Terri and Ron's Wedding August 20th, 2016

The mantra rain rain go away was big on my mind Saturday morning, as I was fluttering around the house gathering my gear for Terri and Ron's wedding. I was shooting their outside wedding later in the early evening. As things always do, it worked out fantastically. The rain ceased and so did the nasty humidity with blue skies. 

We headed down to Janesville to Terri and Ron's home. They planned no-frills charming outdoor wedding. They had all the right things that really made the day special and easy to shoot. They had lovely weather, they had their family and friends surrounding them, they had amazing smoked pork, and they had each other always at not more than an arms length away the whole night. 

Once the ceremony commenced it was quiet and Terri's cousin Lynn sang beautifully as they walked down the path to the threshold. Ron's son Nick officiated the wedding, it was truly sweet. We took pictures around the outside of their home and in the backyard. I found a nice spot in the shade with a back drop of weathered fence and lush green grapes and grape leaves spilling over...perfect! At that point it was my job to mingle and get more candid style shots and eat.  Time just flew by and before I knew it it was time for cake, toasts, and the evening fading to the soft glow of the street lamps, garage lights, and funky green speckles from the tree light projector. All was good and we had ourselves a lovely wedding. These are some of my favorites shots from the day.

 

My new Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II

You know the feeling you got when you were a kid opening a present? Yup, that happened to me today when I got home from work and to my surprise a package was waiting for me a few days earlier than I expected! I immediately opened it up and spent the rest of the night learning and playing with my new Canon glass.  I've wanted this beast for YEARS! 

Currently, I shoot mostly in 18mm-24mm for real estate and 85mm for portraits. I decided to invest in a telephoto lens and settled on the Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II. This thing is a tank, better yet...a beast! It weighs in at 3lbs which I thought would be fine to manage hand held but it is going to take some getting use to. So far, I am pretty darn amazed at how sharp the zoom is and how quiet and quickly it focuses too (like instantly).  I love the close focus that you can get with this too since it is able to focus at 4 feet/1.2m close. I can get a little closer to my subject.

On the technical side, the optics on this thing are sick! There are 23 element in 19 groups, that is pretty crazy. And something that Im going to need while building some muscles using this baby is Canon's Image Stabilization, which is rated for 4 stops (16X ) reducing in camera shake greatly!

This will be a staple in my photo bag for portraits, nature, and street photography. The background just melts away, such a great Bokeh can be achieved with this lens. I look forward to throwing up some photos from my scheduled shoot this weekend. 

 

 

canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS II lens