Hello all. The blog continues, unabated and unchecked by sleep, work or personal hygene. I'm mentally preparing myself for an entire week of balls-out mega-editing. My wife and I took 30gigs of pictures at our first hindu wedding! Besides being a personal record for one-day shoots, it speaks to how excited I was the whole day.

Lena and I woke up at 4:45 in the morning, showered, dressed and drove to the Sheraton downtown. It was dark. It's eerie driving in Atlanta at 5:30 on a Sunday morning. Oh yes, this was Sunday, our third and last day in this three-day extraveganza. I've never been so high, so alive, and yet so bum tired at all once.

The coffee was slowly working into my system as we valeted the car and lugged our gear into the hotel. I checked the lights and Lena and I rode the elevator up to Tina's 11th floor room. The mood was calm, even jovial. Tina and her sister-in-law Romina sat under incandescents as two hair stylists made over them. Silver and gems encrusted all of Tina's red sari, body and hair, glittering when Lena's strobe popped.

A few pics and a doughnut and I was down the elevator where Parimal was getting ready in a hospitality suite by the pool. he was dressed as regally as Tina. As he put on his hat his father commented that he looked like a king.

After the lightening-fast formals, I followed the crowd to the Red Roof Inn down Courtland to where a horse and carriage awaited it's king. The Barat was about to begin. P got into the carriage with some of his close family and friends. A rolling boombox Escalade roared to life and the air began to throb with Hindu techno. The procession was on. People danced and clapped as the Barat followed the police escort down Courtland to the Sheraton.

At the hotel door the two families met and filled the tiny alcove. A space was made and Parimal was annointed with red paste by his wife's mother. They then played a series of games, which I could not dicipher whatsoever. It looked like the mother of the bride was attempting to feed her son-in-law, except that whenever she tried to pop a morsel into his mouth the men gathered around Parimal would block her and yell. Then they broke something underfoot and everyone filed into the ceremony hall.

The ceremony took an hour and three times the priest had to pause and ask the audience to politely wait to converse until the end. It was an interesting ceremony. The priest explained every act before performing it, and at one point the bride and groom walked around the alter three times and on the fourth they raced to sit in their chair first! This was to find out who was going to be the dominant personality in the relationship. It was fun.

After it ended, Tina and Parimal greeted their new families. Tina's family then went through the act of "giving" their daughter to Parimal's family. There was a lot of crying and European tourists gawking and at the end point Tina's family tried to steal Parimal's shoes as he climbed into his carriage. A melee ensued. They failed in robbing Parimal of his shoes, and the bridesmaids were disappointed in the paltry sum paid them for leaving the footwear alone. All part of the ceremony, of course.

During the four hour break Lena caught up on her sleep and I made the slideshow from Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 745 images would be shown to the crowd at the reception, which started with a cocktail hour at 6. I got 45 minutes sleep while Lena ate some lunch.

During cocktail hour I photographed the happy couple together. People took cards as Lena and I made the rounds poolside. At 7PM the crowd filled the grand ballroom once again, this time covered in white and light blue with flower shapes projected onto the walls. A beautiful white and blue Mundap set for dining sat at the far end of the hall.

A spotlight lit a doorway at one end of the hall and the emcee announced the wedding party. Tina and Parimal strode to the door and danced to open the reception. A series of plays, dances and singing followed, with both sides of the families as well as the couple's friends contributing. There was even a Bollywood-style re-inactment of Tina and Parimal's meeting put on by their friends. It was hilarious.

After dinner the floor was open to dancing and the party was joined as the music from the Barat made the air quake.

A lot of great photos came out of this weekend. Fascination has a way of sparking creative energies. A lot of great lessons were learned, too. Lighting, division of labor between Lena and I, and how to manage time and energy when you're working 19 hours strait. The best part? The people. Bar-none, hands-down nicest people I have ever worked for. Photogenic, camera-friendly, and above all polite. Over the next few blog updates I'll post my favorite "artsy" photos as well as normal but good stuff too. Below are a few from my camera at the reception.