Karen and Chris

This past weekend I photographed Karen and Chris' wedding which was at Holy Name Cathedral. Before and after the ceremony we were at the top floor of the Allerton for getting ready shots and the reception. The first thing that struck me about Karen and Chris, other than the fact that they are both over achievers (they both just finished taking the bar a couple weeks ago) is that they are so incredibly thoughtful and nice. Throughout our entire time working together, they were so gracious and welcoming. They always made sure that I got what I needed and were so polite. They were also flexible on doing some shots that were a little "out there" which is always great!. Which leads me my favorite shot from this wedding and from the entire summer so far.

It's important to note that Karen and Chris live a couple blocks from the Allerton, so the building has become a staple in their everyday life. So I wanted to think of a way to incorporate the top of the building in a unique way. It turns out the fire escape was open on the top floor, so we actually got to go outside and get some great shots of Michigan Avenue. For some of the shots, I stood right next to Karen, but for the other ones, I went to the other side of the tower and shot across the atrium with a telephoto lense. My favorite shots is of Karen's dad who is taking a picture of her. Here are some of my favorite shots.







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Karen and Chris - Thank you for being so much fun to work with over the past week. You're wedding was so nice and was a perfect snapshot of everything a wedding in downtown Chicago should be.

Vaughn

Last night we had our neighbors over for dinner - Michael and Myrtala. They have the cutest baby boy who's really funny. He has these huge blue eyes that jump out at you. Here are some pictures of Vaughn crawling around the house.

Submission to WPJA Contest

I just entered the following two images into the WPJA's quarterly photo contest. One is for the "dancing action" category and the other one is for "Details". Let's hope I come back with at least one winning image!

White Sox win in 13

I went to the white sox game with Carolyn and my parents last night. Man, it's been a long time since I've been to a Sox game. The game went on for 13 innings, but they finally pulled it off in the end. They hit a walk off home run to win the game. I was able to snap a quick picture with Carolyn's camera at the end of the game. GO WHITE SOX!

Is it a leaf.. or is it a bug?

Carolyn and I went running this morning at 6:45, which is the first time I've gone running this early in a long, long time. The funny thing was that it already felt like it was 90 degrees. On the way back I saw this bug on the front of our house. It looks like a leaf, but it's actually not. I did a little research online and found out that it's called a Katydid. Below are some more details which I found on this bug site


Katydids get their name from the way their songs sound. Some katydids have been called long-horned grasshoppers because of their long and slender shape. However, all katydids are more similar and related to crickets than grasshoppers. One of the things that makes them different from their relatives is their antennae which may be two or three times the length of their body. These antennae are covered with sensory receptors that allow katydids to find their way around in the dark, when most of them are active.

Anne and Tony's Wedding was a blast!

I had a blast this past Saturday photographing Anne and Tony’s wedding. The day started at The Drake at one of their executive suites on the 10th floor. I love the views on the north side of the Drake. You get to see the start of Lake Shore Drive from Michigan Avenue and a beautiful view of Lake Michigan. I got super excited when I saw a placeholder on Anne’s table for Bruce Springsteen, but it turned out she’s a big fan of the boss and she just used it as a sample. (How dare you get my hopes up like that)

After doing some getting ready shots, we hopped in a limo to go around town for some around the city shots, which I love to do for everyone who get’s married downtown. We went to the Planetarium and then Ohio Street beach for some posed and photojournalistic shots. We then went back to the Drake, where we went to the small park directly across from the hotel. Anne and Tony exchanged gifts between them and also gave gifts to the maid of honor (Kelly) and best man (Greg). After that we re-grouped at 4pm to do some family shots outside, but it started to rain, so we decided to head over to Spiagga which is where the ceremony and reception were. I really love Spiagga’s private floor they have for weddings. It’s such a unique space and has a great view of the lake. The room worked really well for both the ceremony and the reception. Anne’s dad performed the ceremony which made it extra special. It really added an emotional element. My favorite part was when Anne’s dad delivered the line… “Tony, do you take my daughter to be your wife…”. Another funny line was when he referred to Anne as “Anny Bannany” (not sure if that’s the official spelling… I defer to Anne on that one).

This truly was a great night and I felt really lucky to photograph this wedding. Anne and Tony are headed off to Hawaii for their honeymoon. I hope you guys have a blast! Thanks for a wonderful two days of fun and memories!

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Fun at the Cub's Game

Carolyn and I went to the Cub game yesterday to hang out with Anne and Tony who are getting married this weekend. It was sooooo hot yesterday. Thank god we had seats in the shade or we would have melted by the 3rd inning. I'm really excited to photograph their wedding today. We're going to start with getting ready shots at the Drake, some Chicago shots around town, the ceremony, and then a reception at Spiaggia. I can't wait. Enjoy the slideshow!

Pictures of new house

Here are some pictures of the new house. It's been almost two months since we moved in. Almost all of our furniture will be coming at the end of August, so some rooms look a little empty right now. My studio is the room that is most furnished right now.


Here's the new studio. Still need to hang my artwork on all the walls, but it's starting to look good.




I love the windows in the studio. There's so much natural light in this room.



Here's the front living room that you walk into through the front door.




The back deck taken from the balcony off the master suite. We stained the deck a dark brown color. Check out the new patio furniture! It all arrived in the past two weekeds.



Here's the kitchen which is on the first floor.


Master bathroom.


This is the ceiling in the master bathroom. The ceilings on the second floor are all vaulted to about 16 or 18 feet. They really open the rooms up.

Bean Bag Toss Slideshow

And now.. the much anticipated slideshow of the bean bag toss from Cooper's 30th. What better music to set this action packed game of luck and skill to then Loose Yourslef from Eminem? Click on the link above to play the slide show.

Enjoy!

picture of the girls from this evening

Here's a pictures of some of the ladies from the party earlier tonight. Unfortunately, they all went to Indiana University for undergrad (GO BOILERS!)

L to R: Micki, Sarah, Carolyn, Alison, Shannon and Heather

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...