Joe Sterne's Blog

Sometimes, as a Groomsman, you are asked to do something you didn’t expect. This was one of those times.

This past weekend I was lucky enough to be in one of my close friends from college wedding. John and I met freshman year in the 3rd floor of Talcott Hall at Ithaca College and ended up being roommates our senior year. We kept in touch after graduation, and after John proposed to his now wife Julie, he asked me to be a groomsman in his wedding. They decided to have it in John’s hometown of Towson, MD/Gibson Island, MD.

(This is John)

So the weekend of the wedding was fast approaching. John called me up a week before the wedding to invite me to a men’s only “3 hour tour” of Middle River. I think he actually said a “sailing trip on the water” or something like that. I’ve never been on a sailboat before, so naturally I jumped at the chance.

So, I joined a few dates/SO’s of the bridesmaids on my free boat ride…for 7. It was a blast- we had great weather (so they told me) and I didn’t fall overboard!

I brought along both my cameras for the ride as I finally got my issues with the 1D Mk II worked out (user error). I used my 75-300mm f3.5-5.6 telephoto on the 1D while using my (now) trusty 17-55mm f2.8 on the T2i. I managed to get some great shots while relaxing on the boat.

I even dressed for the part in my (fairly) new Top Siders.

I was blown away with all the high tech they had on the boat. From solar panels to radar to a color navigation touchscreen- this boat wasn’t using old fashioned technology to get around!

That being said, most of the work to actually sail the boat was manual. For some hoisting they would bring out the power tools, but for the most part, it was all pulling with your hands. (Don’t worry- I helped out)

Overall, the day was a total blast and a perfect precursor to our rehearsal later that day.