Two good friends from college, Rona and Wayland, tied the knot in the East Bay a few weeks ago... It was a great wedding -- intimate, personable, fun, and -- enhanced by the presence of a bunch of college friends who I just don't see enough of these days. The ceremony itself was in Union City, followed by a Chinese banquet in Oakland's Chinatown. I wish that I had been more of the party in a box that I know I can be.... but to be fair, I basically stepped off of the flight home from Germany, dropped a suitcase at my house, and went to the rehearsal dinner. Jetlag's a bitch. I must be getting old!
Jetlag consumed any photographic ambitions I had for the rehearsal dinner, but I was rip-roarin' to go the next morning! Following are some of the highlights:
Lauren helping Wayland (the groom, of course) achieve penultimate levels of spiffiness before the ceremony
Post-coffee, pre-ceremony waiting around... With camera, of course!
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The happy couple, post-ceremony. This was a blazingly sunny day at noon, so significant fill flash was required to smooth out the shadows. I probably could have used more!
My group of friends! Fill flash was still in effect here... The D80 tends to overexpose when using fill flash in bright sunlight. The only thing saving this set of photos was that I shot in RAW and could adjust the effective ISO setting after the fact.
Lauren's about to sock it to Erica. Oh, no! She doesn't seem to see it coming! Shot this with my 30mm f/1.4 prime lens. I have a love-hate relationship with this lens. Depth of field was predictably shallow for this shot, but what always confounds me is color correction under various indoor lights. All natural-light shots in this restaurant were challenging in the color department.
One of the wedding cakes, with the bride and groom kissing in the background. The original image was so full of saturated colors that it was a little distracting, so I selectively desaturated everything but the blues and greens to highlight the little guys on the cake, who I understand from Abe represent Rona and Wayland's Wii characters. Cute.
The money dance. Something I've seen a lot and fail to fully understand. :)
An extra-cute photo of the bride's niece. Reference statement above about selectively desaturating the colors, except this time I left in just the red and a hint of orange.
Thanks for throwing a great party of a wedding, Rona and Wayland. We're all happy for you!