A Busy Weekend

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As many of you can imagine, a wedding photographer’s weekend can be a busy time. While most folks get a day or two to relax or run errands, weekends are my busiest days. This weekend was no different. Knowing that it would be busy, I spent Friday evening with my family. We took the kids to the McDonald’s playland to eat and then burn off some energy. However, we couldn’t stay too late as I had a wedding the next day.

Actually, I was joining another photographer at his wedding to see how he does things and as a chance to experiment. When you are the primary photographer, a wedding is no place to take risks. However, this was my chance to try an idea, photograph a wedding completely in black and white. It was a lot of fun working with another accomplished photographer. We bounced a lot of ideas off of one another and in the long run it will make both of us better. I learned a lot from my experiment. I hope to be able to post a couple of photos from this wedding in a couple of days. But my paying clients come first.

Which brings us to today’s engagement session. Actually it was earlier this evening. Lauren and Joel are getting married over Labor Day weekend at Starved Rock. They live out of town and came in to visit her parents for Passover. The only time we could schedule their engagement session was this evening (Sunday) at about 7:30. It was around sunset when we started the session at the Schaumburg Town Center. I had been here before for engagement sessions. But like Disney World, the center takes on a whole new look at night. We had an incredible engagement session! See for yourself:

Lauren and Joel's Engagement Session at Schaumburg Town Center

Lauren and Joel's Engagement Session at Schaumburg Town Center

Lauren and Joel's Engagement Session at Schaumburg Town Center

This spot is not easily seen from the road. And they wondered why I wanted to meet them at the Oberweis Dairy (it is next door to the town center).

Sunset

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Door County Sunset “Daddy come here! Look at the sunset!” is often heard in the early evening hours. There are times when I’m returning from a shoot, a client meeting or a family errand, notice an exceptional sunset and call home to have Meghan share it with me. I’m not sure how this tradition began but we’ve been doing it for years.

This is a special time I share with my daughter, Meghan. When she yells the sun is setting, I try to drop whatever I’m doing and spend a couple of minutes with her watching the sunset. I really enjoy the couple of minutes we spend together. It is a chance to see the wonder of the world through the eyes of a child. Here is a photo of tonight’s sunset from Meghan’s bedroom window.

Door County SunsetOne of my favorite sunsets I spent with Meghan was a couple of years ago. I think Meghan was almost 4 and Mathew was about 10 months old. Our family along with my in-laws had gone to Door County for a long weekend. There was one evening we were along the shores of the lake. It might have been at Sister Bay. It was quite peaceful, Meghan was exploring the shore under the watchful eye of her parents. Mathew was too young to get into trouble. Anyway there was a perfect sunset to cap off a perfect evening. That’s Meghan’s silhouette. She ran into my picture just as I snapped the shutter. I loved this picture so much, I used it as my desktop image. A couple of minutes later it was time to leave and put the kids to bed.

Addison Bridal Show

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Today was the last bridal show of the spring season for me. I never know what to expect at a bridal show. Some shows are so busy you can’t even take a breath and questions are being thrown at you from every direction. Other shows are a bit slower and I actually have a chance to talk to the brides and hear about their wedding plans. Today’s show was one of the slower shows.

While some of the other vendors don’t like the slow shows, I think it gives me time to give each visitor to my booth a little bit more personal attention. Part way through the show, I realized the folks at the formalwear booth across the aisle were sending the brides my way. At the end of the show we got to talking and Vince told me he could tell I really cared about my clients and paid attention to the details. I’m happy my way of business is visible to others. Now I just have to wait and see if anybody decides to book me as a result of this show.

After the show, I visited Debbie and Bob, Melissa’s parents (my January 27th wedding) to design their parent album. Just before Melissa’s wedding, I knew I needed a new sample album. Her wedding was so beautiful that I decided to use hers. I also wanted to prove to myself that I could design an album in the week following a wedding. After the sample album design was completed I let the happy couple view my new sample design. However, they wanted to see the book before going any further.

6 weeks after the wedding my new sample album arrived. This proves to me that I can deliver a client’s album within 3-4 months of their wedding! So now, while my client’s friends are just getting their proofs three months after the wedding, my clients will be getting a finished album!

