The Best From 2009

It took me a little while, but I managed to put together a “Best Of” Archive from my 2009 weddings.  Hope you enjoy and Happy Friday!!!

In The Still Of The Night….

“Inner Soul“

Camera:  Nikon D3
Lens:  80-200mm 2.8
Settings:  ISO 800 1/15

Fashion Shoot: Vicky

My friend Christopher and I scouted out and shot a more fashion-oriented style shoot this past weekend.  We scouted out the location/s on Saturday and proceeded to shoot on Sunday.  As half of the shoot was experimentation we definitely got to have fun and play.

Bodies:  Nikon D3 & Canon 5D Mark I

Lenses:

Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8

Canon 50mm f/1.2 L

Canon 85mm f/1.2 L II

Canon 16-35mm f/2.8 L II

Some results:

And after showing her grace, the wind knocked it out of her =P

It started getting dark not too long after we finished shooting on the train tracks, so we found an alley and decided to experiment;

(Off Cam Lighting at Night!!!) =D

We snuck around and found another really neat location.  From there we worked more on some off-camera flash =D:

It was totally awesome shooting with my friend Chris and our model Vicky. We need to definitely do this again!!!

Let me know what you guys think!!!!

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Road Trip ‘08

Originally published November 20, 2008, I’ve re-updated this entry as I lost the original images when I changed imaging hosts…

After my last wedding of the season, my friend Joseph drove down from Lansing, Michigan to Chicago. He had quit his job and was moving to Los Angeles, driving the entire way.

This is my photography from that journey.

After spending some time in Kansas we then continued onto Denver Colorado, but not before seeing Giant Windmills for the first time in my life. At 4 stories high, they’re much more grand to see in person.

I was greeted by beautiful Landscape Imagery when we reached Colorado:

Majestic views abound simply just driving down the highway:

Majesty

After a certain point it started snowing…the weather got rough, but the sunsets were equally as beautiful:

Going through Colorado, we eventually made it to Utah where the scenery was a little more arid:

I decided to try and make a cool looking photo, but don’t try this at home…I was holding my D3 out the window of a moving car at 75 when I took this…

While In Utah we stayed at the Butch Cassidy Inn!

Leaving the Utah Mountain Range and Going Into Arizona, I shot this out the backseat window:

We stayed in Vegas for a couple of days and while there we went to see the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon Skywalk:

For those of you that don’t know…I have a tremendous fear of heights…and a 20mm lens hides the fact that I’m actually 2-3 feet away from a 4,000 foot sheer drop (for reference…the tallest building in the U.S. – The Sears Tower, is 1,500 feet high):

Grand Canyon Skywalk:

As much as I wanted to photograph the view from the skywalk, I wasn’t allowed to bring my camera onto the walk. Apparently according to the attraction heads, the glass floor is made up of several panes consisting of bulletproof glass. Made in Germany and costing $10,000 dollars per pane, the attraction didn’t want to risk someone dropping anything that might chip the the glass.

I got a picture of myself with Joe on the Skywalk, which I’ll add to this later. Let me tell you though that having a fear of heights doesn’t help when you’re on a platform made of glass overlooking a 4000 foot drop….

Our last day in Arizona, I managed to grab a shot that felt fitting as we left and drove 4 hours to Los Angeles:

I stayed in L. A. from Thursday to Sunday afternoon. One afternoon I got to hit up a Los Angeles Beach and see the Sunset.

Someday I’ll be back =)

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Day & Night: Engagement Shoot – Gan & Putt

Has it really been 10 years already since I first met you two?

I first met Gan & Patrin both before they even started dating each other.  Gan in 1999, and Patrin a few years later; we were all in college at UIC during the time.

This was roughly the first conversation I had with Patrin:

Patrin: ” Call me Putt.”

Me:  “…”

Patrin:  “Yes.  The Golf term.”

And I’ve been calling her Putt since. =P

They started dating in 2003, and this past November in 2008 Gan proposed to Putt at the River Walk by AMC River East by the Chicago River.  And before Putt left for Medical school IN GRENADA (How cool is that!?!?), she wanted me to photograph her and Gan together =D

What makes everything so much more worth it is how Putt has seen my photography evolve – from a random idea I had in my head, photographing birds outside my window with my FM10 + 70-300mm combo on Walgreens Kodak film:

To where I am now; photographing her engagement with Gan:

Many Many Congratulations to you guys!!!

Day & Night: Engagement Shoot – Paul & Linda I

I had too much fun on this shoot with Paul and Linda!!!!

The first Day & Night shoot I’ve ever done, I had thought of this shoot before and had offered it to previous couples, but Paul and Linda were the first couple willing to do it. I knew for sure then that this shoot was a thing meant to be =D

However to be honest, I was somewhat apprehensive with this shoot at first.

I know that being a wedding photographer, one is supposed to be naturally inclined to the social side of the scale, but I had never spent and entire day with a client up until now…What lay in store for me? Would Linda and Paul become bored to death of my type of photography? Would the images become lackluster and repetitive? Would Linda and Paul rebel??? Would they fire me and simply just “Decide to just go with video.”????

I know I’m getting out of hand, but these were serious thoughts that I was having on my way to their place!

The images thankfully turned out to be incredible! I ended up having so much fun with them and I totally wish I could have more clients come my way with personalities like theirs! I totally can’t wait to photograph your wedding next year guys and look forward to hanging out with you guys in the future =)

Please click on the small image for the slideshow (There’s more images than on the blog =D):

Now onto the blog =D

While I loved all these images, I knew I was in for a good time when I saw this:

The shoot is continued here:

Part II

Destination Wedding: Kat & Rob – Charlottesville, Virginia

For a slideshow click here

To buy images you can go to Kat & Rob’s Gallery HERE

I’ve been getting threats to my life to post these up. And they’re not from the couple =P

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