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!!!

Portrait Session with Samantha Photography: Sherry

Thank you’s to Samantha of Samantha Photography for letting me tag along with her while on a portrait shoot with one of her seniors-Sherry.  An awesome person, her striking eyes resoundingly contrasted with the dress she wore!

I took along my Contax 645, an 80mm f/2.0 Carl Zeiss lens, and 220 Fujifilm Pro 400H film with me.

No Digital this time around (unless you count digital scans…)

These are the results from the roll that I took.

Unfortunately this shoot was cut short for me as I had prior commitments and had to leave early.

I’m totally exited though as I’m shooting Two weddings this weekend and for one of them I totally, totally plan on using the Contax and Fujifilm Pro 800Z for that wedding.

It’ll be my first wedding where I’ll be seriously using film as part of the coverage!!

I’ll have results from that wedding up asap =D

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Trash The Dress Shoot

Thanks to Melissa Diep for setting this shoot up!  This past Sept 20th, I had the opportunity to go and work with 15+ other photographers on a Trash The Dress shoot. I brought my Nikon F6 and 5 primes: 85mm 1.4, 50mm 1.2 AIS, 20mm 2.8, 35mm 2.0 and 50mm 1.4. I also brought rolls of Fujifilm Pro 800Z Here are my favorites from the 5 rolls I shot.

You can see more photos here

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2nd Shooting with Misha Media: Hanna and Christian

It was with much excitement and delight that Michele and Andy from Misha Media let me run around and be a 3rd shooter with them at a wedding.  I got to experiment with my Contax 645, and brought along my Nikon D3 for safe measure.

Holding their reception at Esplanade Lakes in Downers Grove, Hanna & Christian had a beautiful, awesome, and hilarious wedding.  Christian’s Groomsmen were hilarious!  I hadn’t laughed that hard in years!!!

Some images from my D3:

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My Gear

“What Gear do you use?”

I get asked this question a lot actually, so I figured it was a good time to answer it along with several other questions I’ve gotten. I should have done this one a while ago, but unfortunately, I haven’t had time until now.

That being said, I’ll get the basic gear questions I hear a lot out of the way:

1. Which is better? Canon or Nikon?

Neither. I actually use gear from BOTH Nikon and Canon. There’s a saying “Different horses for different courses,” which I adhere to strictly. There’s advantages Canon has that Nikon doesn’t, and there’s advantages Nikon has that Canon doesn’t. In the end it’s a tool, and won’t improve your photography unless you already know what you’re doing and know how to use the tool.

2. I want to get ________ cus it’s the newest gear.

A good friend of mine actually said something like this the other day-he had just bought a new Rebel T1i and was now yearning for a 5d Mark II.  What I ended up telling him was that professionals are more impressed with what you can do with basic gear than what you can do with professional gear. The professional gear simply makes it easier to duplicate the great shot through easier access to buttons/settings and advanced menu systems.

Yes the new high ISO of 25,600 will help you get images that you couldn’t before, and upgraded AF will let you capture images faster then you could before. But what good is all that if you never saw the image in the first place?

Now onto the gear list and a little background story…
I started out with Nikon because of my father. When I was around 8 or 9, I remember seeing that he had a Nikon 8008 (Still has it!) and on it, there was a 50mm f/1.4 (That I now use =D). I was utterly enamored with the sophistication and how pretty the camera was. I also remember that I ruined at least 1 roll of film playing with his camera =P.
So I went with Nikon first, which is why I have a larger amount of Nikon gear than Canon.

The list:

Nikon Bodies:

D3 (Two Bodies)
D200
F6 (Two Bodies)
F100
FM

Nikon Lenses:

20mm f/2.8
35mm f/2.0
50mm f/1.2
50mm f/1.4
85mm f/1.4
80-200mm f/2.8

Canon Bodies:

5D

Canon Lenses:

85mm f/1.2 LII

Here’s where I tend to get my next question.

Why don’t you have more zoom lenses?

Sheer, brutal, unadulterated weight.

I normally use digital bodies (D3, 5D) when I do my wedding and portrait work. I also used to own the 70-200mm f/2.8 and the 17-35mm f/2.8.
The sheer weight of those two lenses when combined with my D3 bodies (I’m a dual body user) would weigh close to 15-20 lbs.

15-20 lbs all day back and forth can really tired someone out.

And having to travel and lug all that gear around in a Thinktank bag between shoots was honestly not something that was easy to do for mere mortals.

So I went the route of prime lenses. In general Prime lenses are more clear, accurate, and contrasty than their zoom brethren, and they tend to weigh less also. (Sole exception being Nikon and Canon’s 200mm f/2.0). This is something that definitely mattered to me at the level of photography that I wanted to go for.

That, and the weight difference singlehandedly saved my back. =P

Feel free to ask any questions or leave comments about gear. I’ll be more than happy to answer them.

IronMo Weekend

This past August 29th and 30th I went down to Louisville, Kentucky to support my good friend Mauricio as he participated in the Ironman. I took my Trusty F100, 5 rolls of Fuji Pro 800Z, 4 rolls of Fujicolor Superia 400 and 2 rolls of Ilford PanF Plus with me. These Photos are the result.

Totally had fun down there =D  Proud of you Mo!

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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

Day & Night: Engagement Shoot – Paul & Linda II

(Apologies…this would have been one post…but wordpress is being a pain…so it’s in two parts) You can find Part I here:  Part I

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

I don’t know whose idea it was to do this one, but it was pretty awesome:

After this we took a little rest and then went off to Naperville:

After this shoot, we went back to Evanston and waited until nightfall for our last shoot at night in Chicago:

And my personal favorite from the shoot:

Let me know what you guys think!!!!

Destination Wedding: Maria & Dmitry – Dominican Republic: 6-29-2009

Click here for Slideshow

Click here for Gallery

This past June 29th of 2008, I flew out to the Dominican Republic to photograph the wedding of Maria & Dmitry.

The wedding was gorgeous, the scenery-beautiful. You couldn’t ask for anything more!

Though there was a little bit of worry about the weather for the ceremony as the predictions were cloudy with a chance of showers, but in the end everything turned out well and the sun came out to play on their wedding day.

Onto the pictures:

The resort:

To Maria & Dmitry,

thank you for allowing me the privilege to photograph your wedding. I wish you both the best!

with love,

Marc

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