So many beautiful cars and yet this was my favorite!

If you think I took a photo of your car please visit the image gallery.

If you like the photos please use the links below to tell a friend and please leave comments!! If you like my work, and would like to hire me. Please use my contact link at the top ^ of my site and tell me about your project.

Enjoy the photos!

So this shoot was with out a doubt one of the funnest shoot I have been on this summer. It was a very random shoot, I was coming home from Bollingbrook and thought humm I do not have anything to do this afternoon. So I thought well… I know Meg wanted to shoot. I called her up and after an hour we were in Pilcher Park getting ready to shoot. For locals that have been through the park we went to that creepy building across Hickory creek. It is an old building meant for picnics I think? Maybe it was something to do with the dam down stream I am not sure, but it is a cool setting. Almost jungle like, I felt like the vines were creeping up on us.

So How did we do it?

I kept this shoot nice and simple I just used my sb800 on a pole with an umbrella. I shot through the umbrella and set the flash for 1/8th power. I know the flash at 1/8th power mixed with the natural light overexposed some of the highlights. I did that so I could get those extreme highlights and the intense shadows.

This was such a fun shoot because I did’nt have any idea what we would do. She wanted to pose and I wanted to shoot so we went at it and we got some amazing shots. I don’t have the video ready yet so I am going to post this for now, make sure to check back for a video of us in action. If you want to see the full set visit my Face Book Page here, and don’t forget to fan the studio. Please if you like my work tell a friend!

With these shots my main goal was to give these guys photos that all go together so they look more like a team. Not only helping them out with advertising or promoting the crew, but also building confidence in all of them and their dance skills. Even if they did a basic move I made sure to capture it the best I could and in the end I got some fantastic shots.

When I first walked in to the studio I saw I was working with wonderful florescent lighting and nothing else. Not even one window with some natural night, so in my mind i started thinking. I wanted to use my flash to light them up more then the ceiling lights were, but I also wanted a (spot light) type of feel to my lighting. So I put my SB800 on a stand camera left directed toward my subject set for 1/8th power with nothing else just hard flash.

With that set up I was able to create a halo of light outlining the dancers, and the flash bouncing off the mirror behind me reflected the light onto my subjects face. In result giving beautiful fill light on my subject and having the back lit subjects. Almost like having two flashed running at the same time. The main obstical I found with this shoot was timing. You need to know what the dancer is going to bring out of the bag and throw at you and how your going to capture it wile paying attention to your background. I will say hectic yes, but not as much as a football game where you don’t get a redo if you miss the shot.

Over all great shoot and my clients are happy! Thanks Monty, Justine and the rest of the crew for working with me and giving me some awesome moves.Enjoy the video. Please dont forget to like the studio page on facebook here!

RONDERS!

So I am trying some thing a little new with my blog posts. I am going to start filming all of my shoots so I can show you all what a real shoot looks like. Most people see fancy photo shoots in movies and tv shows, but I want to show how real life shoots happen. This first attempt is poor I agree but it is a start. I promise I will try to make the clips more interesting in the future.

Check it out here

This is only 1/2 of their photo shoot the other 1/2 is still coming. The next set will be the action and group shots I captured.

RONDERS!

I dont personally use Old Plank but man do they have some impressive buildings. Check the link out below to see the shot I got of the building in New Lenox.

Bubba has got to be the coolest pet I have ever met. So cool with kids climbing all over him its like he understands its all for the mortgage. (plus dinner)

If you would like to see the photos from this day.

Click Here

Ronders!

Football in July what a treat! Going to football games at the local high schools is one of the many reasons I love fall time. So when your called out to a football game in July its a surprise and a pleasure. New Lenox Patriots minor league football are an awesome team to watch. Although I have to say we may need some team building still. I believe the talent is there it seems they need some time to click smoothly. Although I may have sensed the choppy play in result of really crappy calls by the refs. “Come on throwing the QB out because he jumped on a live ball is not considered a late hit.” Over all great game and I hope to cover them for the news paper again.

