Day 2, part 2: Rehearsal dinner

Tonight was Jim and Carrie's wedding rehearsal in this great Catholic church. I think Jim's family is Catholic and Italian.

I took the opportunity to shoot inside the church and scope things out. You see I am used to taking crime, fire and crash photos, not weddings. I have done one wedding before, and it turned out OK, but nothing I would charge money for.

This time I have better equipment and more experience, and I got to check out the church before the service so I at least know what my challenges are. The rehearsal was late in the afternoon, and the wedding is Saturday morning, so the sun problems I had in this photo shouldn't be an issue (as the sun will be on the other side of the building -- where there are limited number of windows).

I was happy with what I shot tonight. Out of 359 shots, I got about 25 really good pictures that I wouldn't mind framing. For being a writer and not a photographer, I'm not going to complain about that.

I am debating on whether to get a monopod tomorrow, or to just flash the whole wedding. I will not rapid fire, but just take single shots with the flash. I think that's my best option. I tried shooting at 1600 ISO in the church, and it works without a flash, but the photos are dark and my shutter speed is just too low.

Anyway, enough photography geek-speak that I barely understand.

Today we had a really good day. Moved into our new hotel -- which is nice -- and got some groceries. Tomorrow is an open house at Jim's house, so we will attend that. I am letting Cindy dictate what we do, because she works so hard, and really I get to play with the girls all the time. I figured I would let her tell me what she was interested in doing. If she wants to see some sights tomorrow, we will probably do that.

My biggest challenge is getting used to the time change, right now it's 11 p.m. here and I am wide awake. Cindy and Lilly are snoring, and Violet is pretending to sleep while watching me write this. I have been pushing myself during the day to try to get tired (I only had one Coke today) and the rest of the time I was drinking water. It's hot and humid here so water is better anyway.

Well, off to try to sleep.

Pat

P.S. Pat, take a deep breath. You are going to do fine. If they wanted professional photos, they would have hired a professional photographer. Love, Pat's calm voice.