EMPS: We Are Gathered Here Today...

Well, that's convenient! Boy, do I ever have a lot of pictures for Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot #97: Gatherings! Two weeks ago yesterday, a few hundred people gathered for the wedding of Terri Renier to Father John Smith, the rector of the Episcopal Parish of St. Michael and All Angels. And I, for the first time in my life, was the wedding photographer! I was severely under-qualified, under-prepared and under-equipped, but I did my best. I took nearly 500 photos that weekend using two different cameras, spent many hours editing what I had, and just this morning presented Terri with a data DVD containing 385 images.

"380! Karen, you're out of control!" Terri said.
"I know," I replied.

Here are a few of the better shots:


A little girl arrives in her wedding best.


The church is filling up!


This little boy is at his first wedding.


Relatives of the bride watch for the procession to begin.


Terri with her father and uncle.


Flower girl and baby ringbearer.


Bishop Kirk Smith (no relation) presided.


The wedding is a family affair.


Just married!

I had a horrible time with inadequate lighting, which led to seriously grainy images when I tried to use my own camera in the church. I used a tripod for the rehearsal, but it didn't help much, and at one point I tripped while getting up from a kneeling position and slid onto on the floor! For the wedding itself I was able to borrow someone's professional grade DSLR, but I had no special lighting and no time to learn to change any settings if needed. Suddenly at the end the good camera decided it wasn't going to focus at all. I don't know why, but assume I knocked some setting off of where it had been.



The rehearsal was a more laid-back gathering.

I was able to edit out the graininess on many of my wedding rehearsal photos with an auto de-noise tool, but that meant losing detail on the faces. Good thing the happy couple is so forgiving, because I certainly did not manage professional-quality results!

Karen