The one big difference I noticed is the respect level. Most high school sidelines are filled with “stars” so they think. When I come walking by they have no intentions of noticing who is around them, and with what equipment. On the other hand the New Lenox Patriots seem to be more respectful it might be because their ages range from out of high school to guys with full time jobs and family’s. Ether way it is the first sideline that the players watched out for me and if they did bump me they said “sorry man”.

Thanks guys for the respect and a great game!

If you would like to see/buy photos of the game check them out here.

Ronders!

This was done on a beautiful rainy Saturday morning. (Ok so im optimistic) but I really think we got some great images of every one. We used the conference room (in the Air) to do the portraits. We had time for a few different group shots. Then as soon as the trucks were pulling in the rain started up. “Phew just in time.”

I really liked this shoot and hope to help more fire departments spice up their walls.

Thanks Krissy, Larry and the Dept for this experience.

For any one looking for their portrait please click below.

South Heights FD Photos.

So I find the hotel and walk in, after Ozzie text me to come up to their room 1512 or something. So I go to the lobby desk and ask them “I am to go up to my couples room 1512, What floor is that?” While chuckling they tell me um that is the 15th floor.

Not saying I haven’t been in big buildings, but for some reason I had a brain lock and had no clue what floor I needed. Besides my moment of duh the night was great! The wedding and reception was on the 95th floor of the Handcock building in the signature room, and talk about a view. 95 floors up we were able to watch the storms come in from the south west and man was that cool. Must have been a heavy rain for those little ant people moving around down below, but for us it was a beautiful night with some rain and a nice sun set. Once again thank you Ozzie and DJ for hiring me for your special day.

For any guests that would like to view their portraits you can click below to view and order.

Ozzie & DJ wedding photos

So what is Toastmasters? Do we learn how to make breakfast?

Well I went to google and said find me a toastmasters group!

To my surprise their is a group in just about every town around me. So I finally built up the courage to go and see what this is all about. I went to my first meeting with the Joliet jesters that meet in the Joliet library every 1st and 3rd Saturday @ 10am.

Three meetings later I am now a member and already have a speech to give next Saturday the 19th. Toastmasters is a group of local residents that want to do nothing more then prepare and give speeches. It is a great way to break out of your public speaking shell. The meetings are very short and the best part is every one wants to be there so it is not like a required speech class.

The meetings open up and they take care of any new member business. Then the meeting begins we start with the speeches (usually 3 5-10 min speeches) and then you move onto table topics. Table topics are the fun part of the meetings, they are all impromptu speeches. Then after table topics you take a vote on the best table topic speech. Why would you put a impromptu speech into a competition, I know weird but.. there is a point.

After the votes are in the person with the most votes gets called up for an award why is there such a big deal about this silly thing? Because it lets you practice giving an award for the presenter and receiving an award for the speaker.

It is a great way to break the fear we all have of public speaking and it is a fun group. Now I hear there is a group in New Lenox but they meet at 8am on Saturday and who wants to wake up that early on a Saturday morning? Haha I am only being honest!

If you are interested in checking the group out check out their website or their facebook page.

RONDERS

Chicago has had a few meetings and planning sessions to sort out what we can do on December 12th. Thanks to Devin David and many of his contacts it looks like we will pull off two events. One with a organization “New Moms” in Logan Square, and the second with the organization Breakthrough on the west side of the city. Both events going on on Dec 12th.

I think this will turn out to be a very successful day, even though we are printing on site.

The Fun part with the planning is how we are using Google Wave to all collaborate. Google wave is a weird concept but It works great for group planning like this. Check out our wave and how it works in a planning sense.

Chicago Help-Portrait Google Wave.

We are still looking for people to help even though we are a week away from shooting, please do not hesitate to help. If you are interested in helping or donating to the cause please visit our Help-Portrait Site, or our Google wave. Message us and say Hi!

Ronders