(This post is an attempt to be better at actually using this blog for, well, blogging. I've had some fun photo opportunities lately so I'll try to talk about them a little.)
Shannon and I headed west to Sleepy Eye, MN for Mark and Amy's wedding this weekend. Mark is the brother of our good friend Mike, and it was quite the event. Since they are basically friends of ours, and I didn't know what kind of photo setup they had I brought along my camera. To keep things simple I brought just my 17-35mm F2.8-4 lens and 430EX flash. I didn't really bother taking any pictures during the ceremony because we were sitting in back and there was already their paid photographer there, but it was a gorgeous cathedral:
It reminded me a lot of how the ceilings in Greek cathedrals were with high arching ceilings and lots of details. The reception was at Jackpot Junction Casino just a few minutes away so we first grabbed a b-day cake for Mike (his bday was the same day) and headed out there. Once the reception started, and the regular photographer left, I decided to start taking some pictures. The lights dropped pretty low and I shot ISO800 at F2.8 and anywhere from 1/10s to 1/30s with and w/o flash depending on what I was going for. The Rebel XTI does a pretty good job at that high ISO, but you can definitely start to see some noise creep in the darker areas on shots like this:
I just started playing with Noise Ninja to help clean up my photos. I have two Tamron lenses that do a pretty good job, but they just don't compare to Canon L glass unfortunately. However, I was pretty impressed by how much NN can help clean up these low-light shots. I'm saving up to get my first "L" series piece of glass, so please hire me! (j/k, but seriously, do!)
The party went until about midnight, but not before the classic Piano Man circle with the happy couple dancing in the middle:
...and of course the mauling of the groom by the happy guests:
All in all it was a really fun time, and good experience for me, so thanks to Mike for inviting us. The highlight of the night was a girl yelling to me, "You have the *best* job ever!" (sigh) if only... The rest of the pictures are available here: