Lots of grey in the sky, but some light peeking through here and there. And as I walk to work, in some places, it’s pretty striking how little color there is in the buildings, too. All said, a great time to work on seeing and processing in black and white.

Click to View Larger on Flickr

Multi-RAW processed in Lightroom, composited in Photoshop. B/W conversion with multiple masked layers in Photoshop.

Multi-RAW processed in Lightroom and composited, curved and converted to B/w in Photoshop.

Click to see image on Flickr

And one more on the way:

Click the photos to view larger on Flickr…

Amaryllae? Amarayllisss? Flowers. Enjoy.

I mean because the photographer walks a really fine line between thoroughly covering this major milestone event, and becoming its focus by using supernova-inspired flash throughout the ceremony, jamming an enormous lens in the couple’s faces while they exchange rings, blocking everyone else’s view as the couple goes in for the kiss, and just generally being a nuisance in pursuit of the really special shots you hope the couple will treasure in the decades to come.

Besides exercising some judgment and tact, I believe avoiding this pitfall comes down to creating a certain level of trust with the couple – after all, a trusted friend lumbering around with all of this big, noisy, flashing camera gear is far less distracting than a stranger doing so. If they know what to expect – what you will and won’t be doing during the event – they’ll be far less likely to be distracted while you’re doing it.

In this case, though, the whole wedding was planned very quickly, and I wasn’t hired until about a week in advance. I only had the chance to speak with the couple once, and did not meet them until a couple of hours before the ceremony.

The saving grace was that the attendees turned out to be some of the nicest, warmest, most flexible and inviting people I’d ever encountered.  By the end of the reception, I felt like a part of the family.  So Drew and Rebecca, thank you for making me a part of your special day.

A few pictures from the day:

And of course, I couldn’t leave without documenting this!

This past weekend, had a coffee at the Bleeding Heart Bakery in Oak Park, IL, and this caught my eye:

If you ever get near River North on a weekday morning, go to the Doughnut Vault at 8:30 a.m. sharp – corner of Franklin and Kinzie.  I didn’t take any pictures of the doughnuts because my first response after getting them out of the bag made them considerably less photogenic.  Sorry, maybe next time.

And another from my wanderings, from an alley in the loop.

1/125 @ f/13, 85mm. Cropped square, fixed exposure a bit, and sharpened in Lightroom (click image to see on Flickr).

Scrappy