Destiny & Andy's Wedding

Weddings are a beautiful thing, and I love that my profession allows me to photograph them. Yesterday,  I photographed my first wedding with my good friend and co-worker Andrew Dunheimer for Destiny and Andy. I had only been to one wedding before this, so it was sort of new to me, but I figured I would catch on quickly, since it's almost just like any other event to photograph.  It was a quaint wedding at a winery just about 20 minutes outside of State College. Though the weather disagreed with us during the ceremony, it cleared up for the reception and turned into a beautiful day. Here are some of my choice shots that I pulled out after going through all of my photos. It was a good wedding to have as my first one, because both areas were small, there wasn't a lot of people, it was during the day, and the ceremony and reception were in the same spot. Congratulations to Andy & Destiny, and enjoy the photos. I'm always interested in comments and suggestions as well, especially since this was my first wedding. 

The bride and her father preparing to walk down the aisle.

 Below, the receiving line begins.

In the wine cellar.

Adelaide Cadence's beachy baptism

I was at the beach this weekend to see my second cousin get baptized, and I must say, Miss Adelaide Cadence is the most precious baby ever. She is giggly and bouncy and doesn't have a care in the world. She smiles and laughs and takes in the world moment by moment, observing every part of anything she looks at. She will stare you down with these big, bright blue eyes of hers, and starts a staring contest that ends in her getting so excited she kicks her legs and laughs and scrunches up her little nose. She's bound to be a heartbreaker. Here are some photos of the adorable Adelaide from my short trip to Stone Harbor, one of a few of my homes away from home. 

Laurie, Eric & Adelaide Cadence.

Always such a curious girl.

The baby on the right was asleep for all but this part of the service. When he woke up, he looked around like 'what in the world is going on?' and then went back to sleep. 

Eric, Laurie and Adelaide.

My cousin Brad (or Uncle Butter to Addie) and  Addie.

Gus/Mr. Gus/Emon/Goosey-mAAny, the abnormally large but ever-so-lovable chocolate lab.

In her mouth? A play starfish. She's a beach baby already.

Busy day...time for a nap?

Spot news tip? Run.

State College didn't hesitate for one moment to take to the streets to celebrate the death of Osama Bin Laden, and I was able to capture it a month ago. Within minutes of the confirmation from our president that Bin Laden was dead, I was getting phone calls and texts telling me to get to Beaver Canyon. Luckily, I live about four blocks away and own a pair of running shoes. I dropped my STAT 200 notes (I had a final the next day), grabbed my camera, cradled it for dear life, and took off sprinting. I arrived as people were still gathering in a large crowd that settled right between the Alexander Court and Cedarbrook residences, in the heart of the infamous 'Beaver Canyon,' where my peers are always rioting or celebrating something. People were screaming, chanting, carrying flags, blasting USA themed music, singing, crowd surfing, throwing toilet paper, etc., to show their excitement over this particular death. Many fingers have pointed this death as an answer for our generation. In a time of so many question marks for my peers about evil and the world that we live in, this was finally a period (or at least an ellipses) on an era of a certain kind of evil. Here are some of the photos that didn't make the cut from our website (we were editing at four in the morning during finals week, I only threw a few up there) showing the true passion of my fellow peers at Penn State. Mostly all of these images are the unedited raw images (shot with my D80 in the black of night, until I found a friend with a working flash that I could borrow), so coloring and direct flash is a little harsh, but I feel like the message is more important then a few yellow photos.

This guy climbed a light post. Here it is close up, and now a wider shot:

Group of students chanting

It was finals week, and caught up in the moment, it seemed many students felt it was more important to rip up their textbooks and let the pages fly out the windows as opposed to study them. 

A student crowdsurfs...

...and so does Captain America.

Underwear guy gets a lift.

Crazy in the Canyon.

The crowd surfing continues.

A fire breaks out when someone lights a chair on fire and people start jumping over it...

The cops then show up, resulting in my personal favorite picture:

A girl attempts to move her car in the middle of a crazy crowd.

The cops line up along Beaver Avenue to monitor the crowd from afar.

And they literally look on as the crowd winds down for the night.

Also filmed this video (thank you iPhone), which seems to be the only alcohol-fueled part of the celebration:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6zq8XyoWok&feature=player_embedded