One of the most fascinating things about being a Chicago photographer is to have opportunities to be part of events that I would have never been part of. Being part of those events also gives me opportunities to discover other cultures from inside and not just from washed-out popular news.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure to photograph an event organized by Egyptians Abroad for Development (EAD). The reason for this event was Wael Ghonim. Wael was one of the key figures in starting the Egyptian Revolution last year and this EAD event was celebrating the 1st anniversary of that revolution. I followed the events in Egypt through American and European news sources but being able to attend and photograph an Egyptian event was definitely a great way to gain inside perspective on the situation in Egypt. Wael just released a new book about the Egyptian revolution called Revolution 2.0 available on amazon.com I did some research about Wael before photographing the event and I found out that he is Google’s marketing executive for Asia and Africa and was named by the Time’s magazine Top 100 most influential people in the world.

So… being a Chicago wedding photographer sometimes leads me to some really interesting experiences. I have to thank my friend Mary Botros from M.B. Classics Event Designing Company who is a great Chicago Wedding Planner and Designer, works with EAD, and asked me to photograph the EAD event with Wael Ghonim. I photographed this event with my good friend Paul Weltlich

Below are some photos from the event.

Even though my main specialty is Chicago Wedding Photography from time to time I am commissioned to photograph social or corporate events. Last weekend I had a pleasure to photograph a Chicago Microsoft Executive Exchange event and the Wit Hotel. Those events organized by Microsoft take place in 11 major metro areas  in the US. Last weekend it was time for Chicago. My friends at Starshot are the marketing company that organize those events for Microsoft and they asked me to photograph the event in Chicago. For each of the these events top CEOS, CIOs, COOs, and CTOs in each city are invited. It’s a great way to network for those top executives plus Microsoft invites some of the top business speakers.

Below are are some of the detail photos from that event. Because of copyrights I cannot post any photographs of the participants but I hope you will enjoy some of setting photos. Especially since the Wit hotel downtown Chicago is such a fantastic hotel in even greater location. If you ever look for a great place for drinks in Chicago downtown with amazing views of Chicago and both lounge and outdoor feel, the Wit’s The Roof is the place to go. I can’t wait to photograph a wedding there later this year.

Many of my clients ask me what exactly is a detail retouch. So I thought I would post few photos to show before and after a high-end detail retouch of few photos from a studio session I did last year. Detail retouch is a totally manual job to get the absolutely best results. There is no bullet proof method to automate the process as every photo is slightly different plus it really depends on the vision of the photographer and/or retoucher. By no means I consider myself a top notch retoucher but I spent a lot of time, effort, training, one-on-one sessions with top retouchers to move my retouching skills forward. Because retouching can be so time consuming there is absolutely no way to do it for all photos for example for weddings. However, those photos that end up as big prints or key photos in an album go through a simpler or more intense version of detail retouching.

The photos below are from a weekend session of high-end retouching with Solstice Retouch. Solstice is one of the best retouchers in the US hands-down and it was an honor to learn from him!

Below are some of my favorite photos from Magda and Andrew weddings. Magda and Andrew met in Urbana-Champaign at the University of Illinois. Even though Magda has been studying super hard to pass all the exams to become an architect she and Andrew were able to plan such a beautiful wedding. Magda being so creative she designed and printed her own wedding invitations! See them below! They were really nice! The ceremony was in the beautiful church of Saint Paul of the Cross in Park Ridge where I will also be photographing a wedding of Kathy & Ned later this year. Then the wedding reception was at Belvedere Events and Banquets. Besides all the fun at the reception, one of the unique parts were two friends of Magda who are both top rated professional dancers surprised Magda & Andrew with an amazing Tango Dance. The dance was amazing even though they normally don’t dance together, they actually live in two different countries. But couple of weeks of practice before the wedding is all that’s needed for such top notch professionals.

A funny story about the mannequin for the wedding dress you see below. After the wedding I asked Magda whether she would be willing to sell it to me:) She was nice to do it so now I have a nice chest mannequin in case any other bride would find it useful. Sometimes those small things make the whole day experience so much nicer.

Well, I hope you enjoy the photos below! As always feel free to share it or leave comments:)

Being a Chicago Wedding Photographer is so a great opportunity to meet so many wonderful people! Lakisha and Alexander are definitely one of them:) Alex and Kisha met in Florida where both studied at the Florida A&M University. I think they made such a strong impression on each other because they both remember really well in which class they met for the first time and even who the professor was. It was an economics class and the professor was Dr Wilson. Actually, I forgot to ask Kisha and Alex whether Dr Wilson was invited to the wedding:) Well, after meeting at the economics class Kisha and Alex played some flirting games (slightly different ones if you ask them individually lol). They fast realized they are made for each other. I think Alex and Kisha are a great example when together they get the best out of the other person. Alex is Kisha’s encourager, sous-chef, comedian, spiritual mate, but most importantly her love. Alex calls Kisha his support system and of course his biggest lobe.

When we met the first time we decided to meet at Starbucks in Logan Square in Chicago. Note to all other wedding photographers… Starbucks is not a good place to meet:) Because when we met of course Starbucks was full and we had to wait quite a while to get a table. Lately, I meet all my clients either at mine or their place. It’s so much more comfortable. Well, going back to the story of Alex and Kisha. I think Lakisha loved my work from the beginning but Alex made up his mind when he saw that I show my portfolio of work on my iPad:)

We scheduled the engagement session in January. Yeah I know, it’s not the best time of the year but we got pretty lucky. It was indeed cold but if you take a look at their Chicago downtown engagement session photos you would never guess that. I have also created for them a custom wedding website with all the information about their wedding, accommodations, wedding party, etc. You can see their custom wedding photography site here.

Lakisha’s and Alex’s wedding was at the First Unitarian Church of Chicago in Hyde Park right on the University of Chicago campus. If you haven’t visited that Chicago neighborhood yet then I absolutely recommend it. One of the prettiest parts of Chicago. No wonder why our President, Mr Obama used to live there:) Then the wedding reception was at the University of Chicago’s Reynolds Club. Beautiful place though very challenging for a photographer because of the dark wood finish (much harder to bounce flashes off the walls and ceilings).

You will notice in the photos below that Alex was member of Alpha Phi Alpha. It’s a fraternity that develops leaders, promotes brotherhood and academic excellence, while providing service and advocacy for communities. So during the wedding reception there quite a bit of Alpha Phi Alpha tradition celebration! From singing, to special dances, to groom cake… It was so much fun to see the boys doing it!

Lastly, I hope you will enjoy the photos below. This wedding of Alex and Lakisha I photographed with two of my friends photographers Anthony from Third Party Photography and Dan Daman. Of course comments, thoughts, critique are always welcome.

One of nice ideas for Save-The-Date cards for weddings is to print them on fridge magnets. Those cards still reproduce color super nicely, come in a variety of shapes and sizes, but most importantly wedding guests can put them on the fridge to remember about the upcoming wedding.

In the Save-The-Date cards that I create for my clients I also include their website address. This is a custom website that I create where we can include information about the couple (how they met, what they like, etc), the wedding party, wedding ceremony and reception, accommodation, etc

Below are couple of photos of save-the-date magnets that I will be delivering to Kathy & Ned in couple of hours. The first photo of the box with the bow was taken with my new camera: Fuji X100. It’s a legendary camera with a very retro look but with an amazing lens and performing super well in low light conditions.

I just wanted to share some exciting news that I got few weeks ago that some of my photos got published in the WeddingWire blog. Those photos were taken in Vivo restaurant in Chicago. Vivo is one of my favorite place for Italian food. They also have “above vault” table that has been voted one of the most romantic places for dinner in Chicago. So if you thought of a nice place for a date dinner this is definitely the place:)

Here is the link to the Wedding Wire post: http://blog.weddingwire.com/index.php/weddings/winter-inspired-style-shoot/

today is the last day of my week-long Christmas trip to Warsaw. I grew up here in Warsaw so you can imagine I have tons of amazing memories from my home town especially since my high school and first university years were some of the best years in my life. We didn’t have much time back then but maybe because of that we had more time to build our friendships, read some interesting books, watch and discuss the same movies, party and of course fall in love:)

I don’t have any family in the US so going back to the “old continent” for Christmas is the only way to do it for me. Since my sister and her family live in Paris, my other sister live in Warsaw and my parents used to live in Belgium and now in Warsaw, the last few Christmas holidays we spent either in Paris, Brusseles, or Warsaw. I love my family  and being so far from them is the hardest part of living in the US. If my family was closer I think life would be perfect.

So today being the last day here in Warsaw I am torn. I miss home and my girlfriend back in Chicago but at the same time I am sad this is the last day of spending time with my amazing parents, my sister and her husband and my cutest niece. I will try to come to Warsaw again in May but that’s still not often enough to see my family. As I get older I realize more and more that every minute spent with my parents is so precious. So this is my dilemma of tonight:)

I spent the last couple of weeks watching a 3-day wedding posing workshop with Bambi Cantrell. I purchased the workshop through CreativeLive. CreativeLive is an amazing concept created by Chase Jarvis where workshops with famous photographers are broadcasted and recorded. Watching the workshop live is free! Since I couldn’t spend the whole three days watching it live, I bought downloaded recorded videos

Bambi is a world famous, received some of the most prestigious awards, and above all she just explodes with energy. She definitely is a master of posing people whether it’s a photo of one person or group. Watching this workshop was very educational and I learned some new techniques and ways to pose people so they look their best while at the same time the photos show emotions and feelings. After all, even the best pose with amazing lights will produce just technically good photo but without emotions it will be just that.

Despite Bambi amazing talent and knowledge I can’t say the same about her personality. I know that’s just the way it is but for me it is way over the board and just doesn’t seem sincere. Bambi uses the same phrases such as “this is the most fake laugh I have ever heard”, “you could do this professionally” or “oh my god you are doing amazing” way too many times to the point of them not meaning anything. It’s like telling the person you love “I love you” every 5 minutes, as a way to say hello and goodbye. ok, I know, this may be a slight stretch as a comparison but I hope you know what I mean.

But it was definitely worth watching that seminar and I would recommend it to others. I’m pretty sure many people will love Bambi’ energy and personality. It just didn’t sit right with me. Today and I started to watch the next workshop with Jasmine Star. She is extremely famous but pretty controversial at the same. I started to watch her workshop with a bit skepticism but so far I love her! I will post another blog once I finish watching it.

please RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/152189998222490/ I hope to see so many of you!