More pictures from Kevin and Yoko Parrington's wedding.

Kevin is the youngest of 10 kids, and – according to the “life history” that he wrote about himself for the reception guests – the cutest of them all. Not all his family could make it to Japan for the wedding, so I thought I'd publish a few more pics right away, for their benefit...

Their time was divided pretty evenly between posing for photos and other stuff (where “other stuff” encompasses random little things like actually getting married, visiting with guests, cutting the cake, etc.). There was a lot of posing.

I suppose that If I looked that good, I'd spend my time posing as well, but that's left to speculation.

The two photos above were taken 10 minutes apart (from different locations, with different lenses), but they happen to fit together so nicely that I thought I'd place them as I did. I don't know whether it really “works”, but it's worth a try.

After a long photo-op in the lobby, we moved up to the 68th floor for the reception. There were two “welcome” signs that I'm sure where hand painted by the kids, although I got only one good photo...

The venue changed, but not much else...

Well, okay, the lighting changed as well.... dramatically.

(My own boy Anthony has been a ring bearer twice, once for my brother and his fiancee, and another time for a friend of Fumie.)

The event was held on the 68th floor of the Yokohama Landmark Tower, the tallest building in Japan, in a room with an entire wall of windows, offering an amazing view. Unfortunately, that made it seem to the camera as if the sun was brought down to earth and placed directly behind whatever you were trying to photograph, so it was really challenging to get an exposure appropriate for the dark foreground — people, cakes, etc. — instead of the bright outside. Spot metering is your friend.

The pro photographer used a fill flash, of course, but I didn't have a flash with me (well, except the on-camera flash that I wouldn't want to use in this case). And to be frank, even if I did bring one of my off-camera flashes, I simply don't have the skill to use it with confidence, despite having read Strobist for a long time. I must actually practice, rather than just read.

Sometimes it all came together for a nice shot, like the one above. It looks almost as if Yoko is an angel that the light is reluctant to give up.

I took that photo from my seat at the reception (luckily, there was no one behind me, so I could stand and wield my big lenses freely), but I had to move toward the windows if I wanted to get a shot without the windows blinding from behind. I did that for this shot of Kevin's brother...

I moved over even further toward the windows, to get the next few shots...

After the first cut came the first bites, each spoon fed by their new spouse...

The photo above originally came out very dark, because I goofed up and exposed for the bright windows, but because I shoot in raw, I was able to recover something and ended up with a gritty image that I sort of like.

Mostly, though, you probably don't want “gritty” at a wedding. I seemed to have neglected to get a shot of the entire cake – all three or four tiers – which further shows my wedding-photographer shortcomings. Unlike a true pro, though, I actually got a piece (it was large enough for everyone to have a slice), so I can report that it was delicious.

Also along the “not gritty” lines, Yoko's mother was the epitome of understated class and style...

Kevin's lived in Japan for 20+ years, so it's been a long time since he's celebrated a birthday with his Stateside family. His birthday was two days before the wedding, so with a lot of family in town today, Yoko surprised him with a birthday party during the reception.

This was one of the few cases that I really nailed the difficult exposure, I think.

At the end, they bade farewell in the foyer, basking in the warm glow of both the incandescent lights and the happy day. Nao did a jig.

There was a final photo op in the lobby, with many permutations of friends and family...

The lady in kimono is Yoko's “bridesmade” (in the literal sense, as described on this post).