Lauren and Louie, one hot wedding

Lauren and Louie are a great couple, you don’t have to spend much time with them to figure that out. I have had the wonderful opportunity to photograph their engagement pictures as well as their wedding, and I can’t say enough good things about them. The wedding this past weekend was wonderful, if just a tad hot. Even though we had to limit our outdoor pictures due to the heat, we were able to pull off some great images. My hat goes off to them for enduring the heat before the ceremony.

Ginger Gant was the wedding planner and she did a great job putting things together. If you’re in the need of a wedding planner who will rock your world, give her a call. Also, the band that they chose, The Chris Sarlas Orchestra (out of Chicago), was fabulous. I haven’t seen a better performing wedding band than them.

Self portrait, cycling

Ah, the self portrait. Before this year, I hadn’t done a self portrait since college, but for some reason, I’ve done two different self portraits so far this year. I think the biggest reason is that my kids are at an age where they are tired of being photographed and I’m left with either myself or my dog to shoot. This is fine though, because it means I have more latitude with the subject matter and can take longer playing around with my setup.

The setup itself is pretty straightforward. 2 shoot-through umbrellas (camera left and camera right), with the left umbrella at 1/4 power and the right at 1/16. Also, there is a strobe immediately behind me at 1/16 power to give a little bit of rim lighting.

Fun photo shoot today

I’ve been working on a new project lately and needed some pictures to go along with it. The project involves brides and an old yellow bike. I’ll be shedding more light on the project shortly, but for now, enjoy this fantabulous image from the photo shoot today. The model is Liz, she was one of my wedding clients last year. I’m pretty excited about this project and can’t wait to share it with the world.

Lauren and Louie, an engaged stroll down State Street

The other day I had the pleasure of taking a stroll down State Street with a happy young couple that are quite obviously in love with each other. I love photographing people who are so into each other — not only does it make my job easier, but it’s a breath of fresh air when two people can’t take their eyes off each other. If this photo session was any indication of things to come, their wedding is going to be a blast!

DJ and Milissa, happily married

April showers bring May flowers, but in this case, they also bring together two wonderful young people. DJ and Milissa got married in April and the wind and rain were merely footnotes in the story of their day. Weddings like this keep me coming back for more — I absolutely love seeing two young people who are truly in love and full of energy and promise.

Rachael and Chris, a sneak peek

No wedding ever goes according to plan. When you go to plan your wedding, accept that fact and you’ll have the best time of your life. This wedding was no exception. First, we had a week of gorgeous weather only to get snowed on the night before (nearly 3 inches on the ground!). Second, the church was a photographer’s dream with abundant natural light, yet the priest wouldn’t let us in the same time zone as the couple during the ceremony. Third, the church decided to keep their 4:00pm mass instead of switching to the usual 5:00pm mass, leaving us with less time for pictures after the ceremony. Fourth, well, you get the idea, right?

This is how weddings go and you learn to roll with the punches. What I love about Rachael and Chris is that they didn’t let any of these distractions get in the way of having a good time. Sure it was cold outside, but they charged right out there for a great series of pictures.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention the crazy series of pictures of the groomsmen reenacting a combination of Fight Club and West Side Story. I laugh every time I look at those pictures, and I think you will too. Scroll down for some pure awesome.

Painting with light

The other day, I was talking with a gal about doing photos for her upcoming album and we got to talking about fun things you can do with lighting at night. So, as a refresher/test of the types of things we might be doing for her album, I headed out to the shores of Lake Monona the other night to try out some light painting. On one hand, it was really cool to be out there by myself trying different things and having fun with my craft, but on the other hand, this kind of thing requires a few more hands to make things easier (and more fun).

I’ll be heading out again soon to try some more things out, shoot me an email/text/tweet/facebook/yada yada yada if you’re interested. For now though, here’s my favorite from the night, the rest are on my Flickr photostream.