Blog

Midway

Waiting at Midway airport for an assignment today, I had a bit of time to kill. Apparently so did a few other folks.

Soldier Field

I had the amazing oppurtunity to shoot another Bears game earlier this season. It was not just any Bears game though.... Green Bay was in town. Fellow Sun-Times Media Photographer Mike Schmidt and I wanted to get there plenty early to grab some tailgating action and walk around the stadium a bit.
I've shot a few games now, but until this one I have never had a chance to actually walk around the stadium.
More to come from the game...

Sandwich Pounding

I made the 1.5 hour trek out to Mendota, Ill this afternoon to catch Sandwich playing Mendota High School for the quarterfinal round of the 3A champion ship. It started as a close game with both teams scoring twice quick in the first quarter. The next three quarters though would be all Sandwich they ran away with it and won 42-13.


Biker Dudes

It has been unusually warm here in Chicagoland the past week or so, and its so crazy at work there really has been no time for feature cruising around Aurora.
Well, today I finally had a chance after my assignments to meander the streets and see what kind of trouble I could get into.


I met Mike and Jeremy here on Mike's front porch as he was working on Jeremy's bike. He describes himself as semi-retired doing odd jobs and living on what Uncle Sam pays him for disability. While Jeremy graduated a few years ago and is, "just hanging out and trying to stay out of trouble."

They were kind enough to let me stay for awhile, and hopefully come back soon.

Tidbits

A few frames from the past couple weeks...

Lake Geneva, Ill

Road Construction in Plainfield, Ill
Avenue of Champs, BG, KY

Kendall County Courthouse, Yorkville, Ill

Chi-town, Ill

Playoff Football

Playoff season is upon us and tonight's game was Aurora's Marmion Academy against T.F. South. I love High School football, I love playoff season even more. The teams are better and the games are closer, this one was no exception. The teams traded touchdowns the whole game and in the final seconds South scored to make the score 27-28. Not wanting to go into OT, they went for two but missed the conversion. As they say....Maybe next year.

14th District

I got to spend my most of my election night hanging out at the camp of Republican Randy Hultgren in Geneva.
Hultgren ran and won the congress seat for the 14th district that basically spans northern Illinois.

My day started at a Polling place inside a VFW in Montgomery

Then it was on to Randy....

I love TV lights.
For more photos and election results check out the Beacon's site HERE.

Election season

These are old.... but with elections tonight, the issues these kids were out protesting has managed to stay a hot button issue in the races.
Back in April, parents got wind of cuts coming to their schools here in Aurora so they got out the printer paper and made some signs of their own to send down to officials in Springfield.
The next week they traveled down to voice their opinions in person and I got to TAG ALONG.


Along with all the congressional elections, the biggy is the Governor's race between Bill Brady and Pat Quinn with "jobs" and "cuts" being the buzzwords that are crammed as much as possible into every 30second tv and radio spot.

Boo.

Last week I went out to Statesville Haunted Prison which is one of the more popular haunted houses in the area. It borrows its name and theme from the maximum security penitentiary a few miles south.


I personally am not one for the dark, twisted and scary. Haunted houses and scary movies have never been my cup of tea which made this assignment all the more challenging...
This is "Mad Dog's" cell. He is a psychiatric patient that plays with his own poop. Poop that is made out of Hersey bars.... the whole room smelled like chocolate, not a bad gig if you ask me.
Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Picking

I have a few more from my travels last week, but thought I'd switch it up a bit and share a few from today's venture to the pumpkin patch with Jordan.


This one came home with me.
It was on a family farm that also had horses, goats, pigs, etc...

BG day 3

As I was headed back to the house after my walk yesterday morning I came across Chris who was doing some flatland tricks on his bike.
I hung out for a bit and he ended up landing what he had come there to do so we parted ways before I had the chance to shoot much.
He was filming for a new youtube video he was putting up, but check out some of his other videos HERE.
Checked out Scott's softball game last night. They killed the other team 25-15.


This morning was spent out at Clifty Hollow climbing with Clinton Lewis. It felt good to get out on some real rock again.
^photo by Clinton Lewis

Clinton has been organizing a project that would bring some really cool changes to Bowling Green Parks. If you climb, or are in Bowling Green, or both, check out BOWLING GREEN BOULDER PROJECT and voice some support for better climbing in Bowling Green.

BG Day 2

Because I flew in and was picked up, I don't have a vehicle here. Normally, not an issue, but when the roommates who are my ride sleep way longer than I can sit still I go a bit stir crazy.
This morning I went for a walk to get out of the house and was seeing diptychs for some reason.

Multiple exposure done in camera