Lots to talk about

It's been a month. A busy, busy month.

I started out in Boston for TechEd. After 15 years of Orlando, Dallas, Orlando, Atlanta, Orlando, New Orleans, Orlando, it was GREAT to be in a real city. I took the train to the conference! How great is that? While I was there, I got some photos of the really cool Zakim Bridge.

I got home, spent a day or two, and hit the road again. This time I was in Minneapolis for the Gates-Nunn wedding. I've never been to Minneapolis before. It has some great abandoned mills that have been turned into an area called, well, Mill Ruins Park. It's got some great bridges, too. More pictures.

But the weird thing about the middle of the city was that it seemed to be largely abandoned. It was a lot like Denver the one time I had the pleasure. And every meal involves wild rice in some way. And people really do have that Minnesota accent, even the clerk at the Nordstrom in the Mall of America, who overlapped it with a flamboyantly gay undertone. And there's a Target every two blocks. And a Best Buy on the other blocks. All the way out to Chanhassen.

The wedding itself was on Lake Minnetonka, which is pretty enough, I suppose. But it's weird how all those lakes out there lack the good ocean scent you get on the coasts. It makes the water seem sort of dead.

I was fortunate enough to be invited to be the official photographer of the wedding, my first job. Everyone was really nice and helpful, which put me at ease. I was terrified, never having done anything like this before. I overbought equipment, planned all this complex lighting stuff, and when the day came I just took photos with fill flash. It actually wasn't that easy because the sun was setting over the lake, providing some really strong back lighting. I am still Photoshopping some of the photos where the fill flash wasn't strong enough. 650 photos later, I had a decent selection to choose from.

Then some other stuff happened, and here I am. I'm heading back to Boston next week for the Worldwide Partner Conference. Except that now, I am a professional photographer. Congratulations, Kerry and Matt!