RENEE & ADAM | KICKAPOO CREEK WINERY WEDDING

Yea I’m like 7 months late on this one, but much like the wine served at the reception, it gets better with time! So the hardest part about shooting a wedding at a vineyard is not being able to drink that wine the whole time! But I stuck with water and kept the pictures in focus, so here we are. Renee and Adam had such a beautiful day for an outdoor wedding! I’ve known Renee since my college days, so by all logic she should have thought “that scruffy enginerd with the long hair is gonna shoot my wedding?!” but after I took this billboard-worthy photo of her in 2008, I think she was convinced. We started things off with a first look amongst the vines before hopping aboard the grape train! From there, it was a glorious combination of hills, rivers, and corn fields before heading back for the ceremony. It makes me so happy to see my friends so happy, so I’m truly honored that I could be part of this wedding. Thanks to my badass second shooter, Gena Appleby, for rocking it with me all day! Seriously, go check out her portrait work…it’s fantastic! Enjoy!   Second Shooter and all-around good person: Gena Appleby

Florist- Georgette’s

Hair- Bonnie and Vicki at Evolutions in Peoria, IL

Makeup – Nicole at Skin Dimensions

Venue and Catering – Kickapoo Creek Winery

Bride’s Dress – Maggie Sottero

Bridesmaid Dresses – Mori Lee

Dude’s stuff: Men’s Warehouse

DJ and Best Hair Award – Ryan from Diamond Dan

Centerpieces – Liz Wilson via Treasured Memories and Sweets.

UNITED: FILM EDITION

I was the guy at UNITED juggling 2 or 3 cameras during all the shoots, and one of them was my beloved Contax 645 medium format film camera. Here are a handful of my favorite shots from the week! Several of these are similar or the same as digital pics I posted in my previous blog about UNITED 2014. I wanted to see the difference directly, and I welcome you to check out both posts and see if you appreciate one over the other.

Oh and the coolest part is these shots are essentially unedited. Huge thanks to Indie Film Lab for developing/scanning and, of course, film itself for being badass.

 

Credits:

The first shoot I participated in was Mikey and Stephanie Smith’s sunrise bridal/trash-the-dress session. We had 3 amazing models: Kristen Wiersma, Heidi Watson, and Fernanda Maile Santini. They toughed it out on a not-terribly-warm morning and even got in the water! Hair was done by Taylor DeZavala and makeup by Marla Nyamdorj.

The next shoot was Carrie Swail’s “Offbeat Bride and Groom.” Thanks to the models who are all photographers: Jamie Ivins, Julie Wilmes, Seth and Lauren Pinson, and Mycah and Bobby Burns.

I got a couple fun shots of Rebecca Read and Jill Tiongco one morning. As Jill put it, “It looks like we’re both talking into ear pieces” haha!

Stephanie Arieno and Carrie Swails styled the paper cranes shoot, and photographers Jamie Hudson and Ling Harris stepped up and let a bunch of people put cameras in their faces all morning. The paper bouquet was done by Paper Posies, and Ling’s dress was her own made by Sue Wong.

Finally, a fun shot of Janelle Addis when there was far too little light to keep it in focus!

For the photogs: Contax 645 with 80mm f2.0, mix of Fuji 400h and Kodak Porta 400 film