Entirely Emily: Jefferson Barracks Park

Last October, I was lucky enough to be asked to second shoot at a wedding. I was excited and nervous as hell that I would have nothing but crappy photos. Mark, the friend who asked me, had shot some weddings before and really knew what he was doing. He is very knowledgeable about all aspects of photography and how to use it to his advantage.

I feel like I have some vision but some of the technical stuff is still lost on me. I learned a ton doing this. I did shoot manual the entire time with RAW and JPEGS so I could manipulate images later. I don't really have any formula or anything , just watching my ISO, shutter speed and aperture depending on the situation. I also primarily shot with my 28-70mm zoom. I love that lens. I use almost all of the time whenever I'm just even taking pictures around my house.

I met him at the wedding site at Jefferson Barracks Park ( yes, the national cemetery is in the same park ) There was this great outdoor space called , that I had never heard of or been to, that the families of the bride and groom had set up with chairs and an arbor.

Mark was the primary photographer so he was front and center with the procession, the ceremony, and all of the important shots. It was my job to take the side shots and anything else that caught my eye. it was nice to not have all of the pressure:)

We took some pictures of the site and then waited for the bridal party to start showing up. They were such a cute couple and so easy going. They let us tell them what to do 99% of the time. The didn't have a list of shots and they were happy to try anything we suggested.

Then after the ceremony, we took the group shots that they requested. It was again my job to make sure no had silly faces, or messy hair or in one case a cell phone in a pocket that I could see in the photos. Whoops!

Aren't the boots awesome?

The flower girl was the niece of the bride and she was so cute and photogenic.

One of my favorite pictures of the day

After the more formal pictures, we walked around and took some more pictures of the wedding party. All of these were taken less than 100 feet from the ceremony site. It was a great location.

We did go down the road to another great location that had more trees with even more color.

The reception was very intimate, had a great dance floor, and just enough room. I learned lot about indoor photography with my flash. But there's always room to learn more. Indoor, night time photography is definitely not something I'm 100% with yet.