Recap of Thanksgiving Trip to Naples

So I'm finally back from my Thanksgiving vacation to Naples Florida. We had a great time and we spent an entire week with my parents. Here's a quick list of the activities from this past week, in no particular order...

Playing tennis a couple times

Hanging out by the pool

Going fishing (I caught about six or seven fish altogether)

Making of the annual Apple Strudel

A sunset cruise on a catamaran near Marco Island

Black Friday shopping

Thanksgiving dinner with the family and Gene & Dianne and Gardner

Listening to a couple books on audiotape (I know... that's pretty lazy)

Taking pictures around my parents place

Going to the dog track


Below are a couple of my favorite pictures from the entire week. I've also put together a slide show which contained about 100 pictures. Click here to check out the slideshow.

As I'm writing this blog entry, the sad thing is I'm watching snow pouring down outside of my house. We're supposed to get about 3-6 inches of snow today. This is a pretty drastic change from enjoying weather which was in the 70s the entire week in Naples. It's good to be back in Chicago, but I miss the nice weather and lifestyle down in Naples.

Thanks to my mom and Dad for hosting us for the entire week. Another special shout out to David and Catherine and Joshua who made the trip extra fun. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. Have a great week!

Chicago Avenue Salon

This morning I did a shoot for the girls at Chicago Avenue salon, which is where I get my hair cut. They were looking for a picture for their holiday greeting card. We started out at Lorraine's Diner which is just down the street from the salon. Lorraine was nice enough to let us use her diner for the shoot. Thanks Lorraine! After getting some shots in the Diner, we then had some fun with some outside shots of the girls walking down Chicago Avenue. Check out their amazing holiday sweaters and extra flair they have on. And don't forget about Max, who is the black lab leading the way. Enjoy the pics.

Steve

update on things...

Hello everyone. Sorry it's been so long since my last blog post. Things have been going well but they have also been pretty busy. Last night Carolyn and I went to go see the movie W. Overall it was a pretty average movie, and some of the stereotypes/acting was a bit exaggerated, but nonetheless it was still pretty entertaining. The one thing that was on my mind about this movie was the following question... how can the president with the lowest approval rating in the history of the United States also have the highest approval rating in the history of the United States? It's pretty straightforward the reason why his approval rating was so high was directly related to 9/11. That's pretty clear when you look at the approval ratings by week. But it's still just makes me think... how can people be so behind someone (Bush's approval rating back in 2001 was around 90%) and then a couple years later have the completely opposite reaction. I often think about what his approval rating would be if the war in Iraq had gone smoother, if there were nuclear weapons discovered, or if the economy was in a great position. My guess is it would be somewhere in the 45-55% rating. We'll never know, but it sure interesting to think about how different scenarios would play out.

A quick shout out to my friend Kenny Kim who may have a chance to photograph the inauguration in Washington DC. If he gets to do it that would be a really cool event. Kenny... I'm really good at getting Starbucks and holding lenses so let me know if you need my help!

Tonight I'm going to the Bulls came with my brother David. I'm trying to be excited about the game but the Bulls have not been able to put together a great team in a really long time. I remember back when I was in high school and the Bulls were in the middle of their world championships. It was such a fun time to watch them. I remember when a Bulls ticket was the hottest ticket in town and average seats would go for $100-$200. Hopefully in the next couple years they will be able to turn things around.

I will do a quick puppy update for everyone. Last week Carolyn and I went to another breeder. We really liked what we saw and if everything works out (we're still waiting to see if the mom is pregnant) we're moving forward with this breeder.

That's all I have for now. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Steve

pictures from Grant Park earlier tonight

Trick or Treating with Josh

It was a perfect fall night with temperatures in the upper 60's. Here are some trick or treating pictures of Josh and Fiona from earlier tonight.

Happy birthday to me / Isabel / Carolyn

Happy birthday to me / Isabel / Carolyn, originally uploaded by Steve Goldhaber.

Photography Internship

Who want's to be the next intern? Inquiring minds should check out the below link and apply...

click here to download the application.

Carolyn gets punked

For the past two months, I've been working on a surprise party for Carolyn. And yesterday was the big day. It all started yesterday morning around 9:45, when Carolyn was about to head out for tutoring at WITS. I stopped her from leaving, and told her that she didn't have to go because I had planned a surprise for her. We left our house together for our surprise destination up north.

We arrived at Barrington Kennels just before 11 o'clock. As soon as we pulled up she knew exactly what was going on since we've been talking about getting a dog for a while. There were a bunch of Bernie's Mountain dogs running around and we played with all of them. We met with the owner for about an hour and a half. It felt like we were adopting a child which was a little strange. Originally the plan was to pick out a puppy while we were there and then bring it home eight weeks later, but all the puppies were spoken for, so we he have to wait a little longer.

We jumped in the car and headed back home. Little did Carolyn know that the dog was only the first surprise of the day. The second surprise was the surprise party I organized for her back at our house. We pulled up to the house around 1:30 and Carolyn said "give me the keys, I've got to go inside and go to the bathroom". So she runs up the front steps of the house, opens the door and everyone yelled "surprise". She truly was surprised and just stood there. And then tells everyone she had to go to the bathroom. There were about 30 people at the party.

Carolyn thought I might throw her a surprise birthday party, but she wasn't expecting it at this time of the day. She actually thought something was going to happen later that evening since we had dinner plans with a friend at our house. The party wouldn't have happened unless it was for Katie/Patrick and Catherine/David who did a great job of setting up. Thank you guys for doing such a nice job. Carolyn's actual birthday is on October 27th, so she has about a week to still feel 29.

The strange thing about the surprise birthday party was that I don't have any pictures. For anyone who was at the party and took pictures, please send them my way. Thanks

Election Update

Click here for an important election update. Trust me, it's important

Testing out a new type of photograph

I've been playing around with a new type of photography approach called HDR. It stands for high dynamic range. You basically take 3 pictures and combine them into one. And 3 pictures you take are at different settings, so you get 3 different exposures. Once you combine them all into one picture, you're able to create images that you wouldn't be able to create with one image. Here are two sample images I created. What do you guys think? Cool or not?

Going to the Blackhawks game

I hope everyone is well. Carolyn and I went to the Blackhawks game last night. I haven't been to a game since I was in high school. We had some great seats courtesy of Vienna Beef. It was actually a pretty good game too. The Blackhawks were down 3-0, and they came back to win 4-3. What was really funny, was that we went with one of Carolyn's coworkers, and it turns out we both went to the same high school, although she graduated much later than I did. But I do remember her older brother (Matt Goldsberry). What a small world. Here are a couple of pictures from the game last night.












And last but not least, apparently they now have the "ice girls" who zoom around the rink to pick up loose pieces of ice.