Thanks for all the kind words! Yes it was great to have a professional photographer be there.

She told me that last year, her first year of setting up at the Burns Dinner, she brought a black backdrop and was dismayed to discover that nearly everybody was wearing black!

So this year she brought a brown backdrop.

How do you think it works? I'm not sure that brown is ideal, but I don't know what would be best. I've seen backdrops at photography places that have all sorts of neutral tones in vague cloudlike splotches all over. Something like that might work better than brown. Or what about a lovely soft blue?

Thanks, Richard