AnnaMaria Island Wedding

What a nice beach wedding I shot in AnnaMaria Island in the Bradenton FL area, about 60 miles south of Tampa. I only wished I had worn a pair of shorts and a Jimmy Buffet shirt rather than a suit! Beautiful day, eventhough a tad chilly. Candice and Matt were so cool and laid back. They made this Wedding Event such a cool gig. The place they had the wedding was called the Sandbar Restaurant. A cool little wood frame place on the beach with both outside and inside dining and bar. The Sandbar also has an area with a large event tents for weddings. The staff set up chairs and an arbor on the beach for the ceremony. At first it was a photographers nightmare...the set up was facing right into the sun. Nice for a view...awful for pictures. I worked around it... Ah, But when the sun began to set...Now there were some nice shots! There were a couple of nice touches to this wedding. The bride, of course, was beautiful in a tradition gown, as were her brides maids. The guys were looking sharp in 3 piece tux. Then the entire wedding party wore sandal's, or as we call'em, flip-flops. Made sense to me...heels in the powder sand..not good. At most weddings you see the Unity candle being lit. Well, with the beach thing going on and there was a strong breeze, Candice and Matt went with a Sand Ceremony. They each took a long vial of sand and poured it into a larger vase. This symbolized the combining of the sand to where the two sands mixed together and could never be separated. I thought that was really cool. After the photos on the beach, it was into the event tent for some really good Sandbar Restaurant buffet and dancing. A very nice time for a super couple. Woohoo!! No wedding on the schedule until April 8th.

Well, so much for Sunday's being "my days" for riding the cycle. First, I changed the oil in the bike on Friday night only to discover that the cycle shop gave me the wrong oil filter. The bummer is that parts department doesn't open back up until Tuesday!! Second, I shot a political fundraisier today for the start of a campaign for a great lady, Rose Ferlita. She has be a city councilwoman for 8 years and is now moving on to County Commisoner. I'm sure I will be doing move for her campaign as time goes on.

BUSY week!

Ok, I know I'm a slacker..but really, it's been a very busy week! Anyway, shot a wedding Saturday with Michelle and Matt. A great couple and a lot of fun. During the traditional father giving away the bride, the Minister asks the question, "who gives this woman.." and Dad, after several days of practicing I'm sure, says, "MY mother and I...No, I mean, HER mother and I!" Well that broke up the whole place! Then Matt and Michelle, not to be out done, goes to lite the unity candle, except when they both remove their candle, they both turned and walked toward the Minister. For a second he had that look of someone walking toward him with 2 lit sticks of TNT..but then pointed to the unity candle and without missing a step, they returned and lit it together. Again, the place was laughing right along with Michelle and Matt.
They had the reception at the Tampa Palms Golf and Country Club. A beautiful place with an excellent staff. Jeniffer, a coordinator, took us out onto the golf course and we got some wonderful photos. The food was awesome and it was a good time.


Sunday is "My-Day" normally. So with a perfect day, I rode my V-Star to a beach community called Pass-A-Grille. Stopped in at Shadracks, a little biker friendly beach bar, and had a cool and refreshing beverage before making the long beach drive toward Clearwater. I had my Nikon Coolpic with me so I snapped a few shots, like this big PINK building. It's the Don CeCar Hotel and is a 5-star hotel that has had guest from Presidents to movie stars to gangsters dating back to the 1920's. The beachside view makes for great pictures with the white sand and the contrasting pink building.
On my way back through downtown Tampa, I noticed that there was a demolition crew bringing down the old Maas Brothers building making room for yet another condo in downtown. Maybe its a guy thing or a photograher thing or both, but I made it home and threw my camera bag and tri-pod in the SUV and went back downtown. Got some cool shots. For you techno's, I shot this with my Canon 10d, a 28-85, 3.5 at f.22 for 3 sec.
This Saturday I have another wedding in AnnaMaria Island south of Tampa. Should be nice!

A Much Needed Week End!

I shot a nice little wedding Saturday. The Bride is a police officer and the Groom a Marine Sargeant. The coolest thing was when they exited the church. There was a full Marine Honor Guard with drawn swords. The couple walked under the swords into a courtyard where the guest had gathered. Now here is where it got funny. When they walked under the swords, the guard (and the groom) purposely made it where they came to a fountain and had to stop walking. The Honor Guard Commander barked out some orders and the guard side step two steps behind the couple who was still facing the fountian. He barked out another order and they all pointed their swords to the ground...all except the commander who gave one more command, raised his sword in the air and whacked the bride in the butt with it! Must be a Marine thing... ooh rah!

This morning I got up early, took care of a couple of chores around the house and then pulled my 1100 Vstar out of the shop. What a perfect Florida day!
Sunny and 63 degrees...got up to 72! Wow, a ride was just what I needed. I lost a friend and work companion to a senseless car crash this week. An unlicenced, drunk driver ran a light and T-boned him. Now, my friends, I like a couple of cold beers during my Bucs games...I love a fine wine...and the Irish in me has been known to have a wee bit of the whiskey once and awhile...BUT, please let someone else do the driving or stay at home. Anything to avoid something a tragic as this. OK...I'm off the soap box now!

I took a ride up to a neat little bar and grill called the Baypoint Inn. Nothing around it...sits on a bayou that leads out to the Gulf of Mexico. The deck out back had live music and the food is really good. I had the all-you-can-eat fish, cole slaw and some great homemade french onion soup and a diet coke! Taked with a few fellow bikers, listen to some tunes and headed home through the winding back roads. Was great! On my "Things I love to do" list, riding my motorcycle comes right after taking photographs!