26 and counting…
- July 20, 2010 -
For some reason, life has gotten extremely hectic all of a Sunday, and I realize that I’ve not shown my face on the blog in quite awhile, so here’s a post for you! [For those looking simply for my wedding and portrait work, oh get ready- the blog will be EXPLODING over the next month or so ;)]
So this past weekend I hit another milestone: 26 years of life. Can you believe it?! I guess most people can, because I generally get assumptions that I’m at least 2-3 years older than that. Not sure why it is…I’ve convinced myself it’s my maturity and wisdom, and not my receding hairline. :) And even though it’s not a “big” number in any sense of it, it was a great birthday nonetheless. I feel like over the past year my life has taken quite a bit of twists of turns of which I’m so thankful for, which makes me even more excited to start this new year off. Obviously, the biggest change was that I got married last August (goodness…it’s almost been 1 year!), and my wonderful wife decided to gift me a great birthday weekend!
It started on Friday, July 16th, the day before my actual birthday. I woke up with a note on my phone (the first thing I grab when I wake up) wishing me a Happy Birthday. And that morning my wife revealed my first gift:
Now, I LOVE video games. And I’ve been talking about getting a PS3 since before we got married, but kept putting it off because I could not justify the purchase (to her or myself). She took all the hints though, and got it for me! This is really a big deal for me, because…well…I went from this:
To this:
To all of you who are freaking out right now…don’t worry. I’m keeping the original NES. It’s sitting nicely right next to my PS3. :)
That night my wife and I helped babysit my nieces, as my sister and brother-in-law took a trip to celebrate their anniversary. And generally, babysitting a 5-year-old and a 2-year-old can be quite a handful. But this time, it was a breeze! Mainly because everything surrounded my birthday so I didn’t have to do anything. They spent the night making me birthday cards, meaning I could not be in the room with them as it was a surprise. Then in the morning, they were ‘surprising’ me with breakfast, so I had to avoid the kitchen at all costs. Much love to my wonderful wife for truly watching the two little ones the whole time :)
We then hit a bit of a snag on birthday weekend- we went to a dealership to possibly purchase a new car. The bad news: within the week, they had sold the car we looking at! Can’t fault them, but it put a little bit of a downer on the day, now that we’re back on the search.
In the evening on Saturday came the 2nd celebration, where a few of my close friends got together at Dave & Buster’s for some good food, fun games, and good times.
\
They had a rather big birthday ice-cream-cookie thing…I barely made a dent in it.
We started out with some bball…
then did some racing…
…and a little bit of shooting…
At the end of the night, we used our winnings to get some candy for everyone, and I came away with a few prizes of my own:
I think the green care-bear will be my new mascot- you think I can pull it off?
Then came Sunday- CUBS GAME! For 3 of the past 4 years, my wife and I have gone to the Cubs game for my birthday, and this was the best one yet. We had great seats and it was my first night game. Truly beautiful!
We started out with some poor looking swings…
I told the wife that I wanted to try to capture a HR swing (preferably by Lee, but I would take anyone at that moment). And then Soriano came up and this happened…
It was a great night- a bonus because we broke our curse of going to games and having the Cubs lose :)
All in all, I had a great birthday weekend. I’m officially 26 years old and counting…counting my blessings for all the goodness, grace and mercy that God has shown me. He’s been faithful when I chose not to be, and has continued to be an anchor in the every changing storm of life. And because of that, I’m so excited for what’s to come. Because it’s truly not about anything I’m going to do, but what He’s going to do with me and through me- and what’s more exciting than that?!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | 
filed under: Personal birthday, chicago cubs, chicago wedding photographers, cubs vs phillies, dave and busters, madden 2010, nate mathai, night game, playstation 3, ps3, wrigley field No Comments | add a comment
Fourth of July Fireworks (Ribfest in Naperville, IL)
- July 5, 2010 -
Fact 1: I’ve lived in Illinois for almost 26 years.
Fact 2: I’ve never been to the Taste of Chicago.
Fact 3: This was the first time I went to Naperville’s Ribfest.
Yes, I’ve lived a deprived Chicagoan’s life, but I’m slowly improving on it. A group of friends decided to head out to Naperville’s Ribfest on the 4th, so we headed out to get there just at 7:30pm (when the gates are free) for a little meat and fireworks. After driving through a little rain, it cleared up by the time we got there, which was a plus. We had a little over an hour to get whatever food we’d like before the fireworks began.
My wife and my meal consisted of: Beef Brisket sandwich from Hog Wild (great!), Funnel Cake (alright, no ice-cream or fudge), Chocolate Covered Strawberries (the wife said it was alright, I don’t like strawberries), and a Strawberry-Banana Smoothie (Refreshing, but not amazing)
And here’s a couple frames from the fireworks:
Enjoy the 5th! :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal 2010, chicago wedding photographers, fireworks, illinois, naperville, ribfest, ribs No Comments | add a comment
American Cancer Society Walk & Roll 2010
- June 25, 2010 -
These images from the American Cancer Society’s Walk & Roll Event should have been posted awhile ago, so I’ll just skip the commentary and give you guys some frames (more posted on my personal page on facebook). Enjoy!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal 2010, american cancer society, chicago, chicago wedding photographers, grant park, illinois, lake michigan, museum campus, walk and rollChicago Cubs (and NCAA Tourney Winner)
- April 13, 2010 -
So the NCAA Tournament was pure madness, but I was glad to at least see a competitive final game. Kansas and Kentucky getting knocked out early busted pretty much everyone’s brackets (specifically those who know anything about college basketball), which allowed everyone else to rise to the top. I’m not bitter. And in a surprising turn of events, the winner of the NCAA Tournament challenge was none other than…my wife! (She likes to rub it in that she has beaten me multiple times in the tournament challenge) The secret behind her winning bracket? She picks teams based on her interest in their law school…which in turn had her picking Duke to take the whole thing. SERIOUSLY??!?! Whatever the case may be, she dominated my picks and took home the prize. Well…not actually taking it home. She’s the winner of the 16×24 canvas, and she’s taking it to her office in the city. Here’s the print that she selected:
Big ups to Shawn Abraham, Jason Abraham, Giby GeeVarghese, and Joel Philip for rounding out the top5. (For the record, I finished in 16…out of 39…at least I was in the top half :/ )
In other news, I used to do a “Monday Night Recap”, and generally around this time you would basically get an update on the woes of being a Cubs fan. Well the new season is here, and I enter in with just as much hope as I did in the early 90′s when I first became a fan. I’m probably setting myself up for great disappointment, but ah well…such is the life of a Cubs fan. We’ve had a rough start to the season, but its obviously early, and a win today will bring us to .500! Woo hoo! :)
Yesterday was the home opener for the Cubbies, and although I didn’t have tickets to the game, I decided to swing by Wrigley Field before the start of the game to see what the crowds were like. And just as I suspected, the true-blue were out in full force, with just as much hope as I have for the year. I left just before the end of the 1st inning, though I probably should have stayed longer as the ball was flying out of the park early. Congrats to my Cubbies for pulling off the much needed 9-5 win against the Brewers, hopefully this ‘undefeated-at-home’ streak lasts for awhile. Here’s a glimpse around the ball park before the pre-game. (If anyone has connections to get me closer to the action, hook a brother up! :))
The CTA was filled to the brim with Cubbie blue!
I think this guy works for FOX? Anyone know his name?
Some questioned…how did he get those to stick? I questioned: what made him even think about doing that!?
This was the line to get to the rooftops! Anyone ever been up there? The view must be amazing…
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal canvas, chicago, chicago cubs, chicago wedding photographers, home opener, milwaukee brewer, ncaa tournament, wrigley field No Comments | add a comment
NCAA Tournament Pool Update
- March 20, 2010 -
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!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal canvas wraps, chicago wedding photographers, gallery wraps, march madness, NCAA, signature prints, tournament pool, travel photographer No Comments | add a comment
BALLERS WANTED. (NCAA Tourney Pool)
- March 15, 2010 -
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!
—————
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! :)
—————
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 ;)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal automatic bid, chicago wedding photographers, illinois, march madness, NCAA, ncaa tournament, NIT, tournament pool, UTEPVince Vaughn at The Choo Choo
- March 10, 2010 -
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!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal des plaines, nbc, pilot, the choo choo, vince vaughnArizona 2010
- March 2, 2010 -
WARNING: IMAGE OVERLOAD. (with twice as many going up on my personal facebook page)
One thing my wife and her family has brought to my life- travel :) Prior to marriage, I barely traveled outside of the midwest. Slowly, I’ve been getting out more, and this past weekend had the opportunity to head over to Arizona- a great escape from the blizzard in Illinois. Nithya’s sister lives out in Arizona, so we went to visit them as we only get to see them a couple times a year. We also brought our nephew along as well, which was a very interesting experience as I don’t normally travel with a 4 year old. It went surprisingly well, however, I am still in no hurry to have children :)
Our travel plans were delayed for a bit when our flight get shifted between 3 different gates on opposite ends of the airport. About a 2 hour delay, causing a slight irritation from many, but we all survived. (Had to remind myself that we are being carried in midair across the United States in a couple hours…that’s a crazy thought!)
The next morning I slept in a bit, while the wife went to our niece’s ballet class in the morning. I sent her with the 5D and 24-70, and with a couple instructions she was on her way- she’s starting to get better than me with the gear!
Afterward, we packed everyone in the van and headed out to beautiful Sedona. I wasn’t sure what to expect with 3 kids under the age of 10 on a 2 hour drive (the most I’ve done was 2 kids in about an hour and a half), but they were extremely well behaved.
The skies were BEAUTIFUL when we finally touched down in Sedona!
After checking the map, we set off for a “moderate difficulty” hike to Devil’s Bridge, which was just under a mile both ways. What we forgot to take into account was that it was about another mile hike to get to the start of the trail. Would the kids last?
This isn’t a good sign for a hike with kids…
We started out with a great pace, and the kids were really excited to start hiking, and were off leading the way!
Slowly…the legs started getting tired…
And then they needed a bit of help. A mile hike feels a lot harder when you have some 30 lbs on your back :)
We finally got to the start of the trail, where the boys checked the map to see whether it was worth it to join the rest of the way. They decided it wasn’t worth it, so they stayed at the landing with my brother-in-law, while we carried on.
