Documenting a 50th Birthday Party

[photophorous]

Well, I did it. I can't say I got any great shots, but I definitely learned a thing or two. I didn't even think about having focus problems, but my auto focus was very unreliable. Several times it wouldn't focus at all and it was too dark to focus manually. I used the flash on full auto TTL mode and sometimes it worked great. Other times it severely under exposed, and I had to crank it up as much as 2 stops. I also took a few with the 50 f/1.8 wide open at 1600 ISO.

All in all, I think I got enough good shots to make the birthday boy happy (considering my minimal fee of three Bud Lights and some chips and queso). I'm not sure if I want to do anything like this again, but if I do, I think I'll be a little better off for having done this. Thanks for the help. Here's a few that run the gamut:

1. The birthday boy, with his wife and daughters.
2. Birthday boy on bass. The whole family plays instruments, so the band let them do a couple of songs.
3. His brother on the keyboards.
4. It got kinda wild by the end of the night.