weekend activities

So, last weekend I shot my first wedding of the season. It was a beautiful event . . . even when the skies opened up and gave us Wyoming's version of a hurricane. Seriously, I've never been in wind and rain swirling around like that in my life. It didn't deter the couple, tho, and they were willing to work with me to get the pictures they wanted. Instead of shooting at a beautiful park, we had to use the entryway of the event center during the reception . . . all rock and angled glass and fire alarm boxes on the wall. Kev shot with me and I think we got all the photos we wanted but it sure stretched my creativity.

And as if our hurricane wasn't enough excitement for the day, we hit our first deer on the way home. The wedding was in Kemmerer (no, that's not a typo, that's really how it's spelled) which is about an hour away, depending on the road construction, and my parents kept the kids for us so Kev could come - I'm always better at a wedding when he's there, if for no other reason than for someone to talk to during the down times. Anyway, as we were getting back on the highway to come home, there was this U-Haul in front of us on the on-ramp who suddenly slammed on its brakes and swerved. I remember thinking, "What's the deal with them?" just as I saw this deer streaking across the road. I screamed . . . which I'm sure was the most helpful thing I could do . . . and Kev slammed on the brakes but we still hit it. The thunk was deafening, as if we had run thru the whole herd, but when he got out to see the damage there was no more than a small indention in the bumper maybe 3 inches long. No fur, no cracks, no blood. I looked back to see if the deer made it and I could see it running up the hillside, without so much as a limp. Chances are it collapsed and died later, but I'd like to think it scampered up the hill and back to its home having learned its lesson about playing in traffic.

It took us 5 whole years to hit one. And that's not counting the 5 years I lived in MT where they treat the highway as just another part of the prairie and cross at will. But now that it's happened we don't have to worry about that "first hit" anymore. Kind of like the first scratch in the bed of a new pickup. Once it's there, you don't have to worry about who's gonna scratch it first.