UPDATE: Ask and you shall receive! Sheila and Ben’s personalized website is now live! Enjoy the slideshow, and be sure and click the “Purchase Images” link to register to see all of the photos when they go online. You’ll also be notified as soon as the album design and Signature Print are available – in just a few days!

Another wedding weekend has come, and gone. Sheila and Ben’s lives will never be the same. And yet here I sit doing something I’ve done a hundred times before, and even my life will never be quite the same. Once again, I’m reminded of why I do what I do as I sort through the thousands of images we created on Friday and Saturday.

I have to admit, I was a little nervous by the time Saturday rolled around – I’ve been feeling quite under the weather for several days now, and of course I place high expectations upon myself and my team when it comes to working an event. Could I meet everyone’s expectations?

Well, I should never have worried. From the moment Tara and I arrived at the Omni on Friday evening, we were instantly part of the family, the Millers and Wolffs looked after our every need. A heart felt “thank you”, to the families as well as Amber from the Omni. A big thank you to Mike for your significant contribution to the day’s work, your images of Ben and the groomsmen are outstanding. Oh, I’m sure I’ll feature some of your ceremony and dancing images in the album, too! And finally thank you to my wife Tara – your lighting/key grip skills are second to none!

So let’s take a look at some favorites… some by special request! Can you guess which were Ben’s idea? Thanks for being so patient with us, Sheila!

Be sure and check back no later than Thursday, I’ll have a link to Sheila and Ben’s personal site featuring a slide show, the Signature Edition Print, and finally their album design. Don’t miss it!

RetroPunk is a local DJ who works in Chicago quite a bit. RetroPunk (or Jed as I know him) and I go back all the way to elementary school. Working with him was a bit of a trip down memory lane. Maybe it was this nostalgia that made us think that we were tough enough to handle shooting outside on one of the coldest nights of the year. Despite our poor timing the images we got were exactly the gritty, urban, and street style I was going for. After the cold we came into the studio to warm up. Jed was patient and open to letting me set up the moody, high contrast lighting that I love, but don’t get to use often as it does not work well for most standard portrait work.

-Michael Dick

Working with Dave was so much fun! I felt so comfortable from the first time we met and that made our engagement pictures and wedding day much more enjoyable. He is very personable and kept everything rolling on the big day. Our wedding album he designed is amazing and our family and friends loved it. It is something that is so special to us and we will always have setting in our home for everyone to see.

Danielle and Michael brought so much creativity with them. They had so many wonderful ideas for the shoot that all I had to do was make them work in photos. From diner, to snow, to Starbucks.

They actually met for the first time at a Starbucks and wanted to capture some of that in the shoot. Unfortunately Starbucks has a strict no photography policy. Lucky for us, I saw a shot in my head using a sign outside as we were walking up. With the help of some studio lights and some understanding pedestrians, we made it work. Hope you enjoy viewing them half as much as we enjoyed creating them.

-Michael Dick