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The further back you stand from the family, the more people will jump in your way and block your shot. In other situations this can get frustrating, but homecomings are different, this is their moment, not mine. If that happens, I just swivel around and find someone else I can capture a memory for. There is no shortage of incredible scenes happening all around you.
Another reason I prefer the 70-200 is that years ago when I was learning photography, a friend told me, “photograph things that way people aren’t used to seeing them.” At that time, I was getting ready to move to Washington, D.C., and he also said, “You are about to move to a city where you’ll be shoulder to shoulder with 50 other photographers that are taking photos of the exact same thing, what are you going to do to make your photos stand out from theirs?” It is these two pieces of advice I think of every time I go out on a photo assignment. I love my 24-70, but I feel that to run around and take wide angle photos of everything happening around me, just looks kind of normal, and can lose the emotional impact I am trying to capture.