everyone was asked to be at the golf club no later than 3pm for the 3:30 wedding. my mother had to work, so it was just my father, my sister, my aunt (who was also a member of the wedding party), and myself attending the wedding. we were the first people to arrive at 2:30. the groom didn't arrive until 3:00 and the bride didn't arrive until half an hour later. jerry had to make a critical decision whether to hold the ceremony outdoor or bring it inside. he decided indoors which turned out to be a wise choice since the sky opened up soon afterwards with a brief torrential downpour. the ceremony didn't actually start until well after 4:30pm.

i was nervous being a wedding photographer for the very first time, but once the wedding was underway, all i had to do was what comes naturally, which is to take photos. 3 of us had medium-range lenses so we positioned ourselves in the front, while a 4th man shot with the telephoto from a distance. there was a few times when i pulled out my own telephoto, during the actual ceremony, and later when we went outside after the rain had stopped to get some group photos.

weddings are definitely one of those events that the more you do the easier it is to photograph because they're pretty much all the same. ceremony, reception, dinner, party. you got the walking down the aisle, exchanging of the vows, first dance, toasts, cake cutting, bouquet toss. am i missing anything?

i definitely learned a lot. one problem with having multiple photographers doing the group photos is the subjects don't know where to look: some are looking at one camera, while others are looking at a different camera. i don't know if i'll ever get a chance to see how the other guys did but i'm really curious. i know most of them were using lens hoods: i never bothered, always thought they just make the camera look more conspicuous. i know i was the only person shooting in multi-burst mode for the outdoor photos, only because i work on the theory of volume and its good for action shots. most of my indoor shots were done with the flash bouncing to the ceiling, while my colleagues had the flash more forward-facing. i shot with shutter priority at 1/60 sec, but occasionally i used aperture priority to fill in the background.

the couple asked the photographers not to post any wedding photos online (not sure why, maybe privacy concerns), and i'm abiding by their wishes, although i don't think they'd mind the few unattributed ones i've managed to put up. we left early, as soon as they tossed the bouquet and the garter and served out the wedding cake. i got back to cambridge before 9pm.

earlier today i paid a visit to the brazilian independence festival happening down along the charles river in allston. it was supposed to start at noon but i wasn't surprised when people were just arriving and setting up by the time i got there. i hung around for half an hour for something to happen but when nothing did, i grabbed a few snapshots and returned home.