When I arrived at Debbie and Bob’s house, I showed them the sample album. Debbie and Bob were so thrilled with it, they wanted to use it as the basis for their parent album. Several times Debbie mentioned that she never would have thought to have included some of the background images and used them as I did. They gave me a list of about a dozen changes to the sample album to further personalize it for themselves. I can’t wait myself to see how the finished parent’s album comes out.

April Fools Day

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How can April 1st pass without a prank or two? This year my target(s) were my follow photographers on Gary Fongs Digital Photogapher’s Net, DPN. I figured out how create a userid that looked like Gary Fong’s but I controlled it. I used the userid to post a thread in which Gary purportedly announced his marriage. I watched the thread all day long as first the mayhem started and then some folks realized the game was a foot! At the end of the day, I let everybody know it was a joke and signed my name.

After brunch on Saturday, my family gathered to give me my birthday cards and gifts. My wife got me the new Harry Potter movie “…Goblet of Fire.” Not sure when I will be able to sit down and watch the movie but at least I have it. Both kids had made cards and were chomping at the bit to blow out my birthday candles. To them if you can’t open the presents then next best thing is eating the cake.

Later that afternoon, Meghan and I actually got out to the garden and put down the weed barrier. I guess I should say, I put it down and she “helped” by digging up a mud pie factory. Part way through, we had to run to Wal-Mart to get more barrier. We were quite a sight, covered in mud/dirt as we walked through the store. Finally we got the job done. She wanted to start planting the seeds but we have to wait a couple of weeks until the threat of frost is gone.

Then I went to the side of the house to trim the grapevines. This is my annual attempt to kill them off. We’ll see how well they survive this year. While I was working on the side of the house, Meghan was riding her bike. She is finally getting the hang of it. She wanted me to remove the training wheels. I’ll raise them and see how she does.

All to soon, it was time to clean up and get ready for dinner. Sheryl took me out to Shaw’s Crab House for my birthday dinner. The food was scrumptious. We started with the Shrimp Cocktail and ate our way through several courses to finish with the Banana’s Foster and Creme Brule. Next we took in Ice Age 2.

The movie was entertaining and funny. It was so fast paced, I never looked at my watch to see what time it was. After the movie, Sheryl and I took a walk around the Streets of Woodfield. It is so rare for us to get some time to ourselves and talk that the walk was a real treat. Finally, it was time to head home and off to bed. A very busy birthday indeed.

Getting Ready to Plant

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Today, Meghan, my 5 year-old daughter, and I were supposed to get the vegetable garden ready for planting. Unfortunately, it rained. When we bought this house 8 years ago, the previous owners had a real green thumb. Since then, I’ve managed to kill off much of the much of the gardens. It takes real talent to kill of wild raspberries! However, the grapevines on the side of the house and the apple trees continue to survive my best efforts.

Several years ago, I planted a corn patch. It was actually somewhat of a success. That is if after all the time and hard work we managed to eat 5 ears of corn. I was so looking forward to finishing the season with the pick of the harvest. There was one ear of corn which had grown bigger than any of the others. I could taste the sweet corn. But I decided to wait one more day before picking that ear.

All the next day, I was looking forward to my ear of corn. I could taste it. The corn was so sweet we didn’t need to add anything to them before eating it. Finally, it was time to start dinner. I started the water boiling. I opened the door to the backyard and started the walk to the garden.

As I rounded the corner, I saw a squirrel sitting on the fence eating an ear of corn. MY EAR OF CORN! I swear to you that squirrel started laughing at me or was it thanking me for growing such a nice dinner. Dejectedly, I found another ear or two of corn in the garden but, they just weren’t the same.

Anyway, in kindergarten, Meghan was learning about how plants grow from seeds. She’s planted a couple of small plants which have died in our window sill. So I’m not sure what made me agree to plant a vegetable garden this year. Maybe it is the mud patch where the garden goes. Or maybe it was the memory of the sweet corn. Somehow corn that you’ve grown yourself tastes the sweetest. Or maybe there are some lessons Meghan and Mathew will learn as we work our garden together. Hopefully Saturday will be nicer and we can start our garden preparations.