My last post was the first post of the New Year…and now it’s already April…I have been derailed. But the thing that is ok about being derailed, is that the track is still there, I just need to get back on it. And here I am! Yea!

So what has been going on since January? Not as much as I would have liked. Looking back, I think I made some really ambitious plans for the New Year. Not that I’ve given up on those plans completely, but I have dialed them back a bit and changed my focus a little. So this year may not be as action-packed as my January post had promised, but it’s still going to be good.

This past weekend, Kristin and I had another photo outing. This is the first one since January, due to me getting sick and scheduling conflicts. It has gotten nice outside, so we were able to go to a nearby park. Which worked well, since we had to sandwich this outing between my morning plans and her evening plans. Originally, we were going to go the the Japanese Garden at Normandale, but Kristin scouted it out the weekend before, and everything is still pretty dead there. We ended up going to Moir Central Park in Bloomington, and we found that things were pretty dead there still as well. But it was nice to be outside, and we did find newly growing things poking out of the ground here and there. So it’s only a matter of time before we can take some not-so-brown nature photos! I’m hoping we are able to align our schedules with the cherry blossoms at Normandale. Maybe we will have to plan an emergency mid-week photo shoot.

The photo I chose for this post was one of my favorites. I’m not sure why, since I took a lot of close-up photos of dead weeds, and also some photos that had more color in them. But there is something about the spiky texture of the plant and the blurry background that I really like.

This Sunday, Kristin and I had another photo excursion! We went to the Minneapolis skyways this time. I was expecting them to be bustling, since I am always hearing how much busier Minneapolis is than St. Paul. But it really seemed to depend on where you were. Some areas were pretty comparable to St. Paul, and we only occasionally ran into people. While in other areas, especially where some sporting event seemed to be starting, there were much more people. But the only time it really ever felt busy was in Macy’s. But I think that’s because the walkways are smaller and there are people shopping in there as well as skyway wandering. And, it probably doesn’t help that the store is closing, so everything is on sale.

Another difference was the lack of pigeons. It didn’t occur to me, until Kristin pointed it out, that they don’t have any pigeon spikes (at least not that we saw). Which makes sense, since they don’t really have ledges for the birds to roost on. In that way, it was much cleaner. At least outside the skyway. Inside, it really depended on where you were. Most areas in Minneapolis seemed well cleaned and like they were maintained often. There were some areas where there was garbage on the ground or random spots where food was left to sit, just like in St. Paul. To me, Minneapolis seemed more corporate (for the most part) and more modern. St. Paul was more quirky and antique-ish. But, the St. Paul skyways did seem smaller and more open, so you could see outside a little better. In Minneapolis, I was more distracted by the internal skyway architecture and design, so I didn’t notice what was outside as much.

Overall, it was a fun trip. We walked about 6.5 miles! The funniest part to me was that we were able to roam freely and take as many pictures as we wanted in the Government building, but one of the buildings (I think it was the Crowne Plaza) immediately told us that we couldn’t photograph in the building at all. You would think it would be the other way around. But they must have something really exciting there to photograph.

The first photo (the one with the skyway and the light coming through the edges, is dedicated to my friend, Jeff. Thanks for the inspiration before we started our day!

A couple of weekends ago, my cousin got married, and he asked me to take his wedding photos. I had tried to dissuade him, since I’m not a professional photographer, and I rarely photograph people, but he insisted.

Of course, after that conversation, there were a few months of panic where I checked out every book I could find from the library about wedding photography. And even though I found amazing books with great tips, I still was not prepared. I have been to many weddings, and I’ve been in many weddings, but photographing it is a completely different experience.

The speed of a wedding was something I definitely didn’t expect. During the morning, I was taking “getting ready” shots, and the day was moving at a leisurely pace. Once the bride was in her dress, the rest of the day just flew by. In my head, I was going to take all sorts of arty shots while people weren’t paying any attention to me. In reality, I would be working on taking a shot, and the second I was finished, I was called away to take a shot of someone else. It was so fast-paced, that I actually forgot everything that I had read in the library books. It wasn’t until another woman, who was taking photos as well and had photographed other weddings (I think she was the bride’s aunt) started helping me out and posing people, that I remembered a lot of the things that I had read. I was super grateful for her help! The only downside was that when I started going through the photos afterwards, the subjects were confused as to where to look. Oops! It turned out ok, since I had at least one photo of everyone looking in the right direction and having their eyes open. Score!

I also found out how important equipment is. I own a Canon Rebel XSI. It’s a good camera for what I usually use it for. For a wedding, it’s not fast enough, nor does it handle low-lighting very well. I thought I would be ok, since the wedding was outside, but it was a foggy day, and I had to crank my ISO up to 1600. Luckily, the photos did not turn out as grainy as I had expected them to be.

During an entire week in Jamaica, I had been just fine with one battery and two memory cards. I had thought about purchasing more memory cards or an extra battery, but since I’m considering getting a different camera, and mine is pretty old now, I didn’t know if the new stuff would be compatible. Luckily, I made it through, but I was surprised when it was 1:30pm, the wedding hadn’t even started yet, and my battery charge was down halfway! Right before the ceremony, I had switched to my faster memory card, and it was full shortly after the ceremony ended! So for anyone out there thinking about becoming a wedding photographer, you really do need extra batteries and memory cards. You will burn through them quickly!

As for me, I think this has concluded my short career in wedding photography. Maybe in the future, if I get some different equipment, and I’m not the main photographer, I will try it again, but at this point in time, I’m ok with sticking to photos of nature.