As a side note to these photos – I am loving having a small camera again. The Olympus OM-D EM-5 has been such a fantastic purchase for me. While I’ve always been the sort to drag a camera everywhere, it feels so much more fluid to have a small camera to gatherings like this rather than the full DSLR which is honestly a bit distracting for people who don’t know me that well. Of course it has created another camera arms race to acquire a few more lenses (Melissa finds these things troubling). I am replacing the 14mm Panasonic lens I had with a 12mm Olympus (same model I rented for my NYC trip and loved). After that I really only have one more void to fill – the long end. Olympus makes a 45mm f/1.8 (90mm equivalent). That lens is actually fairly affordable, and once I have that I’ll have a 24-50-90 range equivalent which is pretty much perfect.

Anyhow I took a few shots here and there at Ali’s birthday party a few days ago. I wrote about her more in depth on my personal Facebook as I tend to do about all things after 11pm at night. I’ll just post the photos here.