June 1st was a historical day for our state - it was the first day same-sex couples could obtain civil union licenses from the County Clerk. June 2nd was the first day these civil union ceremonies could be performed. The city of Chicago held a celebration on that Thursday morning, where they hosted 32 civil union ceremonies in Wrigley Square of Millennium Park. Governor Pat Quinn and Mayor Rahm Emanuel attended and spoke at the event, and Cook County Clerk David Orr, the Hon. Timothy C. Evans, Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County, and members of the Alliance of Illinois Judges all officiated the civil union ceremonies.When I was first was asked to shoot the event for The L Stop, I had no idea what to expect. I'll be honest and admit that one of my first thoughts were, 'there are going to be a lot of protesters'. I'm now embarrassed to think that I ever expected anything negative. So much love. So much happy. Although filled with TONS of media and press from every newspaper, radio station and news channel, the event still seemed private (the pitiful 4 or 5 protestors from the Defense of Marriage Act were held far away from the closed off event). Couples were brought to stations 4 at a time and performed their ceremonies surrounded by their closest friends and family... oh yeah, and about 50 cameras trying to capture the history.Alright, so here's the deal. I'm not one to cry at weddings and get all emotional. But these couples have waited SO long to be able to finally be declared spouses legally in the state of Illinois, it was so hard to not get choked up. I overheard so many heartfelt vows in one day, my goosebumps didn't leave until I was on the train heading home. You couldn't help but awh at the oldest participating couple, Patrick and Jim - at 79 and 73 years of age, these two have been together for 47 years. 47 YEARS! They spoke of how they were forced to be closeted when they first got together and it was hard for them to believe they were now living in a time where they can not only publicly declare their love for each other, but also be declared legal spouses by the state.I won't take this opportunity to remind everyone that we still have a long way to come - civil unions are still not marriage - but simply to congratulate the 36 (including the 4 last minute ceremonies) couples that entered into a civil union on that Chicago morning and all the others that have or plan to, across the state.
15 days new baby boy | South Florida Newborn Photographer
Something a little different: Not only did I take a break from my concert shooting, but I took a break from Chicago last week and traveled to Florida... where I fell in love. Meet Noah. Not only is he clearly ADORABLE, but he was the perfect little model at 15 days old. He better get used to seeing my camera lens pointed toward him, because there will be a ton more photo sessions in his future. Around the time of his next 3 month session, his mom and I will be celebrating our 20 year best friend anniversary. You jealous? You should be. I'm so happy that my second family just grew by one - one little 7lb bundle of cuteness. Get ready to AWWWH...
SXSW 2011 | South Florida Music Photographer
If you've been holding your breath waiting for my SXSW coverage, you can breathe now. Or call an ambulance if you've already turned blue. I've decided to give you a few options of coverage, based on the level of interest you have in SXSW... my photography... my opinions... and me. Don't say I never gave you anything. You can either skim through this blog entry and view some quick shots I got from around the city during the festival, you can view a few of my favorite concert shots in my featured 'Best of SXSW' gallery, you can relive all 4 of my days in the full recaps/concert reviews on QRO (that also links you to the full QRO photo gallery of each artist), you can go the "what's in it for me" route and take notes on a few of my suggested SX artists or you can do a combination of any or all of the above. OR I suppose you can just stop reading right now, close this page and go back to whatever you were doing before that you feel is more interesting. Jerkface. Some of my favorite concert photos... Best of SXSW | LOUD CAPTURES Full recaps/reviews on QROMag.com...Day 1 (The Richards, True Mad North)Day 2 (Jessica Lea Mayfield, Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears, Royal Bangs, The Joy Formidable, Blah Blah Blah and more)Day 3 (Stephen Kellogg, Daphne Willis, The Gourds, Asobi Seksu, Cord Carpenter and more)Day 4 (Suite 709, Sundress, Zlam Dunk, PS I Love You)Artists to check out...Asobi Seksu (QRO photos), Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears (QRO photos), Black Lips, Cults (QRO photos from The Empty Bottle 4/7), Daphne Willis (QRO photos, photos from Lincoln Hall 2/11), Ellie Goulding, J Mascis, James Blake, Jessica Lea Mayfield (QRO photos), Kurt Vile, Raphael Saadiq, Sarah Jaffe, Sharon Van Etten, Suite 709 (QRO photos), The Civil Wars, The Dodos, The Head & the Heart, The Joy Formidable (photos from Lincoln Hall on 4/5), Tune-Yards, Typhoon, Wild Flag, Wye Oak Between four QRO correspondents at this year's SXSW, we covered more than 130 bands with a collaborative photo gallery of more than 2300 photos... Check out the full collection here: QRO Magazine - SXSW 201111 months until SXSW 2012. Get ready.Tammi of TEAM AWESOME, signing out...
SXSW 2011: Coming Soon | South Florida Music Photographer
I have this rule that when I'm editing concert photos, I have to be listening to that band's music. It puts me back in the moments I pressed the shutter button and for some reason, I couldn't do it any other way. I experienced so much new music in Austin, but considering I'm only about halfway through my photos, I still have a ton of new music to enjoy - again. If anyone peaked at my recent iTunes purchases, it would be very obvious that I just returned from SXSW.I have so much coverage to eventually post here, so make sure you're all paying attention. I think I completely underestimated the amount of time it was going to take to get it all done. And for the record... its officially been five days since I've returned from Austin and I'm not even close to being fully recovered. Should I be embarrassed by that? Probably, but I'm too tired to care. For now, I will leave you with this...6th street, 3/18/11, 8:39pm.
SXSW: 2010 | South Florida Music Photographer
One month from today, I will be in Austin completely engulfed in music and enjoying everything SXSW has to offer. Okay, okay... reality is I'll be enjoying about 5% of what SXSW has to offer which will still fill up my days. I can scroll through the thousands of acts scheduled to play that weekend and make notes on which I'd like to check out - but there is no way to plan for a festival this huge. What I look forward to the most is accidentally stumbling into the shows of my future favorite bands. I'm so ready for this!! To get me even more pumped I revisited some of my SXSW 2010 photos... I thought I'd share just a few, starting off with a shot of Or, The Whale, who was easily one of my favorite shows of the weekend.
Snowmagoodness!
So maybe you're sick of hearing about the Chicago 2011 Blizzard - I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sick of it all myself. But here's the thing... I was born and raised in Florida. I've only been in Chicago for 4 years, meaning this is my fourth winter. Ever. Because you know what, Floridians?! Those rare "chilly" 60 degree nights in Ft. Lauderdale that force you to maybe wear pants and not shorts for the first time all year... not Winter. This is Winter. This is more than Winter. This is some crazy Winter on steroids.After the storm finally subsided Wednesday afternoon, I shuffled through 27" of snow down the middle of my neighborhood street taking in my surroundings. Here's a couple of quick shots taken around my building...