Blog

Looking Back: NYC

In May Jordan and I traveled to New York City for a few days; partly for her work, but mostly to see the Big Apple for the first time.
I must say, being born and bred in the Second City, New York had a lot to prove and prove it did.
Both of us really enjoyed the trip despite the constant drizzle, and finally got the chance to see what all the fuss was about.

I went into the trip with no intention of shooting seriously. I wanted to go and just take in the city...do all the stupid touristy garbage that we make fun of people for doing when they come to Chicago.
Much to my surprise however, I am more happy with the photos that came out of those 4 days than any of the work I produced at the paper.
Now, maybe it is just the connection I have to that trip and the memories the photos bring back, but whatever it is I find myself going to that folder on my hard drive more for inspiration than anywhere else.

Here are the photos that stood out the most to me. Enjoy...

Engagements

A few of my favorite engagement photos from this past season. This was the first year I really did a lot of these sessions and the more I did, the more comfortable I got doing them. Now I have just as much fun shooting these as the actually wedding day.
Enjoy!



I plan on doing a full wedding recap soon, but that is going to take a bit more time as I wade through the almost 30 weddings I shot this year. Stay tuned!

North Avenue Beach

I've been going through organizing and toning some of this years engagement and wedding work and came across some test shots before a recent engagement session. I'll put up a full post of those over the next day or so.


Shots, Shots, Shots

Well it finally came, my littler sister Julie turned the big 21 this past weekend. Now, shes probably already spent more time in a bar than will in my life, but I must say that buying her drinks is going to take some getting used too....


City-scursion

Spent yesterday in the city visiting the downtown office of the Sun-Times just to remind them we exist out in the west burbs. I got there a bit early so I wandered....

Nascar

Nothing is quite as exhilarating as standing just a few feet away from a car hurdling down the track at 200 mph, separated only by a concrete wall and chain link fence. I had the opportunity to photograph the Nascar races at the Chicagoland Speedway and loved every minute of it.

Here are a few of my favorites. Thanks for looking!

Stay in Line

I had a few minutes to walk around the city before a shoot the other night. I should really get out more often....

Walls of Jericho: Part two

I won't go back over the details, but this is the second in a series that a reporter and I are doing on the Jericho Circle housing project in Aurora, Ill. (To see part 1 CLICK HERE)

For the second year in a row, Jericho Circle was supposed to come down this summer and the residents relocated, but due to fights and disagreements between the City and the Housing Authority about half of the residents at Jericho remain living in sub-par conditions.
While community violence has died down in recent years, the summer heat, mixed with high tensions as neighbors all fight for the same section 8 housing, has lead to a few outbreaks this summer.
Not only are the residents affected, but the school district who was not expecting to be responsible for the over 100 students coming from Jericho, now has to bus and provide for these kids on an already stressed budget.



Trees?

Not sure what my current fascination is with trees but I was just looking through two takes from a few months apart and these two stood out to me