Janet our super talented web designing friend from St. Louis came up this weekend to see Kooza with us. It was a great show and a wonderful weekend. What can be better than great friends and amazing displays of acrobatic prowess?

Kristy and Mike had some rain on their wedding day. Well, let me rephrase that, they had a brief torrential downpour of monsoon proportions. In my quest to be witty in this entry I researched having it rain on your wedding day and really only found out that in most cultures it's actually considered good luck. My favorite was the Hindu one that brings up the point that tying a wet knot is stronger than a dry one. I also discovered that the line in Alanis Morisette's "Ironic" is actually a very poor example of irony in it's true definition. In the end the rain not only marked the ceremony with a demonstration of it's power, but it also gave us all a sense that something new and special had just begun.

- Josh


Kristy's dress was very simple and elegant. One of my favorite "dress on it's own" shots.
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The internet is a funny thing in that what seemed like such a strange and unconventional way of meeting people just a few years ago seems so common place to me today. I met Laura when she added my other personal blog to her "friendslist" over a year ago on the suggestion of her friend Elaina (who was already a friend on my blog) who knew Laura was looking for a photographer for her wedding. As it turned out Dan also had a livejournal, so this was really a blogger's wedding to say the least. Nerd fest? Well maybe... but doesn't everyone have a blog these days? The event was held at Mrs. Murphy & Sons Irish Bistro which has a pretty cool upstairs that's specifically for events (and amazing food by the way...). And despite crosstown classic traffic everything went smoothly and a blast as had by all!

- Josh


The concensus is: we love Laura's veil!
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Melissa and I went down to Wilmington, NC over this Memorial Day weekend to meet her new nephew Hayden. This is a shot of Eric (Melissa's brother), his girlfriend Emily, and their son Hayden. Somehow we went from being in shorts on the beach to sub 50 degree weather in Chicago. If it was spring in Chicago I somehow missed it.

- Josh

Congratulations to Sara and Gustav who got clear skies at just the right time for their first married kiss. What fantastic down to earth and super relaxed people to work with! Melissa and I will post more of their day soon.

Melissa and I have been really busy! Working, advertising, getting our new place in order. It's a little exhausting, but we're managing and still excited about things to come. We had visited St. Louis not too long ago to spend a day with our good friend Janet (who incidentally should be thanked again for her work on our metadata). I had always wanted to go there and get a shot of the Arch at night... and here it is:

Mike and Kristy a great couple getting married in June wrote a nice blurb about me in their wedding blog. I did their engagement portraits mid November in and near the Field Museum, hence the "sue" password after the big T-Rex skeleton. So I figured it would be fitting to blog about their blog!


This was my favorite shot from the engagements.

- Josh

Melissa and I have been in Chicago for a year now and have so far lived in Oak Park, which is just west of the city. As nice a community as it is, we've sort of felt like we've just been visiting this whole year while all the action was going on in the city. Well all of that's about to change tomorrow when we move to the west loop (western edge of downtown). And in strict accordance with our established streak of luck, out of the blue they are expecting up to 8 inches of snow! Great! Luckily Chicago doesn't seem to slow down much for any sort of weather. But in between the time we really should have been packing I somehow managed to have a few pleasant distractions.


On a train in the early morning I spotted a post it note reminding the world what we should be working towards.


Our good friend Archie introduced us to Gustav and Sara who are getting married in May. They were so easy to talk to that we all forgot to even talk about weddings until after dinner. We are super excited to cover their day!


The St. Patrick's Day Parade in Chicago is a big deal. And the parade itself is always preceded by the "greening of the river." Now the Chicago river is always green anyhow, but in order to make it the bright emerald green they use some sort of orange vegetable dye concoction. I guess originally the dye was oil based and used to detect leaks. Apparently when they decided to use the dye in celebration of St. Patrick's day for the first time they used 100 pounds of dye and the river stayed that bright green for over a week. There has been some trial and error over the years, and some environmental concerns (which caused them to switch to the vegetable dye), but now it dissipates within a few hours. After which of course there is a mad scramble to get over to the parade route for a spot.


And boy do they ever parade... the amount of participants in the parade is staggering! Eventually we had to call it quits and go get something to eat and I'm fairly certain we had only seen one half of the thing.


And finally I thought I'd make mention of my friend Melanie, who I had a little photo session with in the middle of last week. I'm still getting the hang of the new D3, but I am thrilled with the results it's producing!

- Josh

Welcome to our blog? Blog is a strange word, short for "web log" it's one of many words that I don't think really ever needed to be shortened. One of my favorite examples of words not needing shortening is "photog," a word that really makes me cringe. Let's just say photographer please! Still it's exciting to be writing the first "blog" entry for our new website. Kiko did a fantastic job designing the site in such a short period of time, and his efforts are much appreciated. Also I should make mention of Pete who recorded a fantastic song for me (which if you knew how infrequently Pete records is an amazing bonus) for the gallery slideshow. Both Melissa and I are proud and excited for the outcome, so thanks guys!

Lots of stuff going on for Melissa and I this month. We've got a big move into the city which I'm partly looking forward to... I actually hate the upheaval of moving so it's hard for me to get excited until we're completely in and all set up. Luckily this time around we are hiring movers and not attempting to do it all ourselves. Perhaps on the move day it won't be completely frigid weather wise like it was when we got here last year. But one doesn't move to Chicago for the weather. It's either an ice cube or a swamp. One moves to Chicago because the city is very much alive. Case in point, check out the glow of the city from high atop the Hancock building last Saturday night: