You're out of your element, Donny.

So it was really hard to come up with a Big Lebowski title that didn't involve outright cussin'! Because while I enjoy the dirty words and have myself been known on occasion to swear like a filthy, filthy sailor (it's really fun, you should try it), I do try to keep the blog at a certain level of dignity. I probably ought to just start a different blog where I can be as crass and foul as I want, but I totally digress.

Me and Billy went into the city on Saturday evening with the intention of going to Venetian Night, which is apparently some sort of boat parade where they light up their boats ... I don't know, I'm not doing it justice, but it sounded cool, okay? And also, can I just say how much I love living by a lake? I think that anywhere we live in the future will have to involve water because it's a whole different world. And I like that world.

GOOD LORD, I am the tangent queen today. My high school chemistry teacher would start drawing this wandering line whenever someone went off on a tangent or derailed the class, and he called it a bunny trail. I've been on a few bunny trails already in this post, and now I'm doing it again.

Anyway, Amy thought it might already be crowded and blah blah some other stuff, we decided not to go. But Billy and I did not drag ourselves and our dog into the city from the depths of suburban hell just to sit on the couch, so an alternate plan was formed, and we decided to go bowling. Timber Lanes was described on its website as a place that The Dude would be proud to bowl, and more importantly, it was right around the corner and about half the price of anywhere else, so it was a no-brainer.

First things first, I LOVE BOWLING SHOES. And the older and crappier they are, the more I love them. I like their slick bottoms and their two tones and how they make your feet look. Definitely one of the greatest things about bowling, if you ask me.

On the flip side, keeping score. None of us really knew how, but Amy was brave enough to give it a shot. And now let me just say here that I am a TERRIBLE bowler. I'm not even that good at Wii Bowling, but in real life, it's like ... wow, how can someone be so bad at it? I think my high bowling score in my life is somewhere in the 50's.

Until this fateful night! I was on a roll! It was all spares and strikes and puppies and rainbows! I couldn't believe it, and it was so funny because Billy and Amy have been bowling with me before and know how abnormal this is. Amy totally screwed me on the scoring though (not her fault, really, but I'm blaming her anyway), so I have no idea what my actual score was. But it's enough for me to know how awesome I did. :)

I obviously had to get a shot of the bowling balls, because like the shoes, they're the best thing about bowling. (There can be two bests, like having two best friends or two best ice cream flavors--why limit yourself?)

The only thing was, I couldn't decide if I liked the closer version or the wider version of the pic, so I decided to take it to the blog for input. Which do you guys like better?

Here is Billy bowling! And seriously, will you look at that form? He makes it look so good. He took a picture of me bowling, and I make it look like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. You should see it--I just kind of hurl myself toward the lane, bend over in half, and fling the ball in the most awkward way you've ever seen--it's definitely not an underhanded roll, but I don't know how to describe it better than that. Walter, Donny, The Dude, Jesus, Smokey ... they'd all be horrified at my form. :)

So the Hunchback picture didn't turn out, but this one kind of did--any guesses about how many pins I knocked over? Also, Billy took my camera a couple times this weekend and took pics of me, including one at the dog beach that I really liked (unlike this one, where I look a little crazy--but still, it had to be shared).

A little shot of the bar, just to give you more of an idea of the ambience.

I was going for that moment when the ball hits the pins and I was a little early on the shutter, but I still REALLY liked this picture, and especially in black and white it just looks so dramatic, and you KNOW what's coming. Also, I really like the noise of bowling. So that's shoes, balls, and noise, for anyone keeping score (which we all know is the hardest/worst part). End of review, be sure to eat breakfast before the test.

Oh, there's the shot I was going for! I was right on time, it's tricky! (Anybody?)

Now at this point, I had to pack up the camera. I had a beer when we got there, and not one of those crazy triple whatever beers, but we're talking like a Coors Light, okay? And I've told you all that I'm SUCH a lightweight and it is not a joke--I drank that beer pretty fast because it was so hot in there and I was starting to feel a little happy (which is probably also why I was bowling so well, although I can tell you right now that that's a bell curve), so I went ahead and got a second one. Well, when you're me and you drink that fast, it means that it keeps hitting you for awhile after you finish the beer, and about a beer and a half in, I realized whoa, I'm pretty drunk. And that's when I had to pack up my camera, because I can't drink and shoot at the same time. And also, that's why I love all my clients so much but if you offer me a drink at your wedding, I'll always have to turn you down because it's not like the whole "drinking in moderation" thing works when one beer does you in. And also because wearing a lampshade and dancing on a table might be funny, but probably not at someone's wedding. That you are being paid to photograph and capture memories for a lifetime.

