A wedding shower...

Today I attended a friend's wedding shower.  I love attending this particular pal's festivities because she is marrying into a big, pushy, italian family and the family get togethers are so different from what this irish girl grew up around, it's like even the small family gatherings seem coated in bread crumbs and fried up good.  That's not to say my irish upbringing didn't have its perks, one would rue the day they challenged one of my family members to a drinking contest. But I digress.

I offered to bring along my camera and do some shooting.  What I didn't know is this italian wedding shower taking place at a mexican restaurant (seems it's cultural smorgasbord day here on the old blog) meant that each wall was a different color, which would ultimately lead my white balance to go awry quite quickly.  No matter how many times I used my trusty gray card, even the slightlest change in composure threw the white balance right off so that the photos would tint blue, then red, then yellow.... etc.  I was forced, as no photographer likes to admit, to shoot on AWB.

I thought I may be able to get away with shooting with my 35mm wide angle, but the aperture just wasn't going to be low enough (and I didn't want to go TOO high with my ISO, nor bust out my flash, especially since I was trying to keep a low profile) so I went to ole faithful, my canon 50mm 1.4.  This lens is a something of a workhorse in this photographer's bag. It takes such beautiful, sharp photos, I find myself shooting with it all the time. I think the photos ended up coming out pretty nicely. There were some hanging twinkle lights that made for nice bokeh, and some natural light that helped with my disaster of a WB situation.

The below photos were shot as follows:
Body: Canon D60
Lens: 50mm
Aperture: 1.4
AWB (bleh.)
ISO: 1000 (i know, i know, luckily lightroom's noise reduction tool is a miracle worker)
Edited in lightroom.

 Kristin saying goodbye to a friend. Notice those bokeh inducing twinkle lights in the back.

Favors.

Marisol having a good old time. Candids are my favorite types of shots, especially when shooting events. Marisol has such a great laugh and I think that really comes through in this photo. 

Kristin and Tony didn't have engagement pictures taken, so I goaded them in to taking some lovey pictures. I think they'll be happy they did.

Kristin and the very pregnant hostess!

I hope you enjoy the photos. Leave any questions or suggestions for better methods of fixing those pesky white balance issues in the comments!