Dance Floor Romp

Well, I have gotten through the first few weddings this year relatively unscathed- thankfully. Most have been a blast to shoot and have been a nice little change of pace from the newspaper world. Last weekend though, I found myself out on the dance floor shooting what seemed to be the same shot over and over again. Big, bright, nicely lit images of drunken people dancing... fun? Yes, but gets old quick... very quick.

After some brainstorming, I step up a tripod, cranked the shutter to 30 seconds at f22 and popped away with a flash on the dance floor.

After a few gos, I reviewed and was rather disappointed with the results. They seemed far away and disconnected from the party.
"Well let's get in on the party," I thought. So away I went the pod with flash in one hand and camera in the other into the belly of the beast.
Here are my two favorite results:

Morning View

I was up with the sun this morning for an early assignment and came across this little guy while headed for the elevator in a parking garage downtown.

I used to dread these early morning assignments, but today's felt good for some reason. Maybe it was the blue skies and the empty roads, feeling like your the only one out in the world. Maybe it was seeing the sun rise and the colors breathing life into the sky....
Or maybe I was just delirious because my eyes were half open.

Either way, It felt good.

O'Hare

Waiting for a subject at way to early in the morning inside Chicago's O'hare Airport.

Stormy nights

We've had some pretty crazy weather here this past week and yesterday was no exception. Here's a few from my travels around town.

Court date

I spent most of last week at the Kendall County Courthouse covering various trials and such. Nothing like waiting for two hours to get a shot of someone walking out of court. At least it was nice weather outside.

With so much time on my hands I had a little fun with the pillars they have at the entrance to the courthouse.

Lakeside

If your laughing this is for you.

Barricade

The Lady

Toe to Toe

"I needed to get in shape for basketball." Megan Rembold said as to why she started boxing. Now it has taken over her life.


With less than 5 fights under her belt, Megan already has a Golden Gloves title to her name and a wicked right hand jab. "Missiles Megan" her coach calls her. Check out the full story HERE.

Something to cheer about

It's been a long week, how 'bout a cheer?

Please...

Surf and Turf

Portrait woes

For some reason portraits have been giving me a lot of trouble recently. They have never been on top of my list of favorite things to shoot, but I've gotten by. The past week or so has brought on a rash of portrait assignments and they've been kicking my butt.


Late Friday, I got this assignment to photograph Mary at her home in Aurora. The story was about a few recent incidences where people killed themselves after getting into accidents and DUI's. Mary's brother was one of them.

When I met her we talked a bit first about who her brother was and the the close relationship they had. After looking around for some good light inside, I took a look in her backyard which turned out to be a forest Preserve. "Perfect," I thought.


We spent some time out there, talked some more, took some pictures, and had some smiles even with the grave nature of the situation. Mary was amazing which helped me relax and just shoot, rather spending time racking my brain coming up with some crazy, contrived portrait.

Check out the story HERE.

Wedding day

The Fam

Chairs and Stairs

Hockey Town

City Feat.

Spent some time in the City last weekend and had some time to kill before and after an engagement shoot.

Literally shot from the hip.

Color my world

Yesterday I was sent out to take a portrait of Bob Mitchler at his home. I got his address but the location was described as, "the house with the big flag in front." Little did I know that "big" flag really meant "Huge" flag. Bob had a whooping 18 feet of American pride hanging in his front yard. The story was about how at the age of 90 he is going to be competing in a canoe race, but the canoe's, he said, were all still in storage. The photo that ran was him by the river, but I couldn't resist doing some stuff around the flag.
Eye in the sky...

Harsh 3:00 sunlight on a clear day . Eww.

Power Lines

I was out in the far west regions of our coverage area the other day and was amazed at the size and number of these structures out there. I know that they are really everywhere, but we seem to have become accustomed to them and go about our buisness without giving them a second thought.
The big debate right now is over the windmills that are springing up all over the place. Makes me wonder if these behemoths faced the same resistance that the skinny white poles are receiving now.

Skaters, Soldiers, and Sunbursts

Four completely unrelated photos but some that I really wanted to share.

Mrs. Lopez lives in Aurora and her son was one of the first in our area to die in combat. She is a great woman and nearly had the reporter and I in tears as we were talking to her. "Just don't forget them. Never forget them." she told us.

The Kane County Drug Court had a graduation ceremony for those that had graduated from the program. Kids from the local high school came out to sing some songs for the graduates and the judges that sentenced them were there to say a few words also.
With the Blackhawks now two games up in the Stanley Cup Finals (HECK YA!) I went out to a rat game (pick-up game) at a ice rink to ask guys about their favorite players. It was a glorified man on the street assignment so I figured I'd have some fun with the portraits. Here is my favorite.

And finally.... Stuck in traffic on hour and a half drive in this morning, I passed the time as usual (by taking pictures out the window) but actually came away with something I liked this time!