Beer and a half not withstanding, we had no idea that they were going to go cosmic, and Daniel had worn all white and that was just TOO priceless to pass up. I love this picture.

Since I had the camera out anyway, I figured I might as well go ahead and take a picture of the cosmic pins falling, but once I got one, I packed it up packed it in and called it a day.

You guys are really just getting all of my adventures one at a time, instead of the marathon blog posts I usually do, but I'm sort of enjoying this instant gratification of sharing thing. I still have Flashy's dog beach pictures to work on, but I don't know if I'm going to get to it right away because tonight I'm trying to convince Billy to use our free Hollywood passes on The Orphan (MAN, I love a good horror movie), and tomorrow we're heading down to Holiday World in southern Indiana to meet our friends Carrie and Jeff, and this will be the last weekend before the true insanity of August is unleashed--two weddings, a bridal session, a senior, and a portrait session all in a two week period. Craziness! I can't wait!

So full of "et cetera".

This post is so full of "et cetera" that I'm having a hard time coming up with a name for it, so I've put that part off till the end to see if I come up with anything awesome. Otherwise, I'll just stick to something vague and lame. :)

Anyway, these pictures are from two weekends ago when Billy's parents came to visit. On the first day, I was frustrated because I couldn't find the body cap for my camera and it looked like it was going to rain, and I didn't want to be lugging some big heavy beast of a wet camera around, so I just said eff it and took my point and shoot. I was totally mad at myself for a second because the weather cleared up and there were some really beautiful scenes, but then I got over it because Murphy's Law dictates that if I had in fact went ahead and brought my camera, it would've rained, and besides, at least I remembered my point and shoot, right?!?!

So anyway, we headed out to Navy Pier and it was gorgeous, and when we got there, I realized that the end of the pier was open. I could NOT believe it--that hasn't happened one single time that I've ever been there, because it's always closed off for weddings and events. So I'm all in disbelief that this is even HAPPENING, so I'm like motoring it to get down there before someone changes their mind and throws a huge quinceanera or something RIGHT AT THAT VERY MOMENT, because you know, that could happen. But I got there and it was real and it was magnificent. (Anyone catch the reference?)

So I wondered what I would see when I went around to the other side of the end of the pier, the side I've never been on, and I was SO not prepared for the gorgeousness. Not even close.

WILL YOU GET A LOAD OF THAT? The view was totally majestic, with the skyline and the Hancock right there, and the sun peeking out from behind it, and the clouds, and the WATER! I was so excited, and I'm just glad I had a camera at all.

On the slightly down side, I shoot entirely in RAW on my big camera and I've gotten used to editing as such, and the P&S shoots in jpeg, and I'm not going to lie, the editing was a little bit challenging. But I also had a really good time with it, using layers and layer masks and curves and all that fun stuff. I don't know that I'm entirely done tweaking this one, but I do think it'll eventually go on my wall, probably with my Indianapolis skyline. :) I'm going to have to start a wall with all the skylines of the places I've lived. And I bet you all can't wait for that glorious Plainfield, Indiana skyline. Or that stunning Muncie, Indiana skyline. Don't forget to breathe, people.

It was such a beautiful day and so the boats were out in full force. Like I said, I was playing around in actual Photoshop, just experimenting, and this is how this picture turned out. I have no idea how this picture actually ended up coming to look like this, although I have a suspicion that it was by adjusting the blue and green curves. Anyway, it obviously doesn't look anything like reality and it doesn't even look like anything I normally do, but it kind of grabbed me and I let it be. I like how it looks like an illustration almost, or a rendering, and it's good to branch out sometimes. :)

And here's a black and white of the same basic scene, and I have two things to say about that. First of all, I think my grandpa would have really liked this picture and I probably would've made him a print. He liked transportation about as much as I do (and probably more, in the case of trains), and sometimes I see pictures I've done and think about him. And secondly, this boat was moving SERIOUSLY fast. Billy pointed out to me when it was coming in to dock (or whatever--you guys KNOW I suck at the boat lingo), so I had to almost run (not my favorite thing) to catch a few shots, but it was so worth it. I loved how this came out. I think it's a pretty well known fact that I started photography on black and white film in a darkroom (and I swear, it was 2006, not 1925 or something), and working on this picture kind of took me back to it with all the dodging and burning I was doing. Maybe I should've turned all the lights off and set up some tubs with chemicals around me for the full effect, but I probably lost enough brain cells in the real darkroom as it is, so perhaps not.

