Archive for the 'family' Category

The Bears and My Nieces
- December 13, 2008 -

On Thursday, I went to my first Bears game of my life!  We had some great seats in the north endzone, and it was an amazing (and cold) game!  You know it’s going to be entertaining when the opening kick gets returned for a TD.  We got a bit of a scare with Forte missing much of the first half, and then Orton paying like…Grossman…but we still pulled off the win.  Woo hoo! (note: the above picture was taken on my iPhone)

On Friday, I went over to my sister’s to take some family pictures of the family for their Christmas card.  And like many, they were hoping to get that ‘perfect picture’ with everyone looking at the camera, sitting straight, smiling beautifully, completely clean and what not.  Now, I understand the desire, but I love EVERY OTHER IMAGE. :)  And so for your viewing pleasure, here are my nieces in all their beauty:

And my personal favorite (with some personal processing )

Parents- don’t be so concerned about that ‘perfect’ picture…take the ones to help you remember their childhood as they naturally were. (we were able to get them looking at the camera and smiling…but aren’t these more fun?! :))

natemathai | filed under: family, personal

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Playdate
- December 5, 2008 -

My nieces and nephew got together today for a little play date (two from my sister, and two from my fiancee’s sister), so I swung on by to hang with all of them.  They had a fun filled day of playing games, eating pizza, making brownies, coloring, watching tv…you’d expect them to be exhausted at the end but they still had plenty of energy when all was said and dun.  Here’s a glimpse into the fun times:

As a side note, for those of you interested in booking lifestyle family sessions, I cannot stress enough how great it is to just do things that your family enjoys - playing games, baking, reading, things you normally do to have fun.  It brings much more memorable images and a ton of fun for everyone involved!

natemathai | filed under: family

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[11.10.08] Monday Night Recap
- November 10, 2008 -

• [Presidential Election] Unless you were stuck under a rock for a week, you probably heard that Illinois senator Barack Obama won the recent presidential election in a landslide (based on the electoral college system).  At the last election, I remember staying up until 5am following the polls because it was just so tight!  This one was decided by around 9pm.  It’s really only just the beginning - Bush is still in office for a little bit longer, and then we’ve got 4 years.  Don’t expect everything to be spun around overnight, but here’s to hope and change!
• [The Office] It’s finally getting back on track!  The first few episodes were funny, but not to the same extent as previous seasons, but its starting to pick up again.  Loved the halloween episode.  I love looking forward to Thursdays…
• [Black Friday] It’s coming.  Are you guys ready?  Care to share your plans?  Last year I was up around 4am to wait outside Best Buy, and I think we’ll be starting around the same time again this year.  What are you guys looking to pick up this year?  Let me know if you know of any amazing deals too!
• [Bears] I almost get an ulcer every game.  Going in I wasn’t really expecting a win.  But then they tease me by playing just good enough to give me hope, but just bad enough to lose the game.  It’s surprising that we’re still #1 in the NFC North…I’ll take what I can get.
• [Fantasy] This was quite possibly my worst managed week of the year, and probably knocked me out of playoff contention (I’m clinging to a thread over these next 3 weeks).  I left 50 points on my bench between two running backs and a wide receiver (the running backs I started barely got me 5 points total).  BLASTED!
• [Nieces] You probably remember Izzy from the family session I did a short while ago.  While her mother and my sister took a weekend escape of sorts and left the fathers to babysit, so I went over to hang out on Saturday.  I got there just in time for their dinner…pizza and green beans.  They had a contest to see who would eat the green beans the fastest too!  I love how kids can make a competition out of anything.  I wonder when we grow out of that.  Enjoy the pics…








• [Coming to an end?] As we close off the year, I’m pretty impressed with myself, as I have been keeping the MNR going for over a year now (That’s a lot of Mondays!).  I’m thinking it’ll be coming to an end soon though.  The good thing, though, is it’ll hopefully get me blogging more regularly as I’ll spread out the topics throughout the week (hopefully).  Also, I got some interesting stuff that I’m *hoping* to get up and running soon too, that will most likely keep you all entertained.  (Again, if there’s anything you’d like to see/hear about, feel free to leave it in the comments)

natemathai | filed under: [MNR], family

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[09.02.08] Monday Night Recap
- September 2, 2008 -

• [Ummm...] Yes, I know it’s Tuesday.  Yes, I know its Tuesday night.  I’ve been near perfect (if not perfect) about getting these up on Mondays since I started last year.  Oh well…better late than never, right?
• [Photo Challenge] August is over, so get your submissions for that challenge e-mailed into challenge(at)natemathai(dot)com.  I’ll post the next challenge within the week and get these submissions up as well.
• [Cubbies] After some dramatic, come-from-behind victories last week (Aramis with a grand slam in the 8th, Soriano with a solo-shot to take the lead in the 7th the day after), we had a rough weekend.  Even still, we’re 4.5 games up on the Brewers, and I think the magic number is around 20-something…we’re coming down the home stretch!
• [Liza and Shibu] On Saturday, I shot the engagement ceremony of Liza and Shibu at the India House Banquets in Schaumburg, Illinois.  Here’s a little tease for you all:



• [College Friends] Two years later, and we all still hang out…that’s a good sign, right?  11 of us got together on Sunday (missing one in Atlanta) for some fun times of freeze tag, water balloons, and volleyball in the park, followed by pizza at Barnaby’s.  No pics…I wanted to avoid getting yelled at for bringing the camera everywhere
• [Blogging Friends] I’m a blog junkie, where in addition to my own blogging, I follow 25, 50, too many blogs, many of other photographers, others on finance, business, marketing, technology…and the list goes on.  I decided I should give a shout out though, to a couple of my non-photography friends’ blogs that post regularly so you can go check them out.  Not listed?  You haven’t posted enough!

1. {Rincey}  It’s 100% personal.  But she’s an amazing writer and completely knowledgeable about all things pop culture and beyond (she’s a journalism major).  She’s been blogging for quite some time to (longer than I have I think) so she’s very well-seasoned.  One of the few blogs I read all the copy to.
2. {Jason}  A more recent blogger and long-time friend, he’s started one to document his families current move back to the Chicagoland area from Bloomington/Normal, as well as his journey in starting his insurance agency.  And more than just personal info, he’s dropping some good info on finances here and there, so definitely check it out.
3. {Sibi}  My brother-in-law is trying it out now, and already has some quality information up there.  He’s a Mac/Tech addict so you’ll definitely gain knowledge on quality products and apps coming out.  He’s also occasionally giving some wise financial tips as well.
4. —>  I have a couple other friends who have blogs, but don’t update regularly, so they don’t get posted.  Oh well, such is life.

• [Google Chrome] So it seems Google is launching its own web browser (a-la Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer).  I’ve tested it out for a couple of hours earlier today, and its very bare bones (they wanted it minimalistic).  It’ll take some getting used to, and I’m sure there will be much more to come since this is just the first beta release.  The one thing I do like:  Most Visited Websites when opening a new tab.  Each time you open a tab, thumbnails of your most recently sites appear in a grid for you to click to go directly to it instead of having to type the address in.  More than the browser itself, though, I feel like if this browser can surpass that of Firefox/Safari in usability, Google’s Android begins that much stronger of a force.  Just my musings…awaiting for the release on OS X.
• [Budgeting] In planning for a wedding/future, I’ve begun the budgeting process with my fiance, which leads me to the following poll.  Please humor me by selecting your current ’state of budgeting’, and if you’d like explain why you’re in that situation in the comments below.

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natemathai | filed under: Photo Challenge, [MNR], engagement, event, family, friends, personal

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Nisha and Joel
- July 27, 2008 -

This past weekend, my sister finally got married! I did their e-session a bit ago, but they said I have to stand in the wedding so they hired other photographers…ah well, such is life. After many years and a lot of planning and preparing, everything finally came together yesterday. We had many relatives coming in from around the country for a 600+ person wedding, and everything went by smoothly.
By order demand request of my girlfriend, I was not aloud to bring my camera with me to the wedding and take pictures while being a groomsman. So sadly, my gear sat at home for the entire festivities. HOWEVER, I did grab some shots at the rehearsal earlier (with some fun processing).

I was also able to get a quick grab of the dress/shoes when the girls were getting their hair done.

They’re off to their honeymoon tomorrow, and then next up for our family is my engagement ceremony in a couple weeks (wow…things are coming up out of nowhere!)

PS> There have been many questions regarding the realness of emotion in my toast. Let’s just say the dramatic pause in the beginning was pre-planned for an added kick to the punch line, BUT it was more dramatic than I had intended due to some realness sneaking in. Make sense?

natemathai | filed under: family, personal

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