Wow, it's almost june! I need to update...

What's been happening? Well, lots of shooting and lots of busy-ness. I had to shoot a few more graduations. A few went well, a few not so well. I still got a cash bonus though! (That reminds me... I need to pick that up.)

Memorial Day weekend was fantastic and pretty relaxing I guess. Saturday Ryan and I went to Jack & Jill's wedding where I got to see several of my pledge sisters, which was awesome. I got to talk to Joanne for a while, which was very nice and all the girls got to meet Ryan. Haha. At one point Joanne said "so whose wedding is next?" and they all pointed at me. :)

I also spent a lot of my free time over the weekend practicing with some of my new Strobist techniques. Some were good and some were not so good... I don't think I'm afraid to bounce light off a ceiling anymore, but I also have definitely learned the value of having my camera off flash. I'm really wishing I would have had Strobist before I bought my studio light set because I would be in much better shape now if my lights were smaller and battery-powered. I've found a way to use my Metz in this way though and I'm thinking of buying a Nikon SB24 soon, which will serve the same purpose. You can see some of my practice shots at www.flickr.com/photos/hollybirchphotography.

On Memorial Day our friend Mike hosted a big cookout in a park near his house. A whole bunch of our church friends showed up and we ate way too much food. We'd eaten all the hot dogs and burgers when Gatanya showed up with like 50 chicken legs to grill. It was ridiculous. We had a good time playing volleyball, chatting and lounging though. That night we went to Gabe's to sit on the roof for a while. It was fun but I was severely dreading coming back to work the next day... but now the week's almost over! Yay!!

Three Graduations and a Wedding

Hmmm... it almost sounds like a movie. Well, that's what I did this week. My shutter finger is exhausted!! Friday night I shot the Lake Land College graduation (at which I knew one person!)... two shots of every grad.

Then Saturday, Ryan and I went to my friend Taylor's (and Stan's) wedding. The shooting went very well, and I think it was my best wedding photography yet. That will probably be the case every time though, because the goal is to get better every time. My lighting was almost perfect in just about every shot though, which is a huge relief. I ended up only getting about 775 shots though, which is less than I'd like, but I didn't shoot as many at the reception this time.

Sunday I had to get up early to go shoot another graduation. It didn't go as well as the first one, but it was still decent. The nice thing was I didn't have another one for about 4 more hours, so I went home and made myself a nice salad, took a short nap, and worked on Taylor's wedding photos. It was a very relaxing afternoon actually. Then I headed back to the other graduation. Then I treated myself to some El Toro II and a huge lime margarita, before settling down with some TV.

I had Monday off after such a long weekend, so I spent the day doing a little shopping, cleaning the oven and some windows, and designing Taylor's wedding album. It looks awesome so far! And let me tell you... I tore through that thing! I made about 18 pages that first day. Wow.

We got a hot crustacean band!

It's a Nice Day for a White Wedding