The wedding day...I was pretty excited to be able to go to this wedding and see a beautiful couple get married. I also wanted to keep practicing my new found hobby and interest. I brought by 55-210mm lens with me this time to get those close intimate shots. I could really tell a difference in how much room I could see around my subjects. It was a lot closer and tighter shot, and I could really zoom in on faces and expressions. I wanted to be able to enjoy most of the evening and partake in the whole celebration, so I only took 175 shots which will probably come down to the best 50 or so maybe. I haven't finished editing all of the pictures yet so I will see what that number comes down to.

The day was pretty perfect for lighting and the weather couldn't have been better for a day in June. The venue: The Bleak House is an antebellum Classical Revival style house in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The house was first occupied by Robert Houston Armstrong and his wife, Louisa Franklin. It was built for the couple as a wedding gift by the bride's father, Major L.D. Franklin. Robert Armstrong's father, Drury Armstrong, gave them the land. The Armstrongs named the house after Charles Dickens' "Bleak House" novel of the same name. [1] The bricks in the house were molded on-site using slave labor.[2]

The home was used by Confederate Generals James Longstreet and Lafayette McLaws as their headquarters during the 1863 Battle of Knoxville. Three Confederate sharpshooters who were stationed in the house's tower were killed by Union cannonballs. Two of the cannonballs are still embedded in the walls, and Civil War-era sketches of the slain soldiers are displayed on the walls of the tower.[1][2]

The home now belongs to local Chapter 89 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and is commonly called Confederate Memorial Hall. (wikipedia)

"These walls have history" as I would say. The venue was beautiful and the set up of the ceremony around a fountain made it all the more surreal.

This is a view of where the ceremony was held.

They had live strings to set the mood.

The ceremony was a traditional Christian wedding and the reception was lively and entertaining with a great local DJ.

I feel like a captured some pretty good moments during the wedding. I was towards the back of the seats, but with my 55-210mm lens I was able to still get those close intimate shots. It was really good practice for me. My next attempt will probably be nighttime and low light photography. Its pretty tough without a good flash or a tripod/mono-pod. I noticed toward the end of the night that the shots I was taking didn't come out too well in the dark, so I definitely want to practice on that.

All in all it was a good experience, had a great time with some amazing friends, and got a chance to practice on my craft.

Juicebeats