A History of Humor in Attendance Pictures

The Genesis of this practice was with an incidental act of humor (courtesy of Paint), but it soon became persistent.

(CW from bottom left: Aaron, Candace, Adelaide, Train Dave, Jenk Adam, Jim, Jason, Leah, CtCloser)
*Where’s Adam? Oh, wait, there he is.*
(2022’11’02’W)

And it continued.

(Photo credit: JRC Mike Tatman [CC BY-NC-SA 4.0]. L-R, back: Jenk Adam, Alex, CtCloser, Candace, Jim, Jason, Jenk Peter. L-R, front: Aaron.)
*Candace and the Boys*
(2022’11’23’W)

Once, the practice even included an act (uh) of exclusion in order to preserve the integrity of the attendance record from a previous run.

(CW from bottom left: Stephen, Aaron, Leah, Andy, EricH, Alex, Adelaide, CtCloser)
*Ignore Jim (see Cerebrun). You know, ignore Adelaide, too (who’s trying to pretend she’s barely hanging onto my shoulder)*
(2023’02’22’W)

The use of selfies to include the photographer raised an issue — specifically, managing a shallow depth-of-field — that photo editing could solve with its own brand of humor.

(Center, L-R: Tara, J.Drew. CW from bottom left: Stephen, Maria, Christian, Jason, Leah, Candace, Jenk Adam [remarkably in good focus], Jenk Eric, Alex [leaning out], Jim, CtCloser.)
*Stay focused. (See Cerebrun.)*
(2022’11’16’W)

The practice evolved to address several issues: the actual visibility of an attendee, the timing of attendees for inclusion, and the inclusion of the photographer all without affecting focus on every attendee because of depth-of-field considerations.