Okay, so here we are at the horse track (Arlington Park, for anyone who is interested), and I had my big camera back with me--better for close ups, obviously. I had another version of this picture where the horse was actually looking right at the camera, but I didn't like it as well--I like how the horse and the jockey are just kind of one unit here, facing the same way.

And can I just tell you all, I did awesome at the horse track? I just make little two dollar bets since I'm not much of a gambler and I don't consider myself all that lucky anyway, but the horse track really treated me right. In fact, this race that I photographed is the only one that I DIDN'T win anything on, a fact that was making Billy's dad a little insane because he was making informed and knowledgeable bets, and I was picking the names that I liked (i.e. Drinks to Go, which is obvious to anyone who knows me at all, since I love a good gas station beverage, Hong Kong Superstar, since it reminded me of Billy's Hong Kong Phooey pajama pants, Hug It Out because of Entourage, etc.). It really cracks me up to beat Big Bill at stuff he knows more about, such as horse racing and also such as music trivia at BW3's, since he has a very deep knowledge of music. However, I have a very wide and shallow knowledge of music, and that comes more in handy for trivia. And he gets super pissed. It's awesome.

And finally, this one. It's my favorite of the horse pics. I love it, love the action, love the dirt being kicked up, and love how pretty the horses look. Sigh. Makes me happy.

I'm working on another set of pictures (from this last weekend), so we might actually get a bonus blog post in this week! It's a fun one, with the bowling and dog beach and lake action that I mentioned in the last post. And then we're gearing up for a MAJOR August! Stick with me, peeps!

Photojojo

So, I started my day as I do with Google Reader (which OMG, if you love reading blogs, and hello, you're here!, then you should SO be using this thing), and there was a post from Photojojo that I found pretty cute and useful and wanted to share. (Click me!)

In case you're like me and get annoyed when you click through to things you don't really want to read, let me cut and paste for you the opening lines, which sold me:

"So, you want to start a photo business…

Excellent! Will it be a mad whirl of fame, fortune and glitterati?

Or will it be a money-suckin’, nail-bitin’, cuss-mutterin’ festival of frustration?"

Ha! I love Photojojo--it's a great site and they have some fun little projects you can do with your pictures, which is fun for a crafty-type like myself. Plus, I just thought this was such a good, timely post because I know a lot of people who are thinking of getting into photography--the cost of digital cameras has come down, especially at the beginner level, and I think that the economy has people considering ways to make a little extra money. I obviously enjoy my photography business, but it most definitely is not easy, and I thought this post did an awesome job of showing a balanced view of positives and negatives.

No pictures this time, just a little link sharing, but I had an AWESOME weekend and I took a ton of photos! We saw Harry Potter at the Hollywood Boulevard on Friday, which you Indianapolis folk will know as the Chicagoland counterpart of the now (sadly) out-of-business Hollywood Bar and Filmworks, and we did like it, although it was highly condensed and probably would've been hard to follow if we hadn't read the book. On Saturday, we went to Target and had Rock Bottom for lunch, and then headed to the city to hang out with Amy and Daniel--we went bowling (pics of that!) and watched True Blood. And on Sunday, our friend Tony came in and made us breakfast (no pics, unfortunately), and then we took Flashy to the dog park and went to the lakefront (pics of both!). We had some Dairy Queen and later some Mexican food and watched yet more True Blood. Seriously, Sundays in the city are becoming about my favorite thing in the world--if only I'd remembered my swimsuit! So start getting excited--I should have those up in just a couple days! Woo!

Random Chi-Town

You know, I've gotten to take so many fun pictures this year that I actually had forgotten to edit and post these until the other night when Amy reminded me about them. We ran around having a totally boss (my new fave word) time in the city before doing Phil and Mary Ann's totally hot engagement shoot, and can I just say again that it's been sort of nice to have a lazy summer? I'm looking forward to my busy August coming up, but this has been really fun, just doing all kinds of fun stuff and taking pictures. I like it!

