Pictures of Libby

Tonight we went over to the Nickoloff's to celebrate Sarah's 30th birthday party. It was good to see everyone again. We had a nice cookout and played a bunch of bean bag toss. Here are some picture I took of Libby (Shannon and Mike's new baby girl)

New look and feel for photography planning toolkit

I love it when I learn about a new software that can make my life easier. I recently found a program that Apple makes called Pages. It's a really slick program that let's you create really nice designs in a not so complicated way. I updated my photography planning document that I send to all my couples with the new software and it looks awesome! It's such a huge improvement from what I used to do which was in Word. Here's some sample pages of the new planning toolkit. What do you think?...

Sunflowers down the block

I've really enjoyed getting to know my new neighborhood. It's nice to see so many new homes being built in the area. It makes me feel good about moving to this part of town. Carolyn and I have passed this one home a bunch of times and it has a bunch of sunflowers that are about 8 ft. tall. I've always been intrigued by these sunflowers... so tonight I grabbed my camera and took some pictures.

Urban Shopping Guide

I wanted to share a really interesting company that I was introduced to a couple months ago. I was actually introduced to them via a friend who was designing their website. And they needed Chicago photographs for the site, so I agreed to do a shoot. Here's a link to their site. - http://www.urbanshopguide.com

And here's a description of what Urban Shopping guide is -

USG is a Chicago-based business specializing in shopping tours around the city. It's pretty genius... I mean, I've lived here for 7 years, and I'm seriously thinking about signing up for one of these tours the next time Laura is in town (!) - I just know that there are some hidden gems out there that I've never come across... The concept is great because it's very much along the lines of the NFT (Not For Tourists) guides, where you're not being told where all the tourists shop (i.e. Michigan Avenue) - instead you're being told where actual (trendy) local Chicagoans shop... places they adore, businesses they respect, shops they visit personally & feel lucky to live near.

They were also mentioned in Daily Candy earlier this month. I've attached a screen shot of that email above. Good luck Julie and Marci!

Raining like Big Cats and Big Dogs

I'm sitting in my studio right now and it is raining so hard! For the past 10 minutes, the sky has been filled with lightning and the rain just keeps coming down. We have a bunch of skylights on the 2nd floor of our home and the rain just keeps on slamming against the glass. Here's a picture of the radar and some pictures I took from my studio window. BOOOMM!!! I huge bolt of lightning just landed a couple blocks away. Wow that was loud. Hopefully there's no flooding that happens with all this rain. When I look at the radar, it looks like there's a lot rain still headed this way.

When I was a young lad...

I recently put together a slideshow for my wedding so I thought I would share some of the pictures of me as a kid. It's funny to look back at yourself every now and then. It's wonder what I'll look in 10 or 20 years...

A trip to Joshua's House

Carolyn and I went over to Johsua's house after work today. We haven't seen him in about 2 weeks. He was full of energy today and couldn't stop talking. New words were coming out left and right. He has almost mastered my name, although it comes out "teve" most of the times. He also said Carolyn for the first time which was exciting. Carolyn has been pretty hard to say for him, so in the past he would jus say the letter "C".

Advanced applications for photographs

I ran across this post on David Jay's blog, and I was totally blown away by this video. First some background... The TED is a forum where people share fresh ideas in technology and innovation. I spent some time on the site today and it is very cool. Some really well known leaders have given speeched here. I think they meet once a year. Anyway... the video shows how Blaise Aguera y Arcas built a framework for splicing photos of similar photographs together from social networks. The example they use is Notre Dame's Cathedral. It's really cool. Take a look at the video.

One month later...

It’s been just over a month since we moved into our new home and we’ve accomplished a lot so far

Cleaned out the entire home from top to bottom
Re-carpeted the entire home
Painted the entire home
Painted the front fence that surrounds our home
Caulked the master bathroom
Ordered new furniture for the living room, bedroom, studio and dining room
Replaced the siding near our back deck
Re-painted the front door
Changed the lock on the front door
Pulled out all the weeds from the front yard
Installed two new plasma TV’s
Stained about 50% of the back deck

We’ve certainly made a lot of progress so far. It will really start to feel like a home when our furniture arrives. Right now the house feels pretty empty. The bulk of the furniture will arrive in about 2 months. The furniture I bought for my studio from West Elm will arrive next weekend.

Test pictures from Dan and Shilpa's wedding

I'm playing around with adding a logo to all of the pictures I post to my blog. Here's a test shot from a wedding I attending a couple months ago. It was a really fun wedding with over 500 people attending. And the day before we went to the racetrack for the rehersal dinner where I almost won $125, but my horse was disqualified for bumping another horse. And we also went to to see how baseball bats are made at Lousiville Slugger. very cool...

Some pictures from our wedding in Grand Cayman

I'm starting to go through all the pictures in preperation for our reception coming up this weekend and I wanted to post a couple for everyone to see. Once I go through everything, I'll make sure to put a slideshow up. Pictures are courtesy of Rebecca Davidson.

4th of July at the New Home

This is the first time I've spent the 4th of July away from downtown and it has been pretty interesting. For the past 5-6 hours, endless fireworks have been going off from neighborhood kids all around the block. It's been really fun to watch everything on the ground this year. I'm used to being a couple hundreed feet up in the air in my old condo. Here are a couple pictures I took of some of the fireworks.







Also, earlier today I went to west elm to buy a bunch of furniture for the new studio. I was pretty successfull and got everything I needed except my desk (i know... the most important part right?) They're going to ship everything to me later next week. I'm so excited for it to come... this room will look totally different.

Tomorrow night should be fun as well. Carolyn and I are going to the Sting concert at Wrigley Field. And then on Saturday, we're having our post honeymoon reception at Carnivale. It should be a fun couple of days!


Steve

Kristen and Tom

This past weekend I photographed Kristen and Tom's wedding. They got married at St Clemens church which is one of my favorite churches to photograph. They're a little strict on how and where you can take pictures during the ceremony, but the inside of the church is beautiful. Between the ceremony and the reception we went to take some group shots at South Pond which is just north of lincoln park. The weather was awesome! It was just the right temperature the entire day. I had some fun creating one of my favorite shots (It's my tribute to the cover of the beatles abbey road album where they are crossing the road). Take a look for it in the slideshow.

The reception was held at the Park Newberry Library. It's a great setting for a reception. It's downtown, but not in the middle of everything, so it actually feels like you're in a park in the middle of the city. We had a blast the whole night. Special thanks goes out to Erin from Engaging Events by Ali for making the event run so smooth. And special thanks to Dustin from Toast and Jam who DJ'd at the reception.. he did an amazing job at blending different stlyes of music throughout the night. It's not everyday you hear a DJ seemlesly transition between Abba, Bon Jovi and the Polka.

If you attended the wedding and want to order pictures, make sure you go to www.pictage.com to pre-register. Everyone who registers for this wedding before it is officially released gets a $10 gift certificate from me. But hurry.. the pictures will be ready in the next week.

Hope you enjoy the slideshow!

||| CLICK HERE FOR THE SLIDESHOW |||

So instead of blogging about the iphone like everyone else ( I think I'm mostly jealous since I don't have the phone), I wanted to share something with you that I just found out about. It's a new service from google called Google411. It's free directory assistance for your phone. Also, after you get you the number your looking for, you can have then text message information. There's not a live person that you speak to, which makes sense since it's free... so you just say what you're looking for. Surprisingly, it worked really well. You can search for a specific name, or search for restaurants in certain areas. Here's the official information from google -

Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone. Using this service, you can:
search for a local business by name or category. You can say "Giovanni's Pizzeria" or just "pizza".
Get connected to the business, free of charge.

get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone. Just say "text message".

Dial from any phone 1-800-GOOG-411
(1-800-466-4411)


And it's free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider. Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.

http://www.google.com/mobile/goog411/index.html

Melissa and Ryan Engagement Shoot

||| CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SLIDESHOW |||




On Monday I spent the evening photographing an engagment session for Melissa and Ryan. We started out on Lincoln Park right by the south pond, and then did a couple different locations around the park. It was pretty hot on Monday night and it got cloudy towrads sunset, but it made for some really nice shots. After lincoln park, we went to The Local Option to take some shots. It's one of their favorite hang outs for bar food. I haven't been before, but I'm definitely going to go back for some food. After The Local, we went to Sweet Mandy B's (I am very familiar with this one since Carolyn drags me there almost every weekend) We had some fun ordering cup cakes and taking some shots around the inside. I had a really fun time shooting with you guys and I can't for your wedding later this year. It's going to be a blast!

Have a look at the pictures. Hope you enjoy them...

Steve

Mary Eileen and Matt

||| CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SLIDESHOW |||




So I've finally posted the highights from my wedding last weekend. I've had the slideshow done for a while now, but my internet connection at home hasn't been fixed yet. So I'm hanging out at Barista coffee shop uploading a bunch of work.

The wedding started out in Oak Park which is about 20 minutes west of Chicago. Strangely enough, it turned out that my dad grew up a couple blocks from Mary Eileen's parents house. I started out shooting a bunch of getting ready shots at Mary Eileen's parents home. It's a beautfiful older house with a lot of nice original wood work. I then went to the church and met up with the guys and did a couple of shots before the ceremony started. The ceremony was great becuase I had no restriction on where or how I could shoot, which is prett rare. So the ceremony went great and we then headed down to the intercontinental for the reception which was at the intercontinental hotel. It's funny becuase my brother got married at the same hotel and the same ballroom back in 2001. The band was great and everyonen had a really good time. Special thanks go out to Lisa for planning the event and staying on top of everything.

Take a look at the pictures. I hope you enjoy them. Thank you Mary Eileen and Matt for making this such a fun wedding. I had a blast.

YES I AM STILL ALIVE

It's been way way too long since I last posted on my blog. But... I've been pretty busy and I haven't had internet access at home for a while which is where I tend to do most of my blogging. Anyway... This past month a majority of my time has been wrapped up in moving to a new home (pictures will be coming soon). I'm still building out my studio and that should be finished in the next month. I did upgrade my computer system, so I've been working with the new mac pro desktop. It is awesome!!! I'm hoping to have my internet access turned on today, and if so, I will be able to post some pictures and recent slideshows. This past weekend I shot a wedding out in Oak Park with a reception at the Intercontinental hotel (ironically in the same room my brother was married in). I aso shot a really fun engagement session on Monday night. Sorry again that it's been so long since my last post and I promise a whole bunch of pictures in the next couple days

Here's a slideshow from Africa

I'm back in Chicago! It only took about 38 hours of travel time to get home though. I've taken a first shot at some of the highlights of the safari and handful of shots from Mauritius.

|| Click here to see the slideshow ||

Hello from Mauritius

It's been raining on and off today in Mauritius, so we decided to hit up the local internet cafe at le meridien.

The safari we went on last week in South Africa was unbelievable. There's really nothing like being 3 feet from a lion or an elephant and having them look at you face to face. All of the animals were suprisingly calm and didn't mind when we came close to them. We saw pretty much everything we wanted to see. All of the "Big Five" which are lion, leopard, water bufallo, rhino and elephant. We also saw about 40 other animals and more than 25 types of birds. Here are some of the highlights of the trip -

> Listening to a male lion roar at about 5 feet away (the sound is unreal)
> Waking up to a male elephant drinking out of the pool in the back of our villa
> Tracking down a male leopard who was trying to "get busy" with a female leopard
> I was attacked by a bat on the way back from one of our drives and had to fling him off my coat

I took about 1,500 pictures from the entire safari and I can't wait to post some of them, but I can't upload them on this computer. So stay tuned next week sometime...

Hope everyone is doing well.

Steve

We've landed in South Africa!

Hi Everyone....

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that we arrived in South Africa safely a few hours ago. We are in Johannesburg for the night at the InterContinental and then it is back on an airplane tomorrow morning for the Safari. The flight was long, but not as bad as anticipated, there were quite a number or meals and entertainment to keep us busy. I can't connect my camera to the computer I'm using so unfortuately no pictures for now.

Take care.

ATTN: I'M LEAVING THE COUNTRY FOR 3 WEEKS AND WILL NOT HAVE ACCESS TO PHONE OR EMAIL

As many of you know, I'm getting married next weekend, so I'm going to be out of contact for a couple of weeks. We leave for Grand Cayman at 6am on Wednesday morning and are getting married on 5/5. After that we're headed to Africa for a two week safari and island getaway. I will not have my cell phone or access to the internet at this time. I will be back in Chicago on 5/24 and can be reached at that time. I'm really excited for the next three weeks! I'll have plenty of pictures to post when I get back.

Farewell for now!

Steve

I feel like I'm a grown up for the 1st time in my life

You may already know this... but we bought a new home! We've been looking for the past year or so, but things finally picked up when both of our condos sold in the same month. We were debating between a duplex and a single family home and in the end, we found a single family home that should work out great. I'm most excited about the digital studio that I will build out from scratch. Here are some pictures of the new home...

Leopard Hills

Here's a bunch of info on our wedding and honeymoon. Here's the order of the 3 week stint -

week 1: wedding in Grand Cayman
week 2: Safari in South Africa
week 3: Island getwaway in Mauritius

Here's some info on the three spots...


Perched on the top of a hill overlooking a natural waterhole and in close proximity to the Sand River, Leopard Hills is a sanctuary exuding luxury and privacy and the perfect location from which to view the leopard on hunt amongst the other numerous big game which abound. In the western sector of Sabi Sand, part of the greater Kruger National Park system, Leopard Hills is one of the most sought after game lodges in South Africa.

Eight beautifully appointed suites, each with private sundeck and rock plunge pool, offer as much as you could wish for, glass-fronted to permit superb views of the bushveld beyond and airconditioned as comfort against the African heat. The romantic bathrooms include a Victorian bath, and double indoor and outdoor showers. This is the perfect setting in which to sit on your terrace and admire the show of the passing cavalcade below. Laze around the pool on the wooden deck and marvel at your prime elevated position.

8 Suites each with air-conditioning, Victorian bath, double indoor & outdoor showers, fire place, mini-bar. Complete with their own sundeck and private rock plunge pool.

Grand Cayman Info

More research....

Here's some info on Grand Cayman. We'll be arriving on Wednesday and leaving Monday. The big day is on 5.5.2007. Here's some info and some pictures of the island -

Grand Cayman is the largest of the three Cayman Islands at about 196 km² and contains the capital George Town. Towns on the island are referred to as "districts". It is located at 19°20′N 81°13′W. The island is a high-lying cow reef, with a highest elevation of roughly 24 meters above sea level. There is no natural fresh water (lakes, rivers, etc) on the island, so any fresh water needs must be met by catchments or desalination of seawater. The lack of rivers does however account for the exceptional clarity of the sea. The island was devastated by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 from September 11 to September 12. With Category 5 strength, Ivan passed within 30 miles of Grand Cayman, hitting it with winds over 180 mph (290 km/h) and gusts up to 200mph. The island reported no more than a few deaths - none directly caused by the hurricane - but over 80% of the buildings were either damaged or completely destroyed. Ivan was the worst hurricane to hit the island in 86 years. The eastern side of the island is somewhat undeveloped, while the western side of the island, which holds George Town and the airport, Owen Roberts International Airport, is more developed. Fast food restaurants, night clubs and resorts can be found on the western side of the island. The eastern districts offer more restaurants specializing in native Caymanian cuisine.

The island economy is heavily dependent on tourism, with as much of 75% of the island's GDP being tourist generated. Aside from numerous beaches, including the famous Seven Mile Beach, there are many attractions on the island.
Grand Cayman and the Cayman Islands in general are very well known for their diving and snorkelling. The island features many reefs and walls, some of which can be accessed by swimming from shore.

1-2 year old Green Sea Turtles in a petting tank at the Turtle farm. The district of West Bay features a turtle farm. The farm re-opened in November 2004 as a larger attraction after being damaged from Hurricane Ivan. The majority of Green Sea Turtles are raised for their meat, the theory being that this eliminates consumption of wild animals. Some of the farmed turtles are released, and have good survival rates in the wild. The turtle farm also has several rare iguanas and a caiman on display. West Bay district is also home to a formation of limestone affectionately known to islanders as Hell. Merchandise "from Hell" can be purchased nearby.