Photo courtesy of my sister-in-law.
Seriously, this place is beautiful.
Photo courtesy of a self-timer. :)
After the the hike, we went to Picazzo’s for some pizza- gotta love the mindset:
On Sunday morning, we headed off to church at Cornerstone in Chandler, AZ. It’s a much different style than my home church, but definitely a great experience.
They had a shortened service that day as they were doing a serve-a-thon…5 different serving opportunities that the congregation could take part it. Even on a rainy Sunday, people went out to do landscaping in the community and other local services. The option we chose since we had the kids with us as well was packing meals for Haiti Relief. It was amazing to see a community of all shapes and sizes getting out and using their hands to get the message out. I was able to get a few frames while serving as a runner during our shift for packing meals for Haiti.
In our 1 hour shift, we packed almost 50k bags of food! The first shift did about 60k, and there were 2 more shifts after us- every little bit counts!
After serving, we headed out to lunch at Kona Grill. The kids were able to keep themselves entertained with some Etch-a-sketches…I wish I had one too.
I always get yelled about being a “boring” eater…is sushi ‘un-boring’ enough?!?! (For the record, I got a burger for my meal, but it was an extremely large one…12 ounces)
We ended the afternoon with a trip to the park- this was definitely something that we won’t be able to do in Chicago for about another month or so. It was fun to be active too! I haven’t shot a basketball in almost a year now, so it felt good to just shoot around. I need to get back on the courts again.
All in all, it was a great first trip to Arizona, and I’m looking forward to more trips in the future! Like I said, more photos will be up on my personal facebook page so be sure to check those out as well!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal, Travel arizona, chicago wedding photographers, cornerstone chandler, devil's bridge, family, gilbert, haiti relief, kona grill, picazzo's, sedona, travel photographythe process
- February 22, 2010 -
As I was editing my last shoot, I figured it might be fun to give you all a little behind-the-scenes glimpse into how I prep my files. Since I retouch my images, there’s a lot more time involved than just shooting the day-of. This is a very quick overview of mainly just some edits (as there’s obviously back-ups, uploading images, presentation, etc. that isn’t in the clip).
I think the bigger reason for me to do this was because I love jumping back to my video roots to give me another creative push. It’s been almost 5 years since I’ve done any real video work, so I like jumping back in when I get a chance as a separate outlet for creativity. Hope you guys enjoy this! Let me know what you think in the comments below, and if you’d like to see more like this or any other types of video. Take care!
NMP – Portrait Process from Nate Mathai on Vimeo.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal, The Blender chicago, chicago wedding photographers, illinois, lightroom, logitech g13, mount prospect, newborn, photoshop, portraits, tutorial, video, wacom, words with friends2010 Superbowl Recap (Top 10 Ads)
- February 8, 2010 -
First, big ups to the Who Dat Nation and the New Orleans Saints for grabbing the ring and playing an awesome game this weekend! Drew Brees is a very classy guy, and well deserving of his first ring. Though Peyton is an amazing player, I think the loss tarnishes his stand in greatness as one of the top QBs of all time. The win would have secured it, but now he only has 1 super bowl win, and that was against Rex Grossman. I still think he’s a QB stud, but he needs another ring to really set him apart. The Saints made some gutsy calls (going on 4th-and-goal and failing, getting the onside kick), but it proved successful.
Now on to the Superbowl Commercials…I must say as a collectie body of work, I was very unimpressed with the ads this year. I don’t know what it was, but most of them didn’t have the punch as in years past. Even still, there were a few that rose to the top for varying reasons. Here are my top 10.
10. E*Trade: Girlfriend
The babies are always funny.
9. Bud Light: T-Pain
Everything sounds better in auto-tune.
8. Boost Mobile: Shuffle
Will I switch to boost mobile? No. But I must give props throwing it back to the Chicago Bears 1985 Superbowl Shuffle.
7. Snickers: You’re Not You
Another great celebrity appearance of Betty White.
6. KGB: Sumo
They finally brought a marketing spin that works- answers, not links. Does it mean I’ll use KGB? Nope. But at least they differentiated themselves.
5. McDonald’s: Horse
The kicker was Dwight Howard saying “Who’s That?” The shots itself looked so fake, but the ending clinched it. (Would have been nice to see MJ there with Bird, but then the joke probably wouldn’t have worked as well)
4. Google: Search
The more I watch this ad, the smarter it becomes. Google proved just how powerful it can be, with the emotional linkage of a relationship to a wedding to a child. It also showcased many features that people don’t realize it can provide- not just links, but definitions, flight statuses, etc. Whether others caught that, though, is another question.
3. VW: PunchDub
Stevie Wonder…another genius kicker!
2. Career Builder: Casual Friday
CB continues to put out humorously creative ads during the SB. This was another one.
1. Doritos: House Rules
Hilarious! Awesome delivery by the little man. Doritos dominated the commercial realm this year.
So there’s my top 10. Agree/Disagree? Which commercials did you like this year? What’d you think of the quality of commercials as a whole? Would love to hear your thoughts!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal betty white, boost mobile, bud light, career builder, chicago, doritos, dwight howard, e trade, google, KGB, larry bird, lebron james, mcdonalds, snickers, stevie wonder, superbowl, superbowl commercials, t-pain, volkswagon No Comments | add a comment
stretching creatively
- February 2, 2010 -
One thing I never want to do is grow stagnant. In any area of my life, I want to be constantly growing, improving, moving. Many times, the repetitive nature of our lives cause us to fall into a monotonous lifestyle, where everything looks the same, feels the same, sounds the same. And in that we begin to lose our passion, begin to digress.
It has been almost a month since I last picked up my camera- it was actually refreshing to do so. I’ve been catching up on album designs and edits, and meeting with wonderful clients for 2010 that I haven’t really had a “need” to shoot. And THAT is the best time to grow. During this time, I was able to stretch myself creatively…doing things I won’t normally do for client shoots. But in doing so, I expand my vision, see what’s possible, and learn.
First thing I did was play with light…I’ve always been enamored with light and photography, though I’m not a big studio set person. As I tell everyone, though, in order to be a good photographer, you need to understand light. Learn how it works, its effects on your camera, and what you can do to it.
After that, I did another photowalk in downtown Chicago. I did this about a year and a half ago on another cold winter day, which made this a bit more exciting for me. I had to walk the same area I did before, but take a different perspective on everything. Don’t just take the standard images others take…don’t even just take the standard images I take when I’m there. But find that next angle. My original thoughts were to do 60 frames in 60 minutes. Then it was to do 50 frames with just my 50 1.4 lens. Then 35 frames with only the 35 2.0. Then I decided to just forget labeling what I am doing and just shoot…anything and everything. That was probably the most freeing decision I made for the day. I decided to give these images a different processing that’s from my norm- but hey, it’s a personal project and I can do whatever I want! :)
There is a problem when you aren’t passionate for the things you once were. Recognize the change…realize what’s missing. Push yourself to be constantly growing.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal art institute of chicago, chicago loop, chicago wedding photographers, cloud gate, downtown chicago, millenium park, the bean No Comments | add a comment
Ask me anything! (within reason :))
- January 13, 2010 -
So I’ve been stuck in front of my computer for what feels like 75% of my days recently, so I jumped on the formspring.me bandwagon, an online site dedicated to simply answering questions! I decided to do a video post answering one of the questions I got there, so I hope you enjoy it. If you have any follow up questions or anything else that you would want me to answer (either on the form or as a video response), hit up the comments, or just post over at formspring. Enjoy!
my twitter page
my formspring page
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Portraits, The Blender chicago wedding photographers, couples, Couples Lifestyle Sessions, formspring, modern portraits, natemathai, posing, Q&A, shy, twitter No Comments | add a comment
Merry Christmas and I’m Out!
- December 24, 2009 -
I just wanted to take this time to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I’m really excited about what 2010 has to offer and I hope you guys are looking forward to it as well.
I also wanted to get the formal word out that Nate Mathai Photography will be closing it’s proverbial doors until January 4th (well…techincally the 2nd) for the holidays. My upcoming schedule heading into the new year will be:
Dec. 24-25: Family Celebrations
Dec. 26-29: Winter Regional Conference in Hillsdale, Michigan
Dec. 31-Jan. 1: New Year’s Festivities
Jan. 2: Wedding in Indiana
So I technically start shooting again on January 2nd, but will be officially back in office starting the 4th to respond to e-mails and such.
Happy holidays everyone, and stay safe!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal, announcement chicago wedding photographers, christmas card, nate mathai No Comments | add a comment
California (San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Hollywood, Los Angeles…)
- November 24, 2009 -
About 2 weeks ago my wife and I took an mini-vacation out to Cali. The primary reason was a close friend of ours was having an engagement party then, but we decided to extend our visit for a little escape of our own as well. This was my first time in California. Actually, I’ve never gone further west in the US than St. Louis, Missouri before, so it was quite a trip for me.
I recently picked up the Canon 5D Mark II in anticipation for 2010, so I decided to take it for a spin on this trip. I also brought a couple primes with me instead of my standard zooms…they are smaller and challenge my creativity. I’m already loving it, and had a blast doing video with it as well…AMAZING! At the bottom you can watch the little Cali trailer I made from the trip if you haven’t seen it before. (For the record, I am still ONLY a wedding photographer…I do not do wedding videography.)
A view from above:
I didn’t have a lot of plans as to necessary places I needed to go. But one thing was for sure, I needed to make at least 1 In-n-Out trip (I actually made 2!)
After we landed, we drove out to Fisherman’s Wharf and took a nice walk around the area. First, we didn’t realize how cold it really would be in San Fran. Coming from Chicago, we felt anywhere in Cali would be 80′s…boy were we wrong. But the weather was great when we stood in the sun.
I’m not going to lie, my wife is hot. :) She doesn’t let me shoot her too often, so it’s always fun when she gives me an opportunity.
We saw this place called TCHO, and being the chocolate fiend my wife is, we had to go in. I’m not a huge fan of dark chocolate, but the chocolate covered cashews were AMAZING! I actually bought a tin to keep at my desk while I’m working. It’s got the perfect amount of chocolate- not too much for me to be overpowered by the dark chocolate taste, but just enough that I won’t eat the entire thing in one sitting. GENIUS!
