Joe & Golpar

An unlikely meeting.......

I get a call out of the blue from a Facebook friend I have never met who proceeds to tell me that she's always admired my work and the different cultures I photograph. Ok, and that she has a friend who's getting married in Chicago who is Persian and that she recommended to the bride that we visit about me photographing her wedding.

So now I have a phone number and it's time to make that awkward phone call because I'm not even sure what just happened.  Well I call Golpar, the bride, she doesn't really know me but tells me a bit about her wedding and says that she and her fiancée will look at my website and get back with me.

Being 100% honest here, I was thrilled about the possibility of shooting a Iranian/Filipino wedding but I'm thinking, I either won't hear back or this one will be a "no".  To my surprise, after a couple days, I receive a phone call from Golpar and she was thrilled.  She even went on to say how much she loved my work and that she couldn't get her husband off my website.  Very cool stuff here.  So off went the contract.......

Fast forward to wedding day and I'll be honest, I cried like a baby during the reception but I had to maintain some type of composure because I was still working and needed to capture all the emotions of the day.  The love between these two, their families and guests was of a type that I have NEVER experienced before.  We laughed, we cried, we remembered and we repeated it all throughout the ceremony.

In my professional career, I have absolutely loved all the couples I've photographed and some I'm still in contact with over social media, etc.  This couple and their wedding day will go down as one of my "all-time" favorites and I will never be the same.  It was awesome re-experiencing their day as I put this show together for them.

Cheers Joe & Golpar.......

David

Da Bean & Da Broad

Last time I did some great landscape shooting in Chicago I was with my best friend Willis Lonzer and we shot some very cool bridges in the City.  Well I wasn't as diligent then as I am now and I lost most of the shots from that shoot but you can see two of them in the "Travel" section of my website under Chicago.  This time I decided to learn from that experience, title the folder where the shots are located MUCH better than before and backup my shots.

My girlfriend and I were up before the "crack-of-dawn" and were headed to "Da Bean" to get some unabstructed shots before things got busy.  She was a real trooper and convinced me to take the bus versus the 2.5 mile walk in the morning.  Glad she did because the lighting was perfect by the time I got setup and any later would have made for some harsh lighting on "Da Bean"......  

On our way back, we needed to stop by Walgreen's to hydrate and that's when we ran into "Da Broad".  I didn't want to just take the standard shot with Marilyn looking right back at me so I made my way around this beautiful blonde "Da Broad" and I set my camera to give off a star pattern on the building and framed the shot so I looked as though "Da Broad" was looking up to "Da Stars".  I call this shot "The Starts are OUT!!!!!!!".......  See if you can pick up on where I'm going with this.

More blogging ahead as I get back in the "groove" again. Been a long time since I've had a steady presence out here.  Thanks for those encouraging me (Leann and Crystal) to get back out here again.  Everything in its season and thank God mine has arrived again.......

David