I rode the train into the city, which I still really love doing. I guess it's still novel, or maybe I just really like the train. I hate driving, and I like being able to do something else while I travel, like read or play with the internet on my phone (phoneternet, as me and Billy like to call it), or space out. Plus, the craziest crazies I've seen in this city ride the Metra, so that's always a good time. I won't say I never get annoyed (ask me about my annoying train stories sometime, I promise at least one that you'll love), but I even kind of like getting annoyed because it makes such a funny story later. Kind of the story of my life, actually. :)

It always kind of boggles my mind, getting off the train, how many people there are. There are people as far as you can see, which this picture doesn't really do justice, but I liked it anyway. I like the "The Future Is Here" sign, and the kids under it, and the Jonah Hill-lookin' dude, and just kind of the busy-ness of it all (as opposed to "the business", which is not the word I'm going for--creative spelling is my friend).

This was so interesting, and weird. It was hot as a mofo that day, and I feel like you can sometimes more easily identify the genuinely crazy homeless people by how bundled up they are in the summer. Anyway, I just took a quick picture of her and she didn't see me, and I didn't really see her face. But I was so fascinated by what a good painter she was. I just wonder what the story is here ... I have no idea but the possibilities are endless.

We made our way over to Navy Pier and part of the reason was because I wanted to take pictures of the rides. I liked this one. And I really want to go on these someday. And also at Holiday World, which I'm going to in a couple weeks. Yay! I love that place. Anyway, Navy Pier was awesome that day because everyone was down at the Taste of Chicago, so it was super uncrowded and pleasant. Also, I didn't take pictures at the time because I didn't know if I could (I now think you can), but there is also a really huge stained glass museum inside that is VERY cool. And free. I totally recommend it to anyone. It's got a great Tiffany collection and some windows taken from houses in the Chicago area. Super awesome, and props to Amy for introducing me to it.

I love birds. I don't really know why, I just think they're really pretty and at one point, Billy was pointing out how many t-shirts I had with birds on them. You know how t-shirts are, they come and go, so I don't know if I still have that many bird ones, but I'm always on the lookout because the bird shirts, they are awesome. But anyway, I loved this little bird and this little picture--I thought the colors were really pretty and I was down with the composition, and it made me happy. And that's the whole point of pictures!

Hahahaha! This totally cracks me up. This sea gull was ridiculous. It kept walking around squawking and it sounded like a baby crying, and of course it wasn't afraid of people, so it let me take like a zillion shots of it until I finally got one of it facing me with its mouth wide open. So now that I have it, I'm thinking about putting a caption on it (a la http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/ or http://www.failblog.org/, two of my favorite websites) and turning it into an internet meme. So far, my favorite idea is "O no you di'n't", but I am currently accepting other submissions. Ideas, anyone?

This was just a random shot from some bridge, but I liked it. I've got a secret craft project on the way involving my pictures (probably in the fall/winter when I'm more homebound and cabin-fevery), and I think this might lend itself to that. I guess you'll find out later, right?!?!

Now, I really love this picture and I love all the boats. Boats, trains, old cars ... maybe I'm just into transportation as a subject, but anyway, that is SO not the point I was setting out to make. I cleaned this picture all up so you can't see it, but this is the picture that made me realize that my sensor was FILTHY. It had dust and fuzzies and crap all over it. I mean, it's not a HUGE deal and you can still Photoshop it out (which I did, and on Phil and Mary Ann's pictures too), but it's just one more step and more time that you take doing something tedious instead of focusing on the actual photo. So the next weekend, I took it down to Indianapolis and had them clean it at Robert's. You guys, I cannot give this place enough love and I know there are occasionally newbies or hobbyists who read my blog, and so if you don't already know, I recommend them for everything. I've bought most of my equipment from them, gotten stuff cleaned there ($35, EASILY worth it), rented equipment, asked questions, taken a lighting class ... this place is BOMB. And if you're noticing little dots showing up on your pictures in the same place every time, regardless of which lens you're using, you could probably use a sensor cleaning too. It makes a huge difference.

Amy spotted this funny little tug boat called The Commissioner, which we thought was too cute for words. It got a call and left to go pick someone up while we were watching, so we got to watch it go, too. What do you call it when boats go? I always just call it sailing, but that probably only applies to sailboats ... right? You guys, I swear I'm not dumb, but I grew up in a landlocked state, okay? Give a girl a break.

LOCKERS! Can you believe it? I love lockers, and if I could have one right now I totally would. And then I'd shove a nerd into it! (Kidding--everyone knows nerds are my fave, AND that it takes one to know one.) But seriously, lockers remind me of high school, Saved by the Bell, and every awesome John Hughes movie ever made. In fact, given my love for numbers 2 and 3 on that list, it really is a wonder that I never slammed a locker door shut and ran away crying. How awesome would THAT have been?



Okay, up next, Billy's parents visited last weekend and we did some totally fun stuff, which I will keep you in suspense about for now, but I got a couple of really good pictures that I think you'll be excited with me about. People get ready (one love)! (Bob Marley shout out, what!)

The Drive-In ... Take One.

Okay, I'm just going to super disclaimer the heck out of this post because I DO use my blog to show my work to potential clients. This isn't the usual--there's a couple of "weird" pics on here because I was feeling like I needed a creative outlet last night so I busted these out to work on them. If you're a first time blog visitor (hi!) and want to see the hottest hotness on the face of the planet, skip down to the next post and you won't be disappointed, I PROMISE.

End of disclaimer!

Alright, so everyone knows how much I love the drive-in, and so far, the Tibbs Drive-In in Indianapolis is BY FAR the greatest one in the universe. They have four screens, you can watch three movies, they have a great variety, the food is awesome and CHEAP, and we can bring Flash. So I decided when we were in Indy that I would take some pictures when we went. (By the way, we saw Public Enemies and Year One, both of which get a resounding "meh" from me.) But I don't know, I just never really got that into it so I didn't take that many, and the place REALLY cleared out after the second movie, which was when I started taking some, so it just wasn't really doing it for me. Plus, I seriously needed to break out my tripod to get the kind of clear, properly exposed pictures that I was going for. So, next time!

But this time, I still ended up with some I was pretty into, much to my surprise. They're not all "normal" by a long shot, but I liked them anyway and everything doesn't have to be perfect all the time. Life's not like that and neither is photography, and I can embrace it.

These are the poles that you park at (or, if you're Flash, these are the poles that you sniff and pee on). The radios would've been on there years ago, but the audio comes through your car radio for as long as I've been going, and sure, the ripped out wiring may not be the prettiest thing in the world, but I think it adds a certain je ne se quois (or however you spell that).

Interestingly, this ended up being my favorite picture of the bunch. I feel like it really says something about the drive-in, although I don't know what--maybe something about the crowd, or about how long it's been around, maybe it's in the gravel, I don't know, but whatever it is seems appropriate and I could see this on my wall.

I think that the graffiti on the wall is a new thing this year, or at least I don't remember it from last year, but I thought it was nice that it at least said the name of the drive-in in readable letters. The only graffiti that I really can't handle is tagging. Seems like a waste of paint.

I'm not sure what the "Indianapolis will miss you" is all about, since as far as I know, the Tibbs isn't closing. There was nothing on the internet (the be-all, end-all of information), and besides, they just bought a new sign and who would do that if they were that hard up for money? So I'm pretty sure we're safe.

I BELIEVE that this is some light coming through the fence slats on my way out, and I was surprised by how much I liked this. There's not much to it, but I'm always such a "more is more" type of person that minimalism is pretty novel to me. :)

This is a shot of the new sign on the way out, and it was DARK. I lightened it way up in RAW, but it came out with this weird, grainy, sort of otherworldly look and I kind of loved it. And this one probably more than any of the other ones made me more determined to bust out the tripod next time. I love the drive-in and I need more pictures of it.

I don't know what I'm going to take pictures of next! I have some down time before my next wedding, and then things will get a little crazy (in the good way!), but it would be nice to get in some fun stuff before that. I'm sure I'll think of something and keep you posted! :)

Phil & Mary Ann in Chicago!

By far, the hardest thing about blogging is narrowing down the pictures. And when you have Phil and Mary Ann looking like freaking supermodels in every picture, they are certainly not making it any easier. But it's a good problem to have, and even Chicago showed up to grace us with its gorgeousness. Can I get a woo?

