Wedding Photos

Finally here are some wedding photos. I've been holding out sharing some here just simply because I've been looking for a different format to showcase pictures.
Anyway here they are. I think these might be my favorite shots ever. Though, it doesn't hurt that my sister in law is freaking gorgeous.

10 things from the weekend.

1. Friday there was a fire below our house. The Oakland hills have a history of very bad fires breaking out. Here is a link to the worst fire ever in 1991 (google images link) . So to say it was scary to watch flames and smoke from my driveway was an understatement. What happened was a car hit a telephone pole, the lines fell and caused a spark which caused the fire.
2. Growing up in the Sierra Foothills, we experienced lots of brush fires. But never once had we been evacuated. Well, after 1991, the people in Oakland don't mess around. I was standing watching the flames when all of a sudden over a loud speaker the police and firefighters were telling us all to: GET OUT OF YOUR HOMES NOW! THERE IS A FIRE YOU MUST EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY! And then I turn around to see a California Highway Patrol officer in my driveway telling me to get out ASAP. I grabbed my camera, my laptop (which was stupid since nothing is saved on my laptop), my dog and one picture of my dad. We drove down the hill to our church and took shelter there for about 2 hours before being let back in. Here are pics of the fire and you can see how close it got to the homes. (ABC news start about photo #12 the first ones aren't really anything) Nothing was damaged and no one was hurt, thank the Lord!
3. Saturday we had an anniversary party for our friends parents who have been married for 50 years. Their wedding back in 1962 was very small, they didn't even have a reception so their children decided to make this anniversary something very special. They went all out for it! I was asked again to take photos at the event. (I took portraits for them about a week ago)
4. We didn't get home from the anniversary until about 10:30. I was completely exhausted (and fighting a cold) but I couldn't sleep. All I could think about was the photos I'd taken {I have no desire to be a large group photographer.} and then the wedding we were headed too (and I was photographing AGAIN) the next day.
5. We woke up early Sunday morning and got on the road to Tahoe for my sister in law's wedding.
6. In true Wilcox fashion we get up there and everything was.....a little crazy. We all thought we were to get on the boat at 4. Turns out at 2:30 we find out we're actually supposed to be there at THREE. No one is dressed, had make up on or had their hair done. Awesome.
7. We did all make it on the boat by 3:30 though. So not too bad!
8. The wedding was great. The weather was beautiful. Here are a few unedited pics (I shot nearly 1,000 O_0 :

9. I have no desire whatsoever to be a wedding photographer. (Although this one was not bad and kinda fun)
10. Today we're home, but getting ready to leave again tomorrow for our church camp. I'm SO looking forward to relaxing all weekend!

Photo editing

Bare with me while I just try this out. I'm working on revamping my editing process and trying to get my pics to look better on my blog. I was going through my photos and noticing that I'm not always getting that real natural look that I prefer. I think styles change as time goes by just like anything and I'm finding I prefer a photo to look as natural and as less processed (?) as possible. At least in my own photos, that is. I also noticed that I like a warm tone, but some of my images were a little too yellow, especially here on blogger.

Here's my SOOC: White balance way off. A weird shadow merger coming out of her head.

Edited version: White balance warmed up, cloned out the weird merger, saturated colors a bit and sharpened for the web using unsharp mask at amount: 500, radius: .2 threshold 0. Image size was also changed to 500 pixels wide. (this was recommended by someone in my photography class to make photos look their best on the web) 

I'm hoping her skin tone looks natural here. Not too pink or yellow? 

I promise I do take pictures of Jake too, he's just not been a very cooperative subject lately. Any tips on bribing an almost 9 year old to pose nicely for mom?