What can happen when I'm allowed out in public unsupervised

I drove out to Syracuse, New York this past weekend for a friend's wedding. My husband couldn't go because of business travel, so it was just me. In addition to the bride and groom, I knew only two people at the celebration. It was kind of a cool way to go to a wedding - almost anonymously.

At the reception I was a little fidgety so I went off and started taking pictures, remembering how much I loved receiving candid snapshots after my own wedding (way back in the day). I took over 200 photos - many were traditional candids, some were "my kind" of photos: half-eaten cake, the empty buffet trays, disassembled, ready for washing - stuff they would never have noticed.

In the process I began asking every man there if I could photograph his tie. Many raised eyebrows later, I got them all, including the DJ and the photographer. I've put all the photos together in an iPhoto book called Family Ties that's being produced by Apple. The plan is to have it waiting for the newlyweds when they return from their honeymoon. Jan & Chris will have the fun of trying to identify all the ties that were at their wedding. Since I am also creating a larger keepsake book of more "traditional" photos, they will have plenty of photos to which they can refer to confirm their answers.

Dumb as it seems it was a great way for me to spend the time - I got to talk to a lot of people I might not have otherwise. And I know Jan, and Jan knows me - I think she's going to like it. A lot.

The whole book can be viewed as a PDF file