Archive for November, 2007

[11.26.07] Monday Night Recap - November 26, 2007 -

• [Macbook Pro] So I ordered a refurbished Macbook Pro in celebration of Black Friday (needed an excuse), and was expecting it to come by Thursday. I checked the tracking this morning at work and saw that at 5:27am, it was in transit. 14 hours later…it is still in transit. I mean, seriously!?!?! Don’t toy with me like that. Here’s to hoping for tomorrow.
• [BEARS] Devin Hester, you are ridiculous. Shanahan is very foolish for kicking to him, and I feel a bit sorry for Sauerbrun…both times he ended up kissing Hester’s ankles and watching him dance into the endzone.
• [ROSE BOWL] There seems to be an option for the Illini to make it into the rose bowl!!! I’m literally in awe, right now. God bless the BCS!
• [TheShot] I’ve been a bit hooked on this show called The Shot, on VH1…which is basically “America’s Next Top Model” for photographers. It’s focus is fashion photography, and I haven’t seen anything amazing yet, but it’s still entertaining to watch. There’s one guy who comes from a background in wedding photography…I’m rooting for him.
• [FANTASY] I used to do do fantasy sport for baseball, basketball and football, but now I’m just doing football (and rather poorly). However, Jay Cutler and Tony Scheffler pulled down 34 points for me, so it was an all around great bears game.
• [Science&Faith] Here’s an interesting article in the NY Times regarding how the basic foundations of scientific ‘proof’ are based on faith in an unknown. Caught my attention…

natemathai | filed under: [MNR], announcement

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Happy Holidays [Photo Dump] - November 25, 2007 -

Although we all live many miles apart and are moving on with different life directions (some still in med school, others working, another overseas), my group of college friends still try to get together at least on the holidays, and Thanksgiving was no different. This past Monday we had a potluck dinner and brought everyone together again…we even Skyped my roommate who was in London so he can enjoy part of the festivities with us. As always, our gatherings contained great food, deep conversations, and moments of games/entertainment. No matter how old we get, we keep each other young. Sort of…

Shawn was able to join us from half-way around the world- technology is great, it was like he was actually there…(we later connected him to the TV and made him more life size)

Amazing food, as usual…

A common site at our gatherings- where are the guys in this conversation?

And fun times consisted of Guitar Hero followed by a rousing game of ImagineIFF…

For Thanksgiving, I went to church (as usual) for a Thanksgiving day service, and followed with a Thanksgiving Lunch at my sister’s in-laws place. My family hasn’t completely gotten comfortable with the camera, So I only grabbed shots of the food before relaxing.
Then in the evening, I went to my girlfriend’s place to hangout with her family in the evening. As a whole, they’ve never experienced my camera and I, so I made sure not to pull it out just yet (…got to make sure they have NO reason to dislike me ). It was entertaining time, where we just talked and played the FRIENDS trivia game (…really not that exciting of a game, in my opinion).

The meatball appetizer was pretty much all Alexis wanted for Thanksgiving…

It looks so healthy…if only I cared about stuff like that…

Then comes Black Friday…where I joined up with some friends to go to Best Buy at 5am and see what I could get. I really had no big “need”, so some might say it wasn’t worth it. However, my shopping consisted of Best Buy, TigerDirect (they opened a store in Schaumburg!), and a wandering through Woodfield Mall. In total, I just got a couple CF cards (capturing the memories), a 500GB Backup drive (archiving the memories), and I ordered a MacBook Pro online (’perfecting’ the memories). Probably not worth a 4am wake up, but was fun nonetheless. (no pictures, sorry).

You know what it means when Thanksgiving is over? Time to put up the Christmas lights. After putting them up around my house with my dad, I went over to my church to find that they had finished decorating already- and I must say they did quite a good job with it. Here’s a very poor attempt at me hand-holding 1/4th-second exposure, but you get the gist of it…

A 4 day weekend was nice, but now I need to get ready to scrape the snow off the windshield and finish the corporate work year strong. Happy Holidays!

natemathai | filed under: family, friends, personal

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Jane & Alan’s Engagement - November 25, 2007 -

[The Cotillion Banquets - Palatine, IL]

It was so great to be able to shoot Alan and Jane’s Engagement ceremony, especially after shooting their e-session a few weeks back. I must say, these were two very happy people- you wouldn’t find a single moment where they weren’t smiling! It was an entertaining (but tiring) job, and I loved it. They also had an ‘after-party’ in the evening, but they specifically requested that I put down the camera and join the fun as a friend…so sorry for not capturing those fun times!
side note: One thing I’ve noticed about my friends is that they fall into two categories: they love the camera and constantly ask to get pictures taken of them, or they do whatever they can to avoid the camera (majority). I can’t wait until they all get comfortable enough to not mind it, but also will be allow me to capture the ‘natural’ moments at least once in awhile.

Alright, well here’s some from the engagement. Congrats guys, and good luck prepping for the wedding!

natemathai | filed under: engagement, friends

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I’m Thankful… - November 23, 2007 -

I’ve got to wake up in about 3 hours for the black friday (although I think it should be called ‘Red Friday” because I definitely will be in the red after this), but I wanted to throw out a quick list of what I’m thankful for (…and like everyone else- in no particular order).

- My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I mean, seriously…without Him, the rest of this is just pointless. To God be all the glory.

- A loving family who will always be there for me.

- An amazing girlfriend (who is letting me indulge in photography, even though she doesn’t fully understand the extent of my madness).

- My soon-to-be extended family, for being a family before it’s official.

- A church that has challenged and pushed me to seek change and desire more for myself, my generation, and my community.

- 3 friends who are willing to encourage my spending by traveling with me beginning at 5am tomorrow.

- My recent clients (and current inquiries), for respecting my work enough to give me the honor of capturing the precious moments in their lives.

I’m definitely too tired to go any more in depth, but this is just scratching the surface. I’m desiring for everyday to be more a day of thanks- in constant remembrance and reflection on what I have, and who I have to thank. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

natemathai | filed under: personal

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Baby Vivek - November 21, 2007 -

[This post is a bit out of order (in light of how the events were shot), but this was on a rush order so I got the images taken care of. The engagement pictures will definitely be up by the weekend...don't worry guys!]

It’s crazy that I still have cousins coming into this world. Baby Vivek is the second child to my dad’s cousin, and my goodness is he cute! Vivek was born on Friday, October 16th, and came home on Sunday, and they were more than ready to start capturing the moments. The joys of having a photographer in the family, I guess! It’s funny how, although babies don’t do much at 2 days of age, whatever they actually do is that much more exciting- be it opening the eyes, yawning, half-smiling…if only we could be joyful about these small things with everyone we interact with. Could you imagine?

Like I stated before, I love taking pics of children; they are just so natural and oblivious to the camera (I know he had his eyes closed 95% of the time, but still…). This is getting me even more excited for me nephew/niece on the way in April! You guys might start getting sick of the baby pictures then (let me know and I’ll try tone it down ). Enjoy!

natemathai | filed under: family, portrait

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