Tying the knot

Today I used the camera even though I was a guest. A young friend had invited me to her wedding ceremony and I did warn her that I was so attached to my camera that it went everywhere with me! The shots I managed to take haven't turned out too badly - the sky was rather white and ultra difficult because of its glaryness  (is there such a word?) but since I take all my photos in RAW I am able to rescue over bright bits (sometimes not so well if there is too much over exposure). I have not had to throw any of my shots away so I guess you can say I managed!
The young bride and groom had a photographer for the day - a stony faced young woman who never smiled once all afternoon. She also did not take one shot from any other height than eye level. That surprised me. It is so easy to vary shots by holding the camera high or low or even by standing on a small platform to look down. She was less than half my age and I never saw her bend down once.
I was not in competition with the photographer. I kept well out of the way and just had fun with the camera - zipping in to sit on one of the front seats to get a prime position! The ducking back out to the side to get the guests watching.
This is one of the shots from the day.

I will put all the pictures into an album so they can be shared by the newly weds with their guests - and I can share them with you! I do not sell my pictures, I just take them because I enjoy taking them.
AJ

The Wedding

Well the wedding is over and Colin and I snuck away from the very noisy party that is still echoing through the mountain tops. We were so hungry that we had to come back to our motel room to have something to eat! Neither of us eat oysters nor drink wine so we were sort of on the outer with the rest of the crowd!
The wedding was at Hargraves lookout just out of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains. I raved about the place yesterday having caught it in the sunlight.

Just to prove how terrific it looks on a good day I am including a shot from yesterday because today was cold and damp and the sky, very dark.

So all that practicing I did with the camera was to no avail - except that I have some bright photos to include with the wedding ones! I had to do another quick rehearsal before the actual wedding and snapped away at some of the guests. by the time Jess arrived (Adam was there before any of us) I was confident of getting my shots. Here are a couple of them I will share tonight. I think I was the only one who raced around the crowd to get the couple "walking down the Aisle".

You can see the gloomy clouds behind everyone. It was really cold too and Jess was eager to get into the warmth of the car! I think it was down to 9 degrees and there was a breeze too.

Before they reached the car I called Jess and Adam to come back and pose with the cliffs behind them. The wedding was with the valley behind them so there is no background at all other than the railings of the lookout and very distant dark hills where as on this side where they walked to the car the scenery is lovely.
I may even cheat and put them and the railing in front of that sunny picture, the cliffs look so clear! What do you think? This is the reason they chose this location, after all.
One great thing about the grey lighting - there are no hard shadows like were in the shots I took in the evening sun yesterday. So I managed to have an assistant with a reflector after all! The clouds were my reflectors!
(Click on any picture to see it larger then hit the return arrow to return to this blog)
AJ