Roshni and Aalok: teaser

I just got back from Milwaukee, where yesterday I photographed the pre-wedding ceremonies (morning Pithi ceremony and evening party) for Roshni and Aalok. This was my first wedding this year and the most images I have shot at a wedding EVER; just over 3,000! Ridiculous!! Mostly because the ceremonies have many people doing stuff in them and everyone needed photos of them doing the same thing over and over, its great if you try and keep getting a new angle and take on it. Fortunately in Indian Wedding culture (or at least this one) the photog is allowed to do pretty much whatever he wants, even be up next to the bride the entire time or sitting on the floor in front of the mom, or get in peoples face for that “great shot.”

Things I learned:

• Take more cards that you need, i almost ran out after 32Gigs
• Take extra clothing, Indian weddings are modest in dress even in the heat, i sweat through 2 long sleeve shirts.
• Be ready for that "hey photographer, take our picture" moment, because they think you can make any badly lit location look like a studio.
• Be ready to have fun; that is really what it is all about for them too.

I have just barley gotten all the images onto my computer and done the obligatory backup process, but I did notice a couple shots here from the morning Pithi ceremony that grabed my attention:


(Bride smeared with a yellow turmeric "beautification" paste)

(It is customary for an uncle to bless the bride’s family, it was hilarious to watch the bride’s father trying to give money to that uncle)

(Groom told by Mother of the Bride, "You’d better show up tomorrow")

friday night baseball

Steve treated me to my first Mallard’s baseball game on Friday. The Mallards are part of a summer league in our neck of the woods; basically a bunch of college baseball players getting a feel for the pros, similar to the minor league. Anyway, my lack of baseball knowledge aside, it was educational and fun…for a baseball game.

I  wisely left most of the weight of my camera gear in the car by just taking two prime lenses (honestly, I feel freer at times with less) with the extra lens in my pocket, so no bag. Really I just had one photo in my mind, but below are a couple to that vain; I wanted to wait until after sunset when the glowing blue sky matches the field lights. The last photo just looked like a baseball shot, esp. in B&W.

parking lot BBQ

I am not going to say anything about thes images, but let you imagine what you will.

first camping of the year

Sarah and I went camping for the first time this year with our friend Becky. We all needed a relaxing weekend of sitting around the camp doing nothing. The campsite we chose was perfect: small, no hiking trails and few campsites; its only attractions were that it had a small lake near it and you could ride your bike a mile to get to the Glacial Drumlin State Bike Trail. The weirdest part was the drinking water; we are guessing it is glowing brown from the recent rains. The first night created an amazing sunset over that lake, and provided another opportunity for light painting. The next morning we saw so much wildlife; to many birds to count and difficult to talk over their chapter, sand hill cranes, frogs, bunnies running into camp, and even a chipmunk that raced around Sarah’s camp chair. Later that morning Sarah and I rode our bikes around the State Trail only to get stopped by a ranger letting us know that there was large hail expected and several funnel clouds already spotted. We raced back to the shelter (a converted train station) as the storm hit and waited out the worst of it…or so we though. A phone call to a friend and his Doppler radar showed we had a break in the storm before even more intense rain followed. I quickly raced back to camp to get Becky and the car so that we could shower and stay dry. Since dinner at the campsite was impossible, a really long and tasty dinner followed at a local Pizza joint. As we went back to camp, we were greeted with standing water in our tent, so we decided to head home. This morning Sarah and I went back out to survey the damage and pack up camp. Our tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, clothes, backpacks, tarps and “whatnots” are still hanging to dry on the line.

Chelsea and Mike

I recently got a chance to meet up with Chelsea and Mike for their portrait session where we walked around the UW campus after finals were over and it felt like a ghost town. This was great for us because we got to walk around all the best spots without crowds of people getting in the shot. We were also rewarded with a great sunset afterwards.

Thanks guys, I had a blast and look forward to shooting your wedding!

Hi Matt - I just wanted to tell you how much we love, love, love our pictures! We have had excellent feedback on them from our family and friends. One of our friends asked how you "made" the sunset background because she didn't believe it was real. (That's what happens when you pray and ask God to give you a sunset.) Also we have had comments on your high quality of photography. Just wanted to let you know that we are very happy with our photos. I was so excited that I went printed them all on Monday!

Thank you again for all of your time.

Chelsea

back yard camping

Steve and family invited Sarah and I over for dinner the other week, we did the classic Wisconsin backyard Bar-B-Q that I guess includes camping in the backyard that night. Sarah and I have always been a little hesitant with the Brat thing, but these were the best we have had. And same with asparagus; man, soaking anything in enough oil/galic and grilling them can make even green things taste good! We had a ton of fun and I am glad I brought my camera (and using only a simple prime lens was again freeing.)

The next photo is proof that Nikon cameras (like mine) can be used by Canon photographers (like Steve)…but I digress.

Steve and I lead a photo group at black Hawk Church, this month we are talking about Light Painting again. (previous post here and here)  For this reason, and the fact it was a good opportunity, I tried it while Steve and his son got ready for bed camping that night. (Although, if you want to get picky, I used strobes and not flashlights because I didn’t bring any) The basic premise is that you leave you shutter open for quite a while to gather as much ambient as you can but this also gives you time to run around and light things up with your flashlight…or in this case a strobe.

The first one has Steve waving his flashlight around in the tent while I ran around firing my strobe at the trees. The second one has my strobe inside the tent firing down and the outside is a composite (taken from another photo) where I held the strobe off at a distance.

Thanks again Steve (and family) for having us over for a good time.