The view from the apartment when I went to shoot my first wedding. The weather was great that day and rarely do I get to wake up early enough to see the hot air balloons.

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Not much for words these days. My brain just isn’t working on that wavelength. I’m more in the mood for just reading and consuming movies. Still suffering from bouts of hay fever and it’s been rather warm before leading up to a good sprinkling of rain.

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I’ve been wanting to write about the wedding shoot, but always get stuck on where to begin. From an overall perspective, it was less tiring than I imagined it to be. I was well fed throughout, and I had a friend I could talk to on occasion so maybe it didn’t feel that daunting. Made a lot of mental notes on things I should have prepared to begin with, like detail shots I was supposed to take, and more communication before hand on what I was going to be doing. Heh, also lots of things you read about that photographers complain about that actually happened. So like I said, mental note for the next chance I get to do this again.

From a technical perspective, I shot 27GB of photos in RAW. That’s about 1.5 camera batteries worth of shooting. Most were done with my 24-70mm and the 85mm 1.8D. I brought a 50mm along but never bothered to change lenses. I can see the value of having a 70-200mm and even if it breaks your back, you will need it for some occasions like during the ceremony as I was scampering up and down a lot, so I’m not very sure if that was a good idea but it was the only way to get the shot.

I have only looked through the shots once, but they were generally good. No wow pictures, but then again I wasn’t really expecting any considering the amount of time I had to work with. I still hate the afternoon sun for outdoor shots, and you can either find shade or overpower it with flash. Heh, also a new experience trying to pose more than two people and getting them enthusiastic about it.

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So tomorrow is the daunting task of going through the photos, trimming down the list, editing them, and selecting the best few to be presented initially. I’d like to work to exacting standards but this shoot isn’t entirely a client/business relationship, so I might do things a little different until I figure out what really works.

It will take longer initially as I’m still in the process of getting my workflow standardised.

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Heh, I’ve done this once. I know I can do it, I just need to keep at it. It’s going to be for the long haul.

Was out shooting a couple on Saturday. I had another good day where it was slightly cloudy, giving nice soft light on most occasions. The purple flowers caught my attention, and these are the details that seem to pop up visually in my mind these days.

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I’m taking small steps, and improving my repertoire for taking photos of people. The workshop I attended in August has given me a lot of insight on what I should be focusing on when pointing the camera at people. I do okay with candid moments, as those are naturally expressive. It’s posing people that felt like a daunting task and I feel like I’m heading in the right direction now on what I should be looking out for.

I used to just look at the lighting of an image, but now it involves a lot more than that. Things like clothing, hair styling, makeup, the position of limbs etc, how they are as elements in an image can enhance a picture more than you can imagine.

Heh, I never expected myself to warm towards making portraits. I’ve always been so shy around people, yet the emotions of happiness that exude from a person’s face draws me even more now. I’d really like to continue making such images.