First Wedding!

I have not kept up with weekly blogging like I wanted to, but rather than throw in the hat and not come back at all, here I am. Back to our trip. We made it to Naples, Florida and attended the wedding of a very good friend. The weather was hot and sunny, and the wedding was gorgeous. During the ceremony I had a seat in the back, so I had a decent shot of the processional. Of course this meant I did not have a good shot of the actual ceremony. I did not feel comfortable getting up and moving to get better shots, especially when a photographer was hired and doing his job. I'd like to experiment with cropping and editing some of these.

Get ready for backs of heads!

I really love this one. 

I wish the speaker wasn't in the background!! Aren't they adorable?

I do not know how to photograph when one person is in shade and one is in sunlight. I'm sure this could be fixed with editing software. 

Overall, I'm happy with a lot of the photos I took at the wedding. It was very sunny, so it was difficult not to let things get washed out or too bright. Even though I didn't try to set up any shots, I still felt like I was pushing my comfort level by taking so many pictures and some even of strangers. I almost wish I could find someone laid back who couldn't/didn't want to hire someone and wanted to let me be the photographer of their wedding, so I could have more access to take better photographs. Then get them printed from a professional lab and see where I measured up. I have told a couple of friends with kids that I would take pictures of them. I also have friends who just got engaged and offered to do their engagement photos and make a save the date out of them. I'm anxious for these opportunities to keep learning and practicing. I have read some articles that actually recommend having a more advanced camera than mine to start a business. And I'd certainly need more than one lens. But I can dream! 

Mid-trip

Starting where I left off in the last post, we continued south on our trip. We took the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel, which was pretty cool and very long!

Our first stop was Charleston, South Carolina, which was gorgeous!

 Lots of pretty flowers in bloom!

We went to a street market and there were a lot of handmade baskets.

Some other things around town:

From Charleston, we continued south and stopped at The Savannah Wildlife Refuge, and saw many birds and alligators. I wish I had a zoom lens!!

Savannah, Georgia was so hot that I did not end up taking many pictures, but we did enjoy our time there.

We then stopped in St Augustine, Florida, which was really nice.

Good use of negative space?

There was a cool fort there also. 

After that, we went to Sanibel Island. It was gorgeous there, with lots of seashells, sunshine, and wildlife. 

While in Sanibel, we saw the most gorgeous sunset, and although I don't actually know how to photograph the sun setting, I took a bunch of pictures! 

Our last stop before the wedding was The Everglades National Park. It was so hot, but provided some good photo ops. 

Recapping that leg of the trip, I realize just how much we fit into this trip and remember a lot of fun times! Coming up next, we reach Naples, FL, and I give wedding photography a shot!