All over the walk there are many different street performers…I wish Chicago had some areas like this. We spotted a group of b-boys getting ready to put on a show, so I definitely made sure I got a front row seat.
Here’s the video clip I took on the 5D of their show…no editing.
We met up with some of our friends and continued our walk through some of the shops. They’ve got some interesting stores here! Part of me loved seeing this place. (Being that I am left-handed) But then, I spent the past 25 years teaching myself how to use right handed tools and such that it would be near impossible for me to switch to left-handed equipment. Ah well, it’s the thought that counts, I guess.
The next morning, our college friends decided to grab some breakfast at a little dive that got some great reviews called Fifth Wheel Food…
The bad news was they only seat 16. And we had 9 people. And the wait would be about 30 minutes and we wouldn’t sit by each other. Fail. So then we took option #2:
The engagement was an all out dance party, and I did video instead of photo there, so you can see that in the trailer below. It went for almost 4 hours of dancing too! I decided to sneak out a bit early to get some shuteye in the car because we were doing the drive down Highway 1 early in the morning.
For those of you who have never done this before, I truly recommend it! This was by far one of the easiest and most beautiful 8-hour drives I have ever done in my life. I’ve gotten tired doing 5 hours from Chicago to Detroit, but I was wide awake during the whole trip! We only stopped off at one of the vista points, but it was seriously a beautiful getaway. Recommendation: Go during the day (there are no lights in many places on the 2 lane highway), and make sure you’re on a full tank of gas- there are no exits! We also had no cell phone signal which was a blessing in disguise since we were just able to sit back and enjoy the wonderful scenery.
We reached Santa Barbara where we just relaxed. We got a bed and breakfast at the Casa Del Mar Inn, which was just a block away from the beach. Beautiful weather, but we just decided to chill that night. We upgraded our room, too! Gotta love having a fireplace and kitchen, even if we’re only there for a night! :)
Oh, here’s proof that my wife is more addicted to my iPhone than I am.
The next morning, we made the drive over to Hollywood to see the stars for a bit. I think I had an impression that the place would be a lot more exciting that it really was, but it was a nice walk. Got to see a few stars on the ground and such.
After a quick snack, we decided to take one final walk before heading out, where I noticed a huge crowd in front of DSW Shoes. We slowly got closer, and we hear Bob Saget on the mic! John Stamos was getting his star on the walk of fame at that moment, and there were tons of stars there- from Bob Saget and Candice Cameron to the Beach Boys!
side note: I LOVE REFLECTIVE MATERIAL :)
We ended up near Los Angeles to meet up with an old college friend out there. They took us to Kabuki’s Japanese Restaurant. Now, I’m a very simple person- all I really need is a good burger and fries. And I can normally find some equivalent at any restaurant. But they insisted, so (after ordering a dish that I knew I’d like) I also tried a few of the sushi rolls and calamari the rest of the table got. And it wasn’t that bad! I think I deserve a round of applause and a pat on the back.
My wife deserves one too. That thing is called “Lotus on Fire”, and she got the whole thing in her mouth!
It was a great first trip to California. A bit rushed spending at most 24 hours in any given city, but definitely a fun time. I’m looking forward to making more trips out west in the future- give me a reason to come there! :)
Here’s the video trailer I made from the trip. Enjoy!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal california, chicago wedding photographers, hollywood, in-n-out burgers, john stamos, kabuki's, los angeles, nate mathai, san francisco, santa barbara, sushi No Comments | add a comment
Wedding Packaging
- November 11, 2009 -
I’m in the midst of getting a lot of editing done and getting client stuff setup and ready to be shipped out, and I figured it’d be a great to show you all my packaging for my wedding clients. It’s definitely not anything mind blowing, but I love it! :) I like to keep things pretty simple in design, yet still have a punch to it…creatively clean.
The discs are all shipped in these beautiful cases with a gold stitch…
When you open it, you see my spiffy new business cards, with the dvd case tied in a lime green ribbon (hand cut and tied, mind you)…
Behind the case will rest any additional discs that are included (generally proposals, e-session images, engagement ceremonies). It all rests nicely on the lime green felt (hand cut and placed, mind you)…
All that’s left is untying the ribbon, and you get the main dvd of your wedding.
I don’t know about you, but I love it! :) It might take me a little bit extra time to put it together (I’m not a wiz at tying ribbon), but its definitely worth it for the final presentation.
Happy Wednesday everyone! The wife and are headed out to Cali this weekend, but I’m looking to get one more post up before we head out, so get ready for that one!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Weddings, Personal, announcement business, chicago wedding photographers, disc of images, marketing, nate mathai photography, packaging, wedding photographyKohl Children’s Museum – Playdate! (and teasers!)
- November 6, 2009 -
Earlier this week, my wife and I took my niece and her nephew out for a date (2 children under 5 years of age…her idea). These two play together are all the time, so we figured it wouldn’t be too difficult to watch them both for a few hours- and they were better than expected! (Oh, I also just brought my 35 f2 and 50 f1.8 lenses with me…it was fun being limited)
After picking them up from school, we headed to Cici’s Pizza Buffet for lunch. Alexis loved her garlic bread and Jaden was a huge fan of the mac and cheese pizza. I enjoyed it all, too. :)
This was my first time at the Kohl Children’s Museum, and I was pretty impressed. It’s pretty much a world scaled down for their size, yet still can be entertaining for the adults. We hit up a Potbelly where they were able to make sandwiches for us (pretend ones, obviously), they went shopping in the grocery store, and had some fun with both water and instruments. They were definitely able to keep themselves entertained, so we just needed to keep an eye on them and pretend every now and then too…if this is what it takes to raise children, I think I’m ready. :)
I’ll leave you with a few words of wisdom I was given at the end of our journey through the museum:
PS, I’ve got some more goodness getting ready for the blog soon. Here’s a glimpse to what’s coming up!
Rolly & Ben’s Wedding at Christ Church of Oak Brook in Oak Brook, Illinois
Baby Alyssa’s Baptism at the St. Thomas Mar Thoma Church in Lombard, Illinois
Jaimy & Sijin’s E-Session at Millenium Park in Chicago, Illinois
Susie & Shawn’s E-Session in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Shaina & Aby’s E-Session at Elmhurst College in Elmhurst, Illinois
Susie & Shawn’s Wedding in Troy, Michigan
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal ann arbor michigan, baby alyssa, chicago illinois, chicago wedding photographers, christ church of oak brook, cici's pizza, elmhurst college, elmhurst illinois, glenview illinois, jaimy and sijin, kohl children's museum, lombard illinois, millenium park, nate mathai, rolly and ben, shaina and aby, st. thomas mar thoma church, susie and shawn, troy michiganApple Picking at Apple Holler in Sturtevant, Wisconsin
- November 2, 2009 -
This past weekend the wife and I decided to make a quick trip up to Apple Holler in Sturtevant, Wisconsin for some good ol’ apple picking. Actually, the main purpose for the trip really was just to get some apple donuts. When we were in undergrad, there was an apple orchard near the campus which people would go to all the time, but this trip to Wisconsin was about half the distance so we settled.
This was probably the most helpful map I’ve ever seen.
What, how do you guys go apple picking?
OK, so it cost about $40 to get a bag and go pick apples straight from the trees. It’s a pretty big bag, but we really did care for that many apples. If you go with a group of people, it’s more worthwhile as you split that cost as well as all the apples. So instead, we just picked from the bins outside before getting our apple donuts. I think it was just as fun.
Welcome to November everybody!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal apple donuts, apple holler, apple picking, chicago wedding photographers, date night, Personal, sturtevant, wisconsin No Comments | add a comment
Happy Halloween!
- October 22, 2009 -
OK, a little early, but the wife and I just carved pumpkins for date night! We’re not the most skilled pumpkin carvers in Illinois, but still decided to try it free-handed. First time both of us ever carved a pumpkin, too!
So the big question, which is your favorite? We have a bet going so send everyone you know here and vote in the comments! (I’m sure you can’t tell which is which by the designs :))
Pumpkin #1:
Pumpkin #2:
I also decided to tag mine on the side :)
Happy (early) Halloween everyone!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal chicago wedding photographers, halloween, Personal, pumpkin carving[2009.10.12] Monday Night Recap
- October 12, 2009 -
- [The Office] HILARIOUS! The 1-hour wedding episode this past Thursday was absolutely hilarious. The JK Wedding Dance topped it all off at the end too! I’m very impressed with the consistency of the show, as well as how they stay current with what’s going on.
- [Fall TV] My current line-up right now (that I catch up on Hulu) is Modern Family, Glee, and The Office. If I’ve got some free time, that I’m working in Lie To Me and Community, but I’m not currently sold on those two yet. The wife has a whole different line-up: Private Practice, Grey’s Anatomy, Brothers & Sisters, and Desperate Housewives. Lucky for me, She also enjoys Modern Family and The Office, so we at least get 2 shows that we watch together. :) If you could pare down this list, though, what shows would you cut out? Or what shows are we missing out on?
- [My Best Friend's Wedding] Well, it was more my wife’s best friend, but this past weekend we celebrated the wedding of our close college friends, Ekta and Digesh, at the Waterfold in Elmhurst, IL. My wife and I were the first two in our group of friends to get married 2 months ago (wow, it’s been 2 months already?!), and these two were the 2nd. Come next year, we’ll have another 2 couples joining us as well! Goodness we’re getting old. But I digress.
I got to attend this wedding as a guest, which was great because I was able to really get to learn and understand many of the details of the Hindu wedding ceremony from a different view. It’s so fascinating to see all the different rituals and traditions that take part in it – one reason why I love cultural ceremonies! My wife was there from the beginning with the ‘mehndi‘ on Thursday night, then I got to attend the ‘garba‘ on Friday followed by the full day of the ceremony and reception on Saturday. I started Saturday at the ‘jaan’ on the groom’s side, where he is brought in by horse to the hall. The whole time the ‘dhol‘ players keep rhythm while everyone is dancing away- such a celebration! When they reach the hall, the bride’s elders are there to receive him. Again, its an amazing wedding where the entire community takes part. Here are a few pics taken with my trusty G10 during the ‘jaan’ and a look at the ‘mandap‘ from the ceremony (in need of a mandap? let me know, my friend’s the guy who put this one together). I’m definitely looking forward to actually having the honor to shoot more of these traditional ceremonies in the near future :)
- [Fantasy Football] We’re finishing up week 5 in my FF league, and I’m currently in third overall (though that will drop barring an amazing performance by Ronnie Brown on MNF…im losing by 40 points). Like last year, before each week I post my predictions for who will win each matchup. Going into this weekend’s games, I was an amazing 14-4 on my picks, but this week I might be 1-5 to bring things closer to even. I had a rough week with a bunch of studs on a bye, but I’m fine with getting the L out of the way now and finishing strong moving forward.
