Thanks to a good friend of mine graduating from Arizona State University I was given a ticket for his 2009 graduation ceremony with an address by President Barack Obama.

Entertainment started at 5pm with performances from students and lightning fast appearance of surprise guest Alice Cooper.

The presidential podium with the seal of the President of the United States:

President Obama’s address before a fully packed Sun Devil Stadium was enthralling, not only did he stay for the whole ceremony, he handshaked all Doctorate and Honor graduates present at the ceremony. The full transcript of his address can be found here.

A lot of official photo snipers were present, and in case you were wondering all these pictures were taken from the east side of the Sun Devil Stadium using a Nikon D90 with 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens and 1.7x teleconverter.