Stingray City in Grand Cayman allows swimmers, snorkelers, and divers to swim and feed stingrays. Stingray City, located a short boat ride from the northern end of Grand Cayman, is a series of shallow sand bars where sting rays are found in abundance and visitors can feed, pet, and interact with the animals. The southern stingrays can grow to large sizes (100 cm or more in span) and are quite accustomed to being handled and fed. A trip from a local tour operator will usually include snorkelling in coral gardens before arriving at Stingray City. In the southern district of Bodden Town is the historic house of Pedro St. James, considered the birthplace of democracy in the Cayman Islands. It is also the oldest known existing stone structure on Grand Cayman.

In the Eastern Districts of the island are the districts of Bodden Town, East End and North Side. In the centre of the island (in North Side district) is the Mastic Trail, a hiking trail through old growth dry forests that used to cover the entire island. Plants and animals native to Grand Cayman, such as the Mastic Tree, green parrot, and agouti, can be seen.

Learning a little more about Mauritius

Just over one month until the big wedding in Grand Cayman. I'm starting to get really excited about everything... mostly because all of the planning will finally be over. I'm amazed at how many details and logistics can be crammed into one day. I did a little research on wikipedia about Mauritius which is where we're going to go after our safari in south africa. Here's some info on wikipedia -


Mauritius (pronounced: IPA: [məˈɹɪʃəs]; French: Maurice /mɔʀis/; Mauritian Creole: Moris), is an island nation off the coast of Africa in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometers (560 mi) east of Madagascar and about 3,943 kilometers (2,450 mi) southwest of India. In addition to the island of Mauritius, the republic includes the islands of St. Brandon, Rodrigues and the Agalega Islands. Mauritius is part of the Mascarene Islands, with the French island of Réunion 200 kilometers (125 mi) to the southwest. The flag of Mauritius has red, blue, yellow and green stripes. The red stripe represents the struggle for independence. The blue stripe represents the ocean around the island. The yellow stripe represents the sun and golden light of independence. The green stripe represents fruitful soil and vegetation.

Mauritian society is highly multi-ethnic. Island residents are the descendants of people from the Indian subcontinent, continental Africa, Madagascar, France, Great Britain, and China, among other places. The official language of Mauritius is English. All administrative documents are drawn up in English, which is also the principal language of instruction in the educational system. French, however, predominates in the media, both broadcast and printed. The French-derived Mauritian Creole, with influences from the other dialects, is widely spoken on the island and is considered the native tongue of the country. Creole was the language used by the African slaves to communicate with the French landlords. Nowadays, Creole is used in everyday life by all Mauritians. Hindi is also widely spoken, though restrained to the Indian community. Several other languages, including Arabic, Indian languages such as Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Punjabi or dialects of Chinese like Cantonese, Hakka and Mandarin are also spoken. The latter South Asian languages are spoken by descendants of the labourers brought from British India during the British rule. The Indo-Mauritians (when the ethnic groups are combined) form approximately 70% of the total population, the remaining 30% being mostly Creoles. The French and Chinese make up the smaller minorities. There are approximately 30,000 Mauritians of Chinese descent, from the Hakka, Mandarin, and Cantonese language groups. More than 90% of the Sino-Mauritian community are Roman Catholic; the remainder are largely Buddhist. Small groups of foreign students from Europe or the Indian Ocean region are present. The recent years have seen a constant flow of foreign workers mostly Chinese women in the textile industry, Indian workers in the construction industry and Taiwanese men in the harbour-related activities. Though immigration is not a debate at all in Mauritius, the relative economic stability of the island is attracting more foreign workers. Of all religiously affiliated Mauritians, Hindus constitute 52%, Catholic Christians 28%, Muslims (16.6%), Buddhists (2.5%), Adventist Protestants (2%), Sikhs (0.3%) and other religions are also followed[6].