teacher Jason Fruchtman said it was his class’ 10th year making the keepsake photo, which students complete each year during Homecoming week for publication in the annual yearbook. 

To set up the photo, student Addy Basile said they mapped out the field on a computer and created a grid to mark out the number 24 in straight lines. 

Classmate Lulu Rishko said students spent about a week planning and calculating the area, then arrived at the field early to set up and tape locations marking where students need to stand.

This year’s class is large, Rishko said, estimating about 460 seniors were involved.

“Twenty-four is a good number to fill up a lot of space,” she said.

As students lined up to form the number and a circle around it, computer art and photography II student Malory Burn flew a drone to take photos and videos documenting the event while Fruchtman filmed the seniors from above.

Rylie Cathcart and Amalia Fruchtman, students in teacher Bruce Leibu’s video engineering class, also took videos and interviewed students who participated in and planned the event.

Hours of preparation culminated in just moments of photo-taking, with editing work planned for the classroom, Basile said.  

Fruchtman said he had just gotten the original drone before planning the first photo shoot 10 years ago.

“Every year we learn something new,” he said. “There’s always some issue each time, so it never goes perfect, but we learn to roll with it.”

For instance, when the Class of 2021 photo was made in the fall of 2020, social distancing requirements and hybrid student schedules caused the class to devise a creative way to represent the graduating year.

“We only had five students in class, so we moved them to different positions and photoshopped them together,” Fruchtman said. “It is cool to look at [all the photos] together. It’s kind of like a history of people that are building our community. And COVID.”