NCAA Tournament Pool Update
- March 20, 2010 - posted by chicago wedding photographer nate mathai

categories: Personal
tags: canvas wraps, chicago wedding photographers, gallery wraps, march madness, NCAA, signature prints, tournament pool, travel photographer

interested in booking? Head over to the the contact page or shoot me an email to info@natemathai.com

We’ve just finished up the first round of the tournament, and already a few brackets have been busted.  Of the 32 games that took place the past two days, there were 11 games decided by 5 points or less, 10 upsets, 2 regular over time games, and 1 game in double overtime.  Talk about madness!
It’s still pretty competitive at the top of the leaderboard:

Keep an eye out for joedaddy0227- even though he’s tied for 10th right now, he’s the only one who has not lost a sweet16 team yet!  It’s still anyone’s ball game.

Now for the announcement you’ve been waiting for!  The winner of the pool will win a signed 16×20 canvas gallery wrap of one of my signature prints (a $175 value)!  If a past client wins, you can also choose to have an image from your session be used for the gallery wrap instead.  How awesome is that!  Oh, and if I miraculously win, I guess I’ll let the 2nd place winner get the prize.  Here’s a few of the images the winner will get to choose from-

chicago, illinois

chicago, illinois

chain o’ lakes, illinois

chicago, illinois

chain o’ lakes, illinois

des plaines, illinois

chicago, illinois

sedona, arizona

san francisco, california

Round 2 starts today!

BALLERS WANTED. (NCAA Tourney Pool)
- March 15, 2010 - posted by chicago wedding photographer nate mathai

categories: Personal
tags: automatic bid, chicago wedding photographers, illinois, march madness, NCAA, ncaa tournament, NIT, tournament pool, UTEP

interested in booking? Head over to the the contact page or shoot me an email to info@natemathai.com

The madness has begun.  It all started with the Illini getting snubbed (re: they deserved to not make it based on the season, but were given so much hope at the end of the year before getting it taken away from them) from the NCAA Tournament, mainly because Houston stole a spot by gaining the automatic bid beating UTEP in the conference title.  But I digress.

All that aside, this is going to be a very interesting tournament, as general powerhouse teams like UNC and UConn are joining the Illini in the NIT instead of getting a bid.  So that means its that time again, NCAA Tourney Time!  Regardless of how much or how little you know about college basketball..or basketball in general, you have a great chance to win the pool since anything can happen! (Hence the reason that I have NEVER picked the NCAA tournament winner yet…over 10 years of playing…I digress…)

Ive set up a pool on ESPN where you can fill out your bracket and join (if you haven’t done this before, you’ll need to set up an account with ESPN first.- really simple).  Not sure what the winner gets yet, but there will be a prize too (both a physical prize and massive props)!  So head on over, set up your bracket, and get your game on!  Feel free to also get your *clean* trash talking up in the conversation box on the site too!

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Site: http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/en/group?groupID=61765
Group Name: NM Ballers
Password: stepup
Note: You can have up to 3 brackets in the group (any more than that and all your entries will be void for winning).

The deadline is Thursday, March 18th, so make sure you get everything set and joined up before then!

iPhone/iPod Touch App: http://bit.ly/bvM63x
There’s also a free app for the ESPN Tournament Challenge, so you can set up your brackets and follow your rankings at your fingertips! :)

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And again, some quick tips for you guys in getting your brackets up and running:

- #1 teams have never lost in the first round (although a #15 has defeated a #2)

- Only once in the history of the tournament (2008) has all four #1 teams made it to the final four.

- There are ALWAYS upsets. The most common are 12 over 5, 10 over 7, and 9 over 8.

- Nobody has ‘officially’ picked the perfect bracket (getting every game correct)…you’re bound to miss a couple.

- It annoys the heck out of sports fans when you choose teams to win based on colors, mascots, locations, and other non-basketball related reasons…but you have the same odds as someone who goes by the numbers ;)

Vince Vaughn at The Choo Choo
- March 10, 2010 - posted by chicago wedding photographer nate mathai

categories: Personal
tags: des plaines, nbc, pilot, the choo choo, vince vaughn

interested in booking? Head over to the the contact page or shoot me an email to info@natemathai.com

With special thanks to my pop-culture expert @angelkutty, I found out that Vince Vaughn was filming a pilot of a new TV show at The Choo Choo, a historic family restaurant in downtown Des Plaines, which was about 5 minutes from my place.  So I decided to take a chance and grabbed my gear to try to get a glimpse of Mr. Vaughn (or anyone else, for that matter).

I got there near the end of what seemed like their lunch break, and once they started getting set up again, security was pretty tight.

These guys looked important :)

People were sneaking around the 2nd floor of a parking garage to try to get a glimpse of Vince Vaughn

Spoiler Alert! This is the part of the pilot where this vehicle drives in front of the Choo Choo.

The sad news is that through all of this, there was no Vince Vaughn sighting- security said he left earlier in the day.  But it was still fun to get out and shoot a bit.  Locals asked if I was working with People or some magazine- kind of funny!  Sadly, a local wedding photographer gets no special access.  Ah well, if anything maybe this filming will keep the Choo Choo where it is for a long time coming!

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