Billy had class the day I did this shoot, so I went into town by myself and hung out with Amy all day, taking pictures and wandering around. We seriously walked like a zillion miles, but that is totally irrelevant to this post. I'm just really impressed with myself. Anyway, Amy stayed with me during the shoot as my assistant, and you know? She was amazing at it. She carried my bags, held onto shoes and purses and earrings, kept us hydrated, and made hilarious jokes. And she had the best assistant skill of all--she was totally attentive. Amy, I would hire you again any time, and I think we're an awesome team. :)

Now, on with the hotness, shall we?!?!

Obviously, if you're going to be doing engagement pictures in Chicago and you're meeting at the Bean, you've gotta take pictures with it! There are always tons of people around it, but it relatively cleared out for a few seconds so we could get this shot. And again, I know it's not for everyone, but the red tone was totally my favorite. And I love her shoes.

And since we were already at Millennium Park ... ! I don't have any idea what this little area is called but if you live around here, you probably recognize it. It's where the stage is, and there are always people lounging on the lawn and playing frisbee and soccer and so forth. And you know, when Amy and I were on our marathon walk that day, I kept thinking about how many people there were just lounging around, and how European I felt the whole thing was. I wanted to take a lounging picture and here it is, and thanks to my gorgeous subjects (doesn't THAT sound royal?), it's even better than I had imagined.

From Millennium Park, we hopped in a taxi over to the museum campus(es?) near the Shedd and the Field Museum. This was all Phil and Mary Ann's idea, and it was a great one. We hopped out of the cab and saw this weird little round sculpture that you could get in and had a little fun with that. And you know what? I'm just going to say it. I love these two people's faces. It might sound weird, but I do and I don't care who knows it.

This is SO CUTE. I love it.

This is Phil's supermodel picture. Easy. And don't get me wrong, Mary Ann looks amazing here too, but Phil is like Mr. GQ. Mary Ann claims that he's always striking poses, and all I can say is, keep it up! Their wedding pictures are going to be outrageously gorgeous and I can't even wait.

I loved this so much, because it was such a genuine moment. And Mary Ann has the cutest smile in the world. And also, this was one of my favorite Amy moments, because what they're looking at/laughing at is her getting all girly and crazy in the background. We're just going along, and I'm snapping pictures and Phil and Mary Ann are chatting and looking hot, and all of a sudden, I hear this excited voice in the background going, "TWEAK HIS CHIN AGAIN! THAT WAS SO CUTE!" And it was so funny and for me, surprising. Billy is, obviously, not a girl, and Jessie, who is my go-to alternate assistant is pretty quiet (though hilarious), so having some crazy girl behind me squealing like we were watching The Notebook was hysterical and refreshing and fun. Plus, it was kind of fun for me that Phil and Mary Ann got to experience one of my closest friends in the world and the insanity that she brings.

But, like all good professionals, they got right back into romance mode. I've realized that I really like face touching, and I think it's very romantic and intimate. I've had people slap me on the butt and not given it a second thought, and if that same person had touched my face it would've been completely weird, and so I think it's kind of special. As a sidenote, when Flash gets up on Billy and tries to lick the inside of his mouth, he sometimes puts his paw all tender and lovingly on Billy's face, making it extra funny.

WOW, there was a lot of weirdness in that last paragraph. But life in general and my life in particular is full of weird, so I'm going to let it stand.

A lot of times when I'm doing sessions with people, I'll stop in the middle and take random shots. I've learned to just embrace this and not feel awkward about it, because it just means that the creative juices are flowing and everything is looking extra beautiful, and that means the shoot is going well. Plus, these are things that were also going on at that moment, which I think is cool. This is a shot toward Navy Pier from the museum campus, not long before dark, and I love the boats and bird.

This one, again, was just so sincere. I don't know what they were laughing at by this point because we were all just having such a good time, and I love that. I'll say it again: I cannot wait for their wedding. It is going to be awesome.

Phil and Mary Ann, by now, you both know that I think that you're completely beautiful, and this picture is no exception. But I have to take a moment to say something to someone else.

Dear Chicago Skyline,

Now that I know where to find you, you are mine. I own you. You are magnificent and I will be back for more.

Love, Sarah

Seriously, I was working on these pictures and I kept thinking that they couldn't get any more amazing, and they just did--over and over. Beautiful.

I loved this too. Wow. We were walking over to a little beach near the museums, and this ledge was the perfect height. Also, I think this may be the stop where Amy delcared that "this will be the picture they screen print on a pillow". I might be messing that up a little bit, but not by much. And all I'm saying is, if you think I'M crazy ...

We did make it to the beach, and this was one of the many cute pictures of the happy couple, but get ready, because my favorite one of the entire session is next.

Are you ready?

Okay, deep breath ...

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! There are no words.

Whew! Have we all recovered? Okay then!

It started to rain and it was getting late, but we found a bus really close by and as Amy pointed out (because she is one of my biggest fans), I do sort of LOVE pictures on public transportation! And I really liked this one, including the pole running through the middle of it. And the black and white just really suited the mood.

And let me tell you, I don't think you can see it on their faces here, but we were all SO happy to be sitting down. Phil and Mary Ann were troopers--Mary Ann in her high heels and Phil with a hole in his shoe, and we did do an awful lot of walking. They probably would've gone on as long as my slave-driving ways kept up, but it did eventually get dark and rainy enough that we were forced to call it a night. And it's probably a good thing--I was totally that kid who would read under the covers with a flashlight way past my bedtime, and it carries over into my photography sometimes. :)

BUT ...

We didn't call it before this awesomeness happened!

I love this shot. Billy was watching me process this one and he didn't love the color, but I like it. It WAS really yellow, and cooling it off makes it look less "nighttime", which I wanted. There's a black and white version too, but this one was my fave.

And you know, getting this shot took some doing. The rain was really starting up at that point, and people were scrambling to get under any cover that they could. We were under one of those sidewalk walkway things that they build up during construction projects, right near a corner. So every time the light changed, a flood of people came through, and we'd have to squish up and make ourselves tiny to let them through, and then frantically assume the position again to snap a few frames.

But this was PERFECT. Amy told me when she saw this one in the camera that it was totally worth getting in the way of pedestrians to get it, and that's high praise from her, since she is very high strung and that's the kind of thing that might stress her out. But I am really used to being in the way, and also to being patient with crowds, because it's just one of the hazards of shooting in public, and I think totally worth it--I wouldn't trade it in for a Wal-Mart portrait studio ever. :)

These are two amazing people, beautiful and fun and funny and interesting, and I am SO excited that I got to spend time with them and that there's more to come! Show the comment love, y'all!

My First Taste of Chicago

So I don't make that many personal appearances on my own blog, but are you ready for me to unleash the hotness?

Me and Billy, looking gorgeous before Taste of Chicago. Amy took this picture while we waited on the train, and I think she did a BITCHIN job. She insists that it's because of me bossing her around (which, you know, is kind of my M.O.), but even how she framed the pic is awesome. It's TOTALLY getting printed and going into a frame.

Anyway, this was our first year going to the Taste and we were totally prepared for the worst in terms of crowds and so forth, but it was really great. Word is, the city took a lot of lessons that they learned from the Obama rally and applied them here, and I thought the whole thing was really awesome--very open and even though there were a ton of people, it didn't feel crowded at all.

I made it my personal mission to take a picture of all the food that I ate so that I could blog about it. Bear in mind, I used my point and shoot, which is awesome for detecting faces but gets confused about ... not faces. At least it does on whatever setting I have it on right now. So some of the pictures are pretty fuzzy, but you'll get the general idea. Ready? Let's eat.



The first thing I went for was the cornbread with honey chili butter from Blue Bayou, which is a restaurant that I have eaten at a couple of times, but I've never seen this on the menu. Well, and the last time I was there, I had had two beers, which everyone knows will do me in, and I was yelling at Amy for not just letting me eat at Taco Bell. So I may not have been looking at the menu that closely. But everything we've had there is good, especially Amy's nachos, which I just started eating right off her plate.



These are the sweet potato hashbrowns from a restaurant called, appropriately, Hashbrowns. I was really excited about these, but they ended up being my least favorite food of the day. Which isn't to say they were BAD, I totally ate them, but they just weren't awesome. I was hoping for crispy and they were not, although the onions in there did kind of add something. But ultimately, the texture was just weird and they were cut like spaghetti. I don't know. Not awesome.



OMG, though, these were incredible. INCREDIBLE. What you see here is a taste portion (so littler and cheaper), minus one potsticker that I already ate--GREAT deal, and you know I love a bargain. They were from Star of Siam, and they were chicken potstickers, which I hadn't had before. Seriously, I need to go to this restaurant. They actually tasted like chicken! I hate when chicken is questionable, and it has resulted in me dismissing more than one Asian restaurant. This was perfect, and so spicy. Great texture ... my mouth is watering again thinking about it. It was TOTALLY messy though, and I spilled a bunch of the sauce right down my boob and arm almost immediately. Completely worth it. They had little sinks set up so when I was done, I wet down some paper towels and gave myself a bath in a park. Mission accomplished, delicious food discovered.



WHAT?!?! My food experience really picked up after those hashbrowns. This is a southern fried tilapia fillet from Polo Cafe & Catering. I am in LOVE with fried tilapia, and it's actually kind of difficult to find--everyone seems to just grill it. So when I saw this on the menu, I knew it would be my "big" thing. And it was incredible. The cornmeal batter was so good, and it was so crunchy, not greasy at all, and this is the point where I realized that all the good food is on the south side. You know I'll be heading over to this one next time the fried tilapia craving hits, but thankfully, this satisfied me for a little while at least.



Alright, so just ignore the crisp, clear strangers in the background and focus on the blurry babe closest to you. This was from Garrett Popcorn, and was probably the thing I was most excited about during the entire day. I made sure to save room for it since their stand was at the very end. What is it, you say? It's a POPCORNSICLE. Glorious.

They take their popcorn, make it into a ball on a stick, and dip it in liquid nitrogen before handing it off to you, so it's smoking (like dry ice, not like cigarettes) when you get it. I think it's supposed to be the popcorn and cheese mix (my fave), but the one I got was all carmel corn, I believe. But it was super delicious and so cool--it's kind of hard to describe, but it was just like popcorn, but really cold. The texture wasn't any different though, was the cool part. I'm pretty sure they're selling them in their stores right now too, so I recommend checking it out if only for the experience.

Okay, after the popcornsicle, I was so excited that I forgot to take pictures of the rest of my food, so this one is from http://chicago.timeout.com/. It's a picture of the Original Rainbow Cone, which is also apparently a south side institution. I just got a taste portion of this too, all the flavors in a cup, because I wasn't sure I'd like it. But we'd seen it on Food Network, and since trying food that we see on TV is something that we can kind of uniquely do in Chicago, I went for it. And you know, it was really, really good.

The flavors are layered in a really specific order, which is (top to bottom): orange sherbet, pistachio, palmer, strawberry, and chocolate. As a rule, the only one of these ice cream flavors that I ever eat given the choice is orange sherbet, but they went so well together, and the sherbet tasted great with everything, and the chocolate really anchored it all together. I was super impressed.

And finally, I had like three more tickets to use, so I got some fries from Chicago Joe's. I couldn't find a picture online so I went with one of the sign (from www.yourareacode.com), but do you know what they actually reminded me of? You Ball Staters will appreciate this--they reminded me of the seasoned fries in the dorms, those ones that are really thick and crispy with some seasoning on them? Good lord, I loved those fries. I'm actually considering moving back into the dorms right now, just thinking about them. But yeah, they were like that, really thick and crunchy outside with an inside so squishy it could barely be called a solid. I sort of wish I'd gone with these alongside the tilapia and finished off with the rainbow cone taste, but these were still really great, and this place is really close to Amy if I ever want to recreate the experience. Sweet!

Alright, so bottom line, I really enjoyed this. It was like going to a fair to eat food, only more gourmet and without the pretense of rides and animals and stuff. You are there to EAT, and we did, so mission accomplished. If the crowds are scaring you off, definitely don't let them--I hate huge crowds and wall-to-wall people, and this was totally manageable for me. Not even uncomfortable. And if you read on the internet that people get sick from the food at the taste ... I mean, I'm sure they do, but there's also a huge amount of people that go who don't get sick (me and my entire party included--that's five people, if you're keeping track), but you don't read about that because the internet is for complaining. :) Seriously, it was awesome. I totally want to go back, and at the very least, go visit some of the restaurants I tasted. Success all around!