- [iamsecond] I stumbled upon this site over a year ago, and it was such an inspiration. From a creative standpoint, the entire concept and cinematography grabbed me and pulled me in. Even deeper though, the stories and testimonies of all these people ring as a constant reminder to me. It’s good for me to go back there every now and then and just get reminded of what my purpose is and where my strength came from, and what my position truly is. I was listening to Pete Briscoe‘s story and one line he said that jumped at me was “it’s exhausting having to succeed.“ His focus and drive was simply to succeed and be the best, and wore himself out. How many of us have that drive to be the “best”…but for what? I need to daily remind myself that my desires need to be driven by purpose, and constantly accept and cling to my role as “second”.
- [The Blender] For those who followed me for awhile, you probably remember I was doing a little video blogging earlier in the year, and it sort of went on hold for a bit as the madness of my own wedding started to take over and such. But I’m still planning on putting more out there every now and then. If you guys have any topics you want my view point on (photography, sports, life, religion, marriage, etc.) let me know! I’d love to put out info that you people actually care about :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal, [MNR] blender, ceremony, chicago, cinematography, fantasy football, hindu, iamsecond, jaan, mandap, photography, video, wedding No Comments | add a comment
Rebranding and Relaxing
- September 26, 2009 -
As most of you know, I’ve had some big changes in my life recently (ie. getting married about 6 weeks ago), and taking a little time off game me moments to plan out for the upcoming year. I’m expecting some big things in 2010, and I really wanted to push my own creative boundaries in the process. In addition to just a business-perspective change and such, I thought it was about time to bring on a little bit of a new look. For those of you who are reading this on facebook or in your favorite rss reader, then you probably haven’t noticed anything, but I re-tweaked my site for an bit of an updated new look! Go there to check it out!
For starters, I’ve got a new color! The color actually came when I started to furnish my new office (which I’ll post pics of soon), and the lime green just fell into place. It’s that little burst of energy that I think I needed.
So the look is just the beginning of changes to come up from this time moving forward. The other major thing you’ll notice is the new branding on my images. You like? I do!
Enough about branding, this past weekend, I had the pleasure of going on a ‘family vacation’ with my wife’s immediate family. 9 adults, 4 children, and a lakehouse in Wisconsin for the weekend was a great time for me to get acclimated with the family better, and for them to get used to me. There weren’t any huge activities planned out, which was good as things were pretty chill most of the weekend and I was able to catch a breather as well.
Most of our time was spent in the basement of the house, as there was table tennis, a billiards table, and foosball to keep us occupied for most of the time. Here’s a little frame-by-frame of my intense battle with my father-in-law :)
The house was right on the lake, so we went down there a couple times for some fishing and a little water fun. My father-in-law loves to fish, so he was out there early every morning, and I caught a few as well! The house also had a paddle boat, so some of the family took the kids around the lake. However, my wife’s team had a few issues and needed to get ‘rescued’, and you can see the a video clip below…
I’ve posted a handful more on my personal facebook page, so feel free to ‘friend’ me and check those out as well. All in all, a nice weekend with family, and a great escape. I’m back at editing and getting ready for a busy October! Thanks so much for all of your patience during this past month as we got settled into married life, but you’ll definitely be hearing more of me now! :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: announcement chicago wedding photographers[2009.09.14] Monday Night Recap
- September 14, 2009 -
- [Da Bears] Wow, that was a rough one. Cutler threw 4 picks (3 of which looked like he thought he was supposed to throw to Green Bay), Forte couldn’t really get anywhere, and to top it all of, Urlacher is out for the season. But I won’t jump off the bandwagon just yet. If there was an upside though, I’m pretty impressed with the speed of Johnny Knox. And Devin Hester looks like a much better receiver than he did a year ago (though he still runs sideline to sideline on kick returns instead of end-zone to end-zone).
- [Fantasy] Seriously had a rough first week for my fantasy squad. Every single player underperformed which basically lost it for me. Here are some issues that I ran into:
- Bernard Berrian has been out with a hamstring injury, so he has not practiced with Favre yet- he scored 0 points.
- The Ravens D got me a total of 3 points…seriously?!
- Adam Vinatieri didn’t even attempt a FG
- it also didn’t help that I was going up against MJD, Tom Brady, and the Giants D the way they performed this weekend.
- [Budgeting] I’ve been using Mint.com for my personal money management for a few years now, and news just got out the Intuit bought it. I’m still not sure how things will change yet- I’m not too fond of the Quicken online version, but their desktop software is great, so hopefully it blends beautifully.
- [Glee] The first season of Glee is FINALLY starting up. For those who never heard of it, it pretty just follows high school students as they try to resurrect their Glee club, and they have some amazing cover songs already. Definitely got it added to my hulu queue. For the record, I’ve never been in any choirs or vocal groups (outside of the church choir that didn’t cut anyone when I was trying out, and an acappella group that I helped start), but this definitely made me wish I could sing iwth others again. Oh well!
- [Kanye] Seriously? The man puts out hits like none other, but his VMA stunt was a bit immature, if you ask me (yet on point with what we’ve seen from Kanye in the past).
- [Picture] You want one? Check yesterday’s post from the weekend wedding! :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR] chicago wedding photographers No Comments | add a comment
[2009.09.07] Monday Night Recap
- September 7, 2009 -
- [Labor Day] Happy Labor Day! Did you know the holiday originated in Canada out of labor disputes? Wikipedia has all the info! :)
- [Grill Off] Today I had a Labor Day lunch at my sister’s place, which was more than just a lunch. We held a special grill-off between my brother-in-law, brother-in-law’s brother, and my dad. Their job was to make burgers- starting with just ground beef, they seasoned and and designed their dishes as if they were competing a Top Chef. The real joy: myself and my other brother-in-law were the judges! Our burgers were specially made and plated, as they were going to be judged based on 3 criteria: Presentation, Taste, and Originality. When all was said and done, my brother-in-law came away the big winner. Looking forward to judging more of these events in the future. :)
- [Wedding Pics] Remember how 3 weeks ago I got married? And last week I posted images from the honeymoon in Jamaica? Well, it just keeps getting better because Kenny Kim just gave us our images this weekend! I mean, seriously!?! He is the man! Big ups to Kenny, David Lai, and Abbie Carter for working with us and getting us some great images from the day- we are more than satisfied! He’s posted a few on his blog and on facebook, so be sure to check it out! You can see a slideshow of the images here, as well.
- [1frame] So I decided to start with another little personal project right now. I call it “1frame“. On my blog, in my galleries, up on facebook, I show so many images to tell the story of a day. But to challenge myself and my creativity, I asked myself- ‘if I was limited to one frame and a few words, would I still be able to tell a good story?’ And that is what my goal is with “1frame”. I want to continue telling a compelling story, but with fewer words and just one image. So if you’d like to follow along on this little personal project, head over to my 1frame site: http://1frame.natemathai.com/ .
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Weddings, [MNR] chicago wedding photographers No Comments | add a comment
I’m Back!
- September 1, 2009 -
- [Vacation Complete] As most of you know, I got married this past August 15th, and so I took a break from photography for the month of August to give my attention to that. I did take care of a few e-mails here and there, but that was about it. I must say, it felt great to just let go of it all for 1 month, but I’m so excited to jump back in! I start shooting again this coming weekend, and still have some shoots to edit/post and albums to design. So clients, I’m back and ready to go! I also finally have internet at my new place, so I’ll be much better at responding to inquiries and e-mails now, so keep ‘em coming. :) I skipped a Monday Night Recap for the past few weeks, but this will be a long “Tuesday Morning Recap” instead.
- [Wedding] The wedding was great, but definitely flew by. Massive amounts of props to Kenny Kim and his team for covering the event- he was up at around 4am with an early start at my wife’s place since we had a morning wedding, then pushed straight through the afternoon reception. We’re so excited to see the images that he was able to capture that day, but now it’s just a waiting game. He did post a quick teaser for us the day after the wedding, so here’s a pic of my beautiful bride during the ceremony:
My wife told my I was not allowed to have my iPhone on me throughout the wedding, so once we were waiting at the church I gave it to my best man. Prior to that, though, I was on twitter and fb all morning :) Kenny actually tortured me a bit by twitpic’ing Nithya at her house, but specifically told me not to click the link- took a lot of self-control but I avoided it.
We had a guest list of about 700 people, and to our surprise there were little to no issues! Double props go to all our friends who coordinated the ceremony and reception without a hitch- we’ve been getting great feedback with how everything went that day, and it truly was because of all the help we got. Thanks guys! (you all know who you are) - [Honeymoon] After a few days of family obligations and attempting to get settled, we headed out to Sandals in Montego Bay, Jamaica. We got there right when tropical storm Bill left, so the first evening was a little dreary/cloudy, but everyday after that was beautiful! We had a few cons with this location: (1) being about 15 minutes from the airport, throughout the day you hear the planes taking off right over the resort- totally a mood killer when you’re trying to relax on the beach. (2) a lot of the resort was constantly under construction; a main pool was never open, workers were always painting/cleaning different areas- just didn’t feel “finished”. (3) The room/beach was smaller than what we expected [but still great]. The internet just made it look so much bigger! (4) Some of the restaurants had meals on their menus that weren’t available. Kind of a sad.
Outside of those small things, it was great. The service was amazing, we had our room cleaned like 3 times a day, the food was satisfying, beaches were nice, activities were a blast…what more could you ask for?! The two main excursions we did were zip lining and riding the dune buggies through Jamaica. Both were amazing experiences. We also went tubing and (attempted) kayaking in the ocean. If you want more details on it, hit me up! Here’s a short glimpse at some of the images we captured from our 5 days there. You can see more on my facebook page (personal, not fan page). Oh, and all images are taken on my new Canon G10- definitely my new favorite piece of gear!
