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It's always a pleasure when I can find an excuse to go to Bloomington, my favorite big small town. Kristina Hunter (now Kristina Mullis) provided me a very good reason to go back when she asked me to take her wedding photos. Kristina is a fellow IDS alum, so I was thrilled; and she celebrated her wedding to U.S. Navy seaman Patrick Mullis at Woolery Stone Mill, which made me even more thrilled. To top it all off, the groomsmen climbed up the rusty stairs and a dilapidated firetruck for their group pictures, and there were at least two babies in the bridesmaids' RV. (Oh, and there was an RV.) This was definitely the most unique wedding I've shot, and I'm glad I was a part of it.

Awesomely enough, the wedding gave me a second reason to visit Bloomington, as yesterday I delivered the photos to Kristina in the Indiana Memorial Union. Bonus.

Kristina Hunter and Patrick Mullis got married on Sept. 8 at Woolery Stone Mill in Bloomington, Ind.

Maybe I should apologize for not providing any verbal substance or analysis of Congressman Paul Ryan's stump speech at the Clermont County Fairgrounds in Owensville, Ohio. (I did record a bit of it on my iPhone, near the beginning when he addressed the U.S. Embassy attacks in Libya and Egypt that resulted in the death of four diplomats in Benghazi, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens. Specifically, he defended the guy at the top of his ticket, Mitt Romney, in his critique of the Obama Administration's early responses to the events. Audio here.) Like I usually am at these sorts of things, I'm too immersed in the visuals to pay attention to the words.

But maybe I can provide some substance. Along with the photos on Demotix, I have a set of images that analyzes (somewhat) Ryan's non-verbal methods of delivery. I've been fascinated by politicians and other speech-givers talking with their hands ever since I noticed Bill Clinton's "pointing without pointing" (also known at the Clinton thumb) when I was a kid. There's so much that politicians can say without saying a word, and it would do everybody some good to separate, every once in a while, the words and the gestures (and the faces) of a speech.

Update: Corbis picked up five of my photos! Screen shot of proof and current live search results page. With all the Super Bowl stuff, I now have a respectable photographer page on Corbis. w00t.

Paul Ryan lets a point sink in with the crowd's applause.

I'll get this out of the way: I don't really listen to country music. I like Johnny Cash, and I like old, gritty country that mingled with everything else to create rock 'n' roll. But current pop country? Nah. I err on the side of bluegrass and folk, not that.

Rascal Flatts, though, wasn't so bad. I won't go out and buy their latest album, but I could more than tolerate three of their songs. They were fun to shoot, too, with the combination of interaction with the crowd, interaction among the group, and the extended stage. All in all, not bad.

Again, these photos were for The Indianapolis Star. Enjoy!

Rascal Flatts guitarist Joe Don Rooney performs during the trio's performance on Friday, Aug. 31, at Klipsch Music Center in Noblesville.