They also had a live cultural show every night, and this one group blew us away! They were steel drums group, and they just played pop covers songs throughout the night. They had so much energy and were amazing, I was surprised with how many songs they did! Here’s a video of them doing Rhianna’s Disturbia on the steel drums…a bit long, but they start dancing at the end…
- [Getting Settled] Since coming back, we’ve been in a constant state of ‘getting settled’. Many errands to run, a lot of details to set up at the condo, and responsibilities of meals with relatives now that we are married are taking up our time a lot, so things have been very busy. In total, we’ve got almost all the major things we need taken care of to finally have a comfortable place to live. The main thing now is I need to get an office desk and a comfortable office table- that’s the one unfinished room. So if you are still thinking of getting us a wedding gift, something along those lines would be great! :)
- [Internet] One of the toughest things for us was not having internet at our place immediately. It was one of those tasks that never got accomplished pre-wedding, so it was delayed until after the honeymoon. After thinking long and hard, we decided that we would only get internet service, as my wife isn’t much of a TV watcher to begin with. It was a tough call for me, as there some staple shows for me (sports on ESPN, CSN, TNT, America’s Best Dance Crew, Lie To Me…) that I won’t be able to catch anymore, but I figured I’d give it a shot. Instead, I’ve set up a boxee/hulu/mediacenter box connected to the TV, so we’ll see how this works out.
- [Repurposing] First, I took a really old HP desktop (late 90′s) I had, completely wiped it clean, then just put an OS on it and connected my printer/scanner to it in the office. I set this one up as a print server so we can run any print jobs through it from wherever we are at (my wife appreciates it). I also set up a network drive for all scan jobs so they are available on all computers. Little things like this make life so much more efficient.
Then I took my old Vaio desktop (early 00′s), put Hulu and Boxee on it, and connected it to my TV. I still have quite a few files/folders on there I need to backup, but this will soon become our media center. I need to transfer all our audio files to it, and then it will be the hub for all audio/video. If I start hosting clients over, I’ll have a direct link for client images for easy viewing on the big screen as well! The hulu/boxee setup allows us to now catch up on cable shows, just a day or so after it airs. This definitely will make not having cable internet easier. So far, so good. The only main issue now, is that I only get live sports on CBS, NBC, ABC, WGN, FOX…I get most bears games, but now only a handful of Cubs/Bulls games. And no more World Series of Poker. I digress, I think I’ll be able can handle it.
Oh, I also brought along my old NES. That’s right, the original Nintendo Entertainment System. I went vintage with my entertainment. I need to buy another controller and maybe pick up a few games here and there, but you can never get enough of the classics! - [ABDC] Last night, the wife and I caught up on America’s Best Dance Crew (through MTV.com, as it’s not on Hulu). I haven’t been as vocal about this season as in years past for 2 reasons: (1) I was too busy with wedding planning/marriage/honeymoon that I never really had time and (2) the crews this year are terrible. Terrible might be a gross overstatement, but compared to the last 3 seasons, none of these crews jump out at me as being extremely creative and on point. The two that I like the most are Rhythm City and Massive Monkees- but again, I haven’t been blown away by them. Hopefully in future episodes, these crews will step up their game.
- [Fantasy Football] It’s that time of the year again! This past Thursday, my friends held our Fantasy Football draft- 12 teams, 1 winner. I didn’t fair too well last year, but I’m feeling better about my squad now, as I was actually able to be at the draft. What do you think of my current squad?
QB: Ben Roethlisberger, Aaron Rodgers, Mark Sanchez
RB: Pierre Thomas, Ronnie Brown, Tim Hightower, Leon Washington
WR: Calvin Johnson, Bernard Berrian, Chris Chambers, Justin Gage, Jabar Gaffney
TE: Visanthe Shiancoe
K: Adam Vinatieri
Def: Baltimore Ravens - [Cici's] Ever heard of Cici’s Pizza? They do $4.99 pizza buffet- all you can eat pizza, pasta, salad, soup, dessert. Drinks are an additional $1.79. They just opened one up about 10 minutes from my place, so I dragged my wife with me to stand in line for the grand opening! we got there about 30 minutes early, and the line was already huge (first 100 people got a free lunch buffet once a month for a year). I started to lose heart but we did stay in line until the end…
And for a $5 buffet, it’s good food! I’ll definitely be there once a month (not sure if the wife likes it as much as I do, though…)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Weddings, Personal, [MNR] chicago wedding photographers, Personal No Comments | add a comment
I’m Married!!!!
- August 15, 2009 -
It’s official! I am officially a married man! The ceremony started today bright and early at 9am, with the reception ending around 3:30pm. Man are we exhausted, but its so great to finally be married :) I obviously don’t have any images from the wedding yet (keep an eye out on Kenny Kim’s blog/facebook for those to come), but for now, here’s the slideshow that one of my groomsman put together for us. Enjoy!
We’ve got a few family obligations to take care of, and then we’re heading off to our honeymoon! See you all when we get back!
*OK, fine. I wrote this post yesterday and set it to publish after the wedding. My fiancee wife would kill me if I even thought about blogging the day of the wedding :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[2009.08.03] Monday Night Recap
- August 3, 2009 -
- [Wedding Planning] Yep, that’s pretty much where all my time has gone. I have nothing else to write about, so sorry if you were expecting more :) It’s less than 2 weeks away, though, before I’ll officially be considered a “husband”. Doesn’t that sound crazy?!?!
- [Still Editing] Though I’m done with shooting until after the wedding, I’m still working hard to get past shoots edited and posted. Don’t think I forgot about you all! :) So here’s another tease of the last two shoots that I’ve been working on…they should *hopefully* be hitting the blog soon:
{Alphy + Sony : Wedding}
{Rolly + Ben : E-Session}
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Couples Lifestyle Sessions, Modern Weddings, [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
[2009.07.27] Monday Night Recap
- July 27, 2009 -
- [Texas Hold 'Em] I used to be a big Hold ‘Em person in college, and still occasionally watch the tournaments on ESPN every now and then. It seems to be a new craze among my friends recently, though, so I’ve played a few times again which has re-sparked the interest. Because of this, I jumped on the Hold ‘Em facebook app, which hasn’t been treating me too well. I don’t play too often, but the first day I quickly jumped to the 100k group, and quickly lost it afterward. So the good news is I have a PRO title…the bad news is I currently have under 15k.
- [Purity Code] If you’ve been my facebook friend for awhile, you probably noticed my profile pic at some point was this:
We’ve been holding a series for the high school/college kids at my church called the “Purity Code”, based around creating biblical relationships and fostering personal and relational purity of the body/mind/heart/eyes/etc. It’s been a very great series, and we had the wrap-up this past friday, where I spoke! I basically covered topics about how you know when you’re ready to be in a relationship, and characteristics to look for when choosing a mate. Attending the CFC Dating/Courtship series for 5 years sure helped me out there :) It might seem surprising (or might not), but this was the first serious ‘public speaking’ opportunity I’ve had (outside of sharing my testimony). Though the feedback I’ve received was positive (I think people are just being encouraging, which is great! :)), I’m still not sure whether I’ll chase more speaking opportunities. Only time will tell, we’ll see what happens!
- [Last Shoot] I posted earlier today a teaser from my Saturday e-session with Rolly and Ben. This was the last official shoot I’ve had scheduled before my upcoming wedding, which is a bit bittersweet. Definitely going to miss shooting but I love having the time as there is so much to do before the wedding! I’ll still be culling/editing for another week or so trying to get some sessions complete before I take a bit of a leave for my wedding, so still keep an eye out for that. It’ll be over before you know it!
- [Jen + Jon] Though Saturday was my last ‘official’ shoot pre-wedding, I got to second shoot with my friend Kenny Nakai on Sunday for the wedding of Jen and Jon. There will be much more to see from this wedding on his blog later, but here’s a quick tease from what I saw:
- [The Ugly Truth] Today was a ‘date’ day for my fiancee and I, as it’s the day before her BAR exam. (CRAZY FACT: The BAR exam is 2 days long, from 8-5 both days with a 1-hour lunch. Who does that!??!) My goal was to keep her semi-sane today as well as get her to relax, so we did dinner and a movie. We watched “The Ugly Truth”, which had its moments of humor, but I was unimpressed. I’ve seen better, and I think it was hyped up too much for me.
- [Cubbies] WOO HOO! Since the all-star break, my cubbies have slowly started making their move, and now sit atop the NL Central in first place! Believe It! And an extra joy is they just won in 13 innings today 5-1 by an Alfonso Soriano GRAND SLAM! (and yes, I did wait until the end of the game to post this just to include it)
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natemathai | filed under: [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
[2009.07.20] Monday Night Recap
- July 20, 2009 -
- [Cubbies] After destroying the Nationals to start the second half of the season (woo hoo!) we got a quick dose of reality getting hurt bad by the Phillies today. I’m looking on the bright side though – we’re #2 in the Central and ready to make our move! Let’s Go Cubs!
- [To Catch A Predator] Have you guys seen these shows on Nightline? On MSNBC they’ve been showing these series from the Nigerian scam artists to men soliciting minors via internet chat rooms. And though its disgusting to see these stories, at the same time I keep getting entertained watching these men wait in a living room expecting to see a 14 year old girl walk out, and then Chris Hansen comes through and just starts talking to them. And they all sit there and have a pretty lengthy conversation too!
- [25] It happened. This past friday I reached the ripe old age of 25. It’s crazy! I mean, everyone thought I was old before, but now I’m actually 25. And in less than a month I’ll be known as a husband! What is this world coming to!? Thanks again for all the phone calls/voicemails/text/email/facebook/twitter messages- I definitely felt the love!
- [Birthday Dinner] Even though my fiancee is taking the BAR exam in a week and a half (keep up the prayers!) she still made time to take me out to dinner on Saturday evening. It was a great time for both of us to take a break from the madness of everything, and just relax and enjoy a meal and dessert. We won’t have too many moments like this before the wedding, so we’re definitely soaking it up.
- [Birthdays/Anniversaries] In addition to my birthday a few days back, my family has quite a few celebrations going on in the month of July. My parents’ wedding anniversary and my sister’s wedding anniversary was on July 14th, her in-laws anniversary on the 15th, my brother-in-law’s birthday on the 22nd, my other sister’s anniversary on July 26th, and her birthday on the 30th. That’s part of the reason why we scheduled my wedding for August :) To celebrate, the extended fam went out to Buca di Beppo for some good Italian dining. As an added bonus, my niece made me a birthday book! After reading it there, she also suggested I read it before I go to sleep. And read it to other people too. Consider this you being read to :)
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natemathai | filed under: [MNR], announcement[2009.07.13] Monday Night Recap
- July 13, 2009 -
- [ManTrip] Earlier today, I posted about ManTrip *beta* so you’ll probably want to check that out. There are pretty pictures in that one, too :)
- [Nintendo] As a midday break last week, I broke out the old Nintendo system I had- yep, the classic version. I played the original Super Mario Bros., too, and had a blast! The one downside was that I know all the cheats and stuff, so it literally took me less than 15 minutes to finish the game. Seriously, though, they don’t make games like this anymore. These youngn’s with the PS3s and Wii’s have no clue what true gaming is.
- [Mario Kart] My sophomore year of college, I spent a lot time playing Mario Kart for N64 (and was pretty good, if I do say so myself). It’s been awhile though, and this past weekend I was at a friend’s place after ManTrip and played the Wii version- I wasn’t as good. But it was still as entertaining as before.
- [Home Run Derby] We’ve reached the halfway point in the MLB season, which means its time for the All Star Game and the Home Run Derby. I was watching the first round of the derby today, and I don’t know whether it was because of the participants or location, but it definitely did not have a great “All Star” feel to it. Nothing spectacular, which left me a bit disappointed. (congrats to Prince Fielder, by the fielder).
- [Furniture Delivery] About a month away from the wedding, and there’s still so much to do! We’re starting the ‘settling’ process in our new place now, and are getting the first shipment of furniture delivered between 11 and 2 tomorrow. Woo hoo! Luckily, I have plenty of cleaning to do there so I don’t mind having to wait a 3 hour time frame. But seriously? I would much rather use a service that quoted me a 1-hour time frame and might be off by a half hour or so. But I think I might be asking too much. (This also is my dislike for UPS and FedEx…give me a delivery time!) My office is currently a blank canvas, too, so if you have any suggestions on how to set it up, I’m all ears.
- [BAR Exam] As most of you know, my fiancee is studying for the BAR exam, which she is taking in about 2 weeks (yep, 2 weeks before the wedding- she’s crazy!) She’s reaching the home stretch and has been doing an amazing job studying and staying focused – much better than I would do, that’s for sure. If any of you are the praying type, be sure to throw up a few for her. (At least pray for her sanity up through the wedding :))
- [A Picture] Right…a picture. You didn’t have enough from the ManTrip post? Fine- here’s one that didn’t make the cut from the trip post. (It’s me…proof that I was there)
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natemathai | filed under: Personal, [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
ManTrip *beta*
- July 13, 2009 -
On Twitter, i dubbed it at ManTrip 1.0 when we started the journey, but quickly realized that it wasn’t ready for official release, so it’s been downgraded to beta this time :)
A handful of my buddies decided that we needed a time away from everything and just chill, so after a handful of e-mails going back and forth (which exploded to almost 100 in the thread on the final day) we set out for a 1-day camping trip. Mind you none of us have ever gone camping really, so there would definitely be a learning curve on our trip. 7 of us packed up in an minivan and headed up near the Illinois-Wisconsin border this past weekend for some good times and a much needed break to get re-energized for the 2nd half of the year.
As soon as we got to our location, we quickly rented a few boats and tried our hand at rowing and fishing. The fish weren’t biting (and the rows were having some issues rowing at times), but definitely a blast getting out on the water. It was a beautiful day which made it all the more relaxing of a time, just chilling on the waters.
We headed back to dry land and began to set up tents. This tent claimed to fit 2-3 people…but they don’t know us. Indians can stuff 15 people in a Honda Civic. We definitely will fit at least 7 in this tent. (We did have another tent- though we could fit, we still wanted to sleep comfortably :)).
This guy camping next to us had two tents of his own. Slightly larger. For less people. And he put them up faster then we did. By himself. So what? We’re not embarrassed. Please. We wanted to take a long time to set up the tents…it was a bonding experience.
It was a semi-rough night trying to sleep, but we all got up a little before 5am for some sunrise fishing down on the pier. I’m normally not up by 5am, but it can’t be a beautiful thing. Again, out in the middle of nature with only the sounds of birds chirping and the sun beginning to rise- it’s a very calming feeling. This time, one of our guys actually caught a fish (the picture doesn’t do justice how big it was…it was HUGE!), but we decided to throw it back. And that was all she wrote for fishing.
All in all, ManTrip *beta* was a success. A great learning experience, but a better escape with the guys. I’m ready to get into the home stretch of wedding planning, There’s been talk about doing another one in the future – a more prepared version of camping was an option, or possibly a ski trip. (FACT: Indians don’t ski. I don’t know what these guys are thinking with that one) We’ll see how it all plays out. You got any ideas of where we should go/what we should do next? Maybe by then we’ll be ready to declare it ManTrip 1.0.
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[2009.07.06] Monday Night Recap
- July 6, 2009 -
- [Wedding RSVPs] Wedding planning is definitely in full swing (obviously), and the deadline for our ‘friends and family’ to respond is July 9th. Here are some stats for you guys: including our relatives in India, our invited guest list is 1095 people, with 446 invitations sent out. We currently received 184 rsvp’s, meaning there are still a little over 200 invitations still left to be sent back to us within the next 3 days (supposedly). Any guesses on how many people we’ll actually need to call in a week to see if they’re coming?
- [Furniture] When I was an undergrad at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, all the apartments came fully furnished. That was the life. It was a bit of shock for me to get used to the idea of getting our own place, and THEN having to furnish it as well. But I digress. This past weekend, the fiancee and I went furniture shopping, and ended up at the RoomPlace. I know there’s commission on these sales for them, but seriously, they are vultures! The first time we went, the salesperson literally stood 15 feet away from us at all times just watching us, and every 5-10 minutes would come in and give us some info about furniture options. Personally, I like to have a little time to think about things, so this definitely was not conducive for me. We left their empty handed, but filled with ideas. We went to another store location the next day, where after a bit of time, we finalized the purchases for our bedroom, dining room, and living room. Everything went smoothly up until the time the salesman added $1,000 worth of warranties mattress pads. We then spent another 45 minutes convincing them to take it off- definitely not a way I would want to spend 45 minutes on a Sunday afternoon. In the end though, we ordered our furniture, and are making strides to starting our lives together post-marriage.
- [Fireworks] Here’s a sad fact: I was born and raised in the Chicagoland area, am going to be 25 years old soon, and have never been to the Taste of Chicago nor the Naperville Ribfest. This year was no different. HOWEVER, after the furniture shopping on Saturday, my fiancee and I went to a local firework show, which is still quite entertaining. It amazes me to see hundreds of people just standing around staring at sparks flying in the sky- and I have to admit I too was doing the same thing. I’m still not sure if I truly celebrated the independence of this nation or if I celebrated loud explosions and bright lights.
- [MSL] This Sunday was the start of the 3rd season of the Men’s Summer Basketball League that my home church hosts, and the first one I didn’t participate in. With the busy-ness of shoots and wedding prep, I wasn’t able to commit to the 4 weekends this year, but I heard it was a great turnout with great games. (Interesting note: It took only 5 days for us to reach maximum capacity for the league this year! We definitely need to find some funds to get a bigger gym in order to get more people involved) If you guys are in the area on Sundays in July, definitely come check out the competition!
- [Birthdays] In my group of college friends, it somehow has worked out that majority of us share a birthday-ish with another member of the group, so we generally do dual-celebrations throughout the year. July is my month, with my friend’s birthday on the 13th and mine on the 17th. We went out and got chinese food at Mee Mah’s in Chicago, and then just hung out and caught up on what’s going on in everyone’s life. Since we only are able to get together every other month or so, we normally end off with each person just updating on their lives- great way to reconnect with everyone. It’s crazy that the next time we meet up like this, I’ll be married!
- [Cubbies] Where the heck has the baseball season gone?! I’ve barely watched any games this year, and it’s almost the all-star break. But lately, my Cubbies have been turning things around, finally getting some production from D.Lee, and Ramirez just got off the DL. That’s all great news, and I’m looking forward to the second half of the season.
- [A Picture?] Obviously, you guys really only care about the images here, so it’d be rude of me not to post anything with this post. Here’s a few that I don’t think you’ve seen before. Last year in preparation for my sister’s wedding, we had to clean out our basement where I stumbled upon quite a few treasures (some of which are still down in storage)- the evolution of land lines, an old record player, numerous bibles, my old sports card collections, and even newspapers I collected. Enjoy!
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natemathai | filed under: [MNR][2009.06.29] Monday Night Recap
- June 29, 2009 -
- [Wedding Planning] We’re only about 6 weeks away from my wedding?! It’s still crazy to think that in a month and a half, I’ll be known as a husband. Mind boggling. At least my fiancee thinks I’m ready :) But seriously, we’ve done a good job taking care of the details, but there’s always more to do. We’re continuing to get RSVPs (and with over 1000 people invited, the numbers continue to rise drastically). We’ve recently been on the hunt for an apartment as well, and finalizing details with the ceremony program, reception details, favors, marriage license, etc. Lucky for me my fiancee is extremely organized when it comes to this (all the while studying for the BAR exam), so she keeps me in check with getting things done. Head on over to our wedding website to keep up with our planning as well as leave us some encouraging words (or not-so encouraging words, if you must)- we definitely need it!
- [Wisconsin Dells] This past weekend, I went with my family and my sister’s in-laws to Wisconsin Dells for a little family trip. I was only there for about a day and a half as I had to get back to Chicago for a friend’s wedding on Saturday (congrats Susan and James!). Even still, I had a great time while I was there. Here’s a bit of a recap of the trip (mind you, I only brought my camera with a 24-70…I really need to invest in a quality P&S)
- [Taken] On Saturday evening, I got to hang out with my fiancee, and we Redboxed “Taken“. Definitely a good movie, but not really an emotionally uplifting one. It’s crazy to think that this kind of stuff actually goes on around the world.
- [Lie To Me] Now that I finished watching all 3 seasons of Arrested Development (I hope they bring that show back), I went to the next series in the queue, which was “Lie To Me“. The good news is that I seem to really like it. The bad news is they only have 5 full episodes on hulu, and they aren’t even in order (1, 2, 11, 12, 13). Anyone know where I’d be able to watch all of them? Also, any other rec’s of good shows to catch up on, specifically ones where I can watch all episodes starting with season 1 online?
We stayed at the beautiful Chula Vista Resorts, which had a great indoor/outdoor water park connected to it. I didn’t take any pictures at the water park and instead just enjoyed myself in the water :)
In our room, we had a jacuzzi which the girls had fun taking their baths in. I’m a bit sad that I had to use a normal shower.
The first place we headed was Storybook Gardens, which is a bit of a zoo with childhood stories as the running theme. We took a little train ride around the park before wandering off to see the animals a bit closer. We also saw the 3 bears (stuffed), but they gave Alexis a little bit of a scare when they started to talking to her (ie. my sister hiding behind one mama bear talking to Lex). Madelyn, on the other hand, had a blast seeing the animals, specifically enjoying the ostrich and giraffes. Lex was able to go on a camel ride too, while her father browsed on his iPhone. They also had a little show where they brought out a few animals like an wallabee and spider monkey so people could get a closer look.
Afterwards we had some waterpark fun times (sorry, no pics!), and in the evening made our way to the Tommy Bartlett Show. They have a bunch of water tricks they do which is entertaining, although the whole skit to go alongside the tricks is a bit cheesy. After an hour and a half of that, though, there was intermission followed by some more fun acts. They a had a couple that did an act in a spinning metal…thing. A bit scary when the walk around on the outside while its spinning, with no net. What was even scarier was when the guy tried to jump rope at the very top and hit his leg and almost fell! He recovered though, and jump roped the next time around. After that was a comedic juggler who was pretty funny and talented, and that was followed by a later water/light/laser show. All in all, the parents enjoyed it. :)
Oh, and here’s a little animation of the take-off for one of the performers- he was lifted 650 feet in the air by a rope connected to a speed boat, and then dropped the rope a glide over the crowd and safely land back on stage. It reminded me of those “When Accidents Occur 5″ shows, where everyone is having fun until an act goes terribly wrong- luckily this one went well :)
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natemathai | filed under: PersonalNimisha + Shibu : Thank You
- June 29, 2009 -
Most of the time, I get my ‘thanks’ through e-mails, twitter, and facebook messages (and seeing everyone leaving comments on the blog, on pictures posted on fb, or on their walls- I LOVE that!). And as much as I love technology and the digital realm for a social community, there is always something a bit more special about a handwritten note. I just got this in the mail from Nimisha and Shibu, and it brought a smile to my face- definitely gives that added boost to get through the week (…that, plus the grande-with whip-upside down-caramel macchiato next to the card :)).
Thanks guys! Hope you’re having a blast in Africa for your engagement!
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[06.22.09] Monday Night Recap
- June 23, 2009 -
I’m back! So it seems people were actually interested in my life and read the monday night recaps (some with great anticipation, it seems), so I’m going to try and bring it back. And it was a nice weekend to do so. Let’s see…
- [Arrested Development] So ever since the Office ended it’s season, I’ve been needing another show to watch while I edit and such. My college roommate suggested Arrested Development, and since all episodes were on Hulu, I decided to give it a try. I must say- HILARIOUS! In a different way. A lot of the humor is in the narration, the do a lot of recaps of the previous episodes, but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I just recently got into the 3rd season (which I believe is the last one before it got taken off the air), so I’m trying to space it out a bit. Anyone got other show recommendations for me, preferably where all seasons are available to watch online?
- [GSL] After setting up the men’s summer basketball league a couple years back, we finally had it running well enough to try our hand at a new league. With much love to the girls who help us out each year, we were able to set up a girls summer volleyball league with HUGE success. We had over 70 participants in the inaugural season, and there was quite the competition! I only had my camera the first two weeks, so here’s a glimpse of the early days of the league. (Big ups to the “mary’s” for taking home the title of the first ever Girls Summer League Champs!)
- [Car Trouble] I seem to have had a little mishap this past weekend. After shooting the church formals at the wedding, I headed out to head over to the groom’s place when I saw this:
So sad. It’s not the nicest car, but it’s still my car. (tear) In other news, My civic just passed the 100,000 mile mark! Outside of some minor dents and dings, this thing has been very faithful over the past 8 years. We’ll see if I can push it another 100,000! (wish me luck :))
- [Losing Things] I don’t know why, but I seemed to have misplaced a bunch of stuff at this past wedding, too! I’m missing a StoFen for one of my flashes, the screws for my light stands, as well as my macbook pro power cord. I guess it’s just bad luck.
- [Taco Bell] If you’ve followed my tweets from last night, you probably heard of some madness from Taco Bell (the one located on 9631 N Milwaukee Ave, Niles, IL). Now, I think I’ll do a ‘blender’ about customer service using this as a case study, but for now here’s the gist of the madness-After the girls’ summer league, a couple of the guys went out to taco bell to grab a quick meal. We got in at 10:50, with the dining area closing at 11pm. We asked if were able to eat quickly and go, but they said no (no big deal, we understand). One friend was playing the charity-donation game where you drop a coin in a machine to win like a free taco or something. He won, manager came over to verify, and we’re good. He drops another coin in, and then another friend plays and wins again. They say that only one win per person, per day. We told them it was two different people, and then they started to argue about it, not wanting to make another taco for us. At this time, we said to look at the security tape because then they’ll know we’re not lying (we just want the truth!), which might have gotten them a bit annoyed, but they finally allowed us to get it. My friend went from the counter to the fountain drinks, where he believes he put down his wallet/phone, and then went back to the counter with only his wallet. We got the food and went to eat outside on our cars.
As soon as he got to the car, he realized he didn’t have his phone, so he went back in to look for it. The employees were of no help, not offering any suggestions or whatnot. We asked again to see the security camera to at least verify that he did have the phone in there at some point (as they said the camera only points at the register). One employee went to the back, came out a few minutes later and told us he saw nothing on the cameras. At this point we felt that they quite possibly had some knowledge of it, so we called the cops to at least file a report. They called their manager who then showed up from her house, and asked us to stay outside until the cops came. She was upset at us for trying to blame her employees of stealing, when we wanted to see the security tape. The police officers came and just recorded both stories, asked to the security tapes, to which the manager said they don’t have access to rewind the tapes- only the corporate supervisor can do that. (Ummm…does that mean the first guy lied to us?) So that pretty much ended any hope.
We continued to wait outside and try to do our own detective work in tracking the phone. Through contacting AT&T, checking phone logs and such, we were able to semi-track the location of the phone to a mile radius, as well as know who has been contacted by it. To this point, we still haven’t found it, but we’re slowly making progress. A quick 30 minute dinner at Taco Bell turned into a 3-hour ordeal. Of which a lot of stress could have been avoided, I think, with good customer service on the part of the Taco Bell employees. Like I said, I’ll probably do a video about my views on the whole CS issue, as I think it warrants an interesting discussion. - [Cubbies] OK, so I haven’t been following them as much as I would like, specifically because of the great playoff runs by the Chicago Bulls and the Chicago Blackhawks this year. Also, we have been playing terribly. But recently we’ve pulled out some great wins (a few come-from-behind ones), which is getting me excited again. Go, Cubs, Go!!!
- [Wisconsin Dells] This weekend I’ll be heading out with my family and my sister’s in-laws to the Dells for a little vacation, and I’m looking forward to the break! One guarantee- I will not be riding any roller coasters there.
Hope that kept you entertained :) I know its a little past midnight, but hey, it’s back, right?! As always, if you have anything you’d like me to comment about, let me know!
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Alphy + Sony : Wedding {teaser}
- June 22, 2009 -
More to come, but for now, enjoy the tease from their beautiful ceremony:
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natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Raina + Libu : Proposal {teaser}
- June 15, 2009 -
That’s right- another baller “will you marry me?”! Obviously, more to come, but here’s your tease:
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natemathai | filed under: PersonalJaicy + Sajan : Wedding {teaser}
- June 8, 2009 -
This past weekend I had some fun second shooting with Kenny Nakai at the wedding of my friends Jaicy and Sajan in Oak Brook, IL. Here’s a quick tease from the ceremony:
In other news, I wanted to throw out a quick question- should I bring back the Monday Night Recap (MNR)? Let me know if you people missed it…
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natemathai | filed under: PersonalThe Blender – Getting Help
- May 14, 2009 -
A normal workout this morning at Cardinal got my mind thinking – we all need help.
Agree? Disagree? Why do think people don’t ask for help/assistance on important things, and what do you think we can do to help us overcome that? Would love to hear your thoughts on it.
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Getting My Party On!
- April 27, 2009 -
This past weekend, my groomsmen took me up to Wisconsin for my bachelor party! My wedding is less than 4 months away, and though we’ve got taken care of, there’s still a good amount left to do and it was nice to take a break for a weekend with the guys. Even though the weather wasn’t that nice to us with scattered rains, we still had a great time.
Initial plans were to go boating, but the downpour slowed that down. After we got settled in our lodge, we wandered around to some indoor locations, and came upon Knuckleheads for some bowling. It was another bowling day where I DIDN’T break 200, but at least I didn’t have a sub-120 showing, right? Afterwards, we decided that it wasn’t raining hard enough to stop us from a little outdoor activities. So in the drizzle we went out for a little go-karting! The rain shut down 3 of the 4 tracks, but we were able to get two races in before they shut the last one down because of slick roads. On our way out to get lunch, the guys saw a mini-roller coaster that was still running (the big one shut down due to the rain). Now, I’m not a big roller-coaster guy…I hadn’t really ridden one in over 10 years, pre-high school. It’s something about the feeling that the bars don’t truly have me secured. I loved it when I was younger, but growing up I just got over it. But much to my protest, I was forced on this 30 second ride. It truly was such quite a rush (almost enjoyable/entertaining), except for my knees banging into the cart in front of me.
The ride ended with a steep drop…a little too steep I guess. Out from my pocket flew my wallet and iPhone! I was being whipped so much around that I didn’t even notice it happened! Getting off the cart was when I realized that it was missing. After searching the top level, we walked under the ride to try to find everything (it was safe…they shut down this ride after our ride too!) My roommate first spotted my wallet that had my credit cards thrown on the grass just under the drop – surprisingly everything was there (except maybe $20 in cash). We kept looking around a bit before my brother-in-law was able to spot my iPhone! Underneath the track, falling on some leaf-covered concrete, lay my precious phone. We jumped down and pulled it out- touchscreen worked, incoming/outgoing calls worked, camera worked, twitter/internet worked! Not only that, the glass was in perfect shape, except for a bit of dust that got underneath and 2 dead pixels! The back, however, ended up with quite a few battle scars. The following picture doesn’t quite do justice to the torture the phone went through, but next time you see me I’ll let you feel the deep ridges- looks like the trade-in value of this phone just went down a bit :/
After dinner and a quick stop at the casino (where I quickly lost another $20 on roulette), we headed back to the lodge for some 6-player monopoly. They showed me know mercy even though it was my bachelor party, and I got knocked out 5th in the 4 hour game, but it was definitely fun times! I love games where you can play for hours and its always a new experience. Computer/video games just don’t have that same effect.
Sunday morning, we got breakfast over at Paul Bunyan’s all-you-can-eat breakfast joint – great donuts, pancakes, and eggs. Surprisingly our stomachs just weren’t big enough, and only lasted two servings. Still a great meal that I recommend if you ever make your way out to the Dells area.
All in all, a great time off for me from the wedding planning as well as the shooting season. Though iI’m a bit under the weather, I’m starting to feel more refreshed, and getting ready to get back into editing and shooting. Look out people, I’m back! :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalBeautiful Day
- April 23, 2009 -
1.) We are FINALLY seeing nice weather here in Chicago (though we had a little ‘snow’ scare on Tuesday). I’m loving it! If only I’d stop sneezing so much (the fiancee says it’s allergies…I still don’t believe her though…)
2.) Why the heck do I never get clouds like this when I got a shoot!? It was a beautiful sight, though, I must say. Here’s to a beautiful future!
Remember when you were younger (erm…last week?) and you would just sit outside, lie on your back and watch clouds, and see different things? Those were some good times, and I feel like we don’t do things like that enough. So for you stuck behind a computer and can’t go do that right now, what figures/characters/stories do you see in these clouds? Love to hear your interpretations.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalIn Between
- April 22, 2009 -
For the past few months, my home church has been having renovations done on our building, and so we have been holding services at Life Community Church. It’s been a blessing in and of itself to have such an opportunity, but even more doors have been opened recently. Last weekend, Life Community hosted an “In Between” service on the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, with the focus being on living life between brokenness and redemption. A few of the kids from my church put on a praise dance during the event as well. It was an awesome night of reflection.
The first performance was by a singer named LE Taylor, who had an amazing testimony to share.
After her, was the rap group ALERT who definitely got the people moving.
During the service, a group went up and shared about the “Invisible Children.” It was crazy to hear about all that has/had been going on on the other side of the world. I definitely recommend you guys to check out the site and videos to learn more.
Then came the dance by the kids from my church. Awesome work guys!
Another plug was given for Coffee Ambassadors, which is a “business as mission” concept dedicated to impact coffee producers and consumers economically, socially, spiritually, and environmentally. You can currently order their coffee beans online, and they are looking into having some standing coffee shops in the area soon.
Again, it was a great time for me to spend time reflecting on my life, and how we’re living in between brokenness and redemption- it’s Friday…but Sunday’s coming!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Events, Personal No Comments | add a comment
It’s Friday…
- April 11, 2009 -
This excerpt from a message by Tony Campolo is one that always challenges and entertains me everytime I hear it. But it truly gives me hope in the future. Right now we’re living in Friday…living in pain, brokenness, and among a fallen generation. But our hope is in the future- Sunday’s coming, the time of ressurection and redemption. It’s a perfect time for that reminder. Check out the short audio clip here: Sunday’s Coming.
Have a blessed Easter Weekend!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
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Congratulations UNC and amoney71
- April 7, 2009 -
Last night a I got together with a few friends to watch the NCAA championship match between Michigan State and North Carolina. I was obviously cheering one MSU for two reasons:
(1) Big Ten Love
(2) 2005. UNC defeated ILL during our miraculous tournament run. I will never let that go.
Well, all the wishing and hoping and praying in the world couldn’t stop MSU from getting owned- UNC just played solid basketball start to finish, and MSU did not. So with that, congrats UNC.
In addition, mad props go out to amoney71 who won the 2009 Nate Mathai Photography NCAA Tournament Challenge. 1 of 5 contenders picking UNC to take it all, he won by 30 points overall. (I, on the other hand, finished in a respectable 17th. Bah!) It’s nice when your bracket has this much green in it:
So as promised, amoney71 will be receiving the title of “Baller of the Year” and an iTunes gift card. Thanks everyone for playing!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Turkey Run
- April 6, 2009 -
This past weekend I made my ‘final’ U of I trip before my fiancee graduates. Generally, I try to make it an extended 4-5 day type trip so that I have time to catch up with old friends and such, but scheduling didn’t work this time. Even, still I was able to see familiar faces for at least a short amount of time, which was great.
Outside of the usual meals, movies, church events, and such, we decided to take a trip out to Marshall, Indiana. Why you ask? For TURKEY RUN! I had gone there a few years back with my church small group, and its a beautiful hiking trail out in the middle of nowhere. It was a great time just to get away. Sandwiched between rain on Thursday/Friday and a snow on Sunday, we were blessed with beautiful weather for our trip on Saturday!
Now, as most of you know I’m no landscape photographer or anything like that…but I still got to take pics!
The start of our journey -> it took us forever to find this path again!
A quick pic of us in one of the valleys.
This was kind of crazy- how does a tree this huge get uprooted? It’s amazing to see so many massive trees completely upended.
Halfway through I decided to just use my macro for the remainder of the trail (the rest of the pics are all shot with the macro). It was probably around this time when my fiancee lost the map. We walked for about 3 miles to start, and figured it’d be fine not to have a map, we’ll just keep following the trail and return home soon. In addition to the beautiful scenery, I was enjoyed some of their signage as well!
Now, there are about 10 different trails that intersect each other at various points, with only 2 or 3 that lead back to the campgrounds. So not having a map in the middle of one of the ‘hardest’ trails is not that great of an idea (especially after a 2 hour trek already). Though beautiful scenery, this wasn’t just your average hike through the woods trails, either. Following the rain in the previous days, the streams were flowing which led to hiking through valleys of water, climb rocks and ladders, and traverse our way across fallen trees, branches and rocks. Definitely a great workout, though! What started out as a maybe a 3 mile trip for us turned into a 5 hour, 8 mile hike before we finally found our way back to our campgrounds. Every now and then we saw signposts like the following – definitely didn’t give us encouragement that we were going in the right direction :)
(Yep, we did cross that stream, and many others.)
Though a bit longer than we expected, it definitely was a great trip! Next time we’ll probably make sure we save the map though, and maybe try out their canoe trips or horseback rides.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
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Who Will Shoot Me… (Kenny Kim)
- April 3, 2009 -
This post is a bit long overdue (as you all found out through my proposal/e-session pics awhile ago), but it’s only fitting to top off my “Who Would Shoot Me” list with the one who will actually shoot my wedding. I only gave a small handful of names out of a vast majority of awesome photographers out there. Even still, I ultimately had to make a decision as to who would be the photographer for my wedding. There’s so much great talent everywhere, but we finally chose Kenny Kim (aka KennyKimDotCom).
A little background is that Kenny and I were both on campus at the same time at the University of Illinois during my undergrad, and he (unknowingly) played a huge role in my jump into photography. We both attended the same church there (Covenant Fellowship Church), and he pretty much just filled the role of the church photographer, covering all the different events. From my freshman year I stalked his blog, which definitely made me a lot more knowledgeable on who was who in the church. More so than just capturing the images, though, Kenny took it one step further in a way that I never really experienced before. His images themselves carried emotion. They told a story from start to finish. For events I attended, I relived it; and for those I wasn’t there for, I felt as if I was. He had an amazing gift of recognizing passion and emotion within people and situations, and being able to transfer that into a still moment in time. And from that, I was hooked.
This guy’s rise in the photographic industry was huge as well. With pretty much no fear or shame, he quickly got connected to some of the most talented photographers around, and within 2 years, has become a household name the world over – he’s such a social butterfly :) Seeing as how I had already known him before, it was pretty easy of a decision to pick him up when I did to shoot my wedding…it also helped that he was local :)
check out his work: site | blog
So that’s that. In about a few months, I will be a happily married man at the ripe old age of 25. Keep a lookout on Kenny’s blog when he posts our wedding pics after Agust 15th…I’ll definitely be linking to them too.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
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Jenny Rose Handmade Originals
- April 2, 2009 -
Here’s a little shoutout for a friend of mine being creative (I love when people get creative!).
Jenny and I were on the campus of the University of Illinois (Urbana, Champaign) at the same time during my college career, and she served as a mentor/overseer for the Indian Christian Fellowship out there (where I served). She got married a few years back and has since moved out to the west coast in California and started creating some awesome “handmade originals“! Now, I’m not a big candle guy or anything like that, but these things look AWESOME! I’m seriously thinking of picking up some of her ‘Daring and Delicate Tea Cups’ for myself. Here’s a pic pulled from her facebook fan page.
Just wanted to get the word out there about these cool new candles out there. You can check out all her products and order her stuff at her Etsy page, and then go be a fan of her Facebook page.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Bobby & Reeny (teaser)
- March 29, 2009 -
Last Saturday, I kicked off the busy-ness of the shooting season with a bit of a relaxed shoot, since it was my cousin’s engagement ceremony. I’ll get a full post later on, but as people keep shouting at me for teasers from the weekend, I wanted to try to tame the crowds before I get hurt. So here’s a quick one for the ceremony:
There are two more teasers to come from last weekends shoots, so keep an eye out! Looking to get all the teasers up sometime this week.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
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JOIN THE CHALLENGE!
- March 15, 2009 -
Since junior high, I’ve been creating NCAA tourney brackets. And in all these years, I’ve never won a single pool I’ve participated in. So why do I still do it? For the love of the game! The NCAA tournament is one of the most exciting sporting events ever because of the drama and the upsets. If you’ve never been hooked before, definitely fill out a bracket and follow the action- you’ll be checking the scores non-stop, especially during the first weekend.
So as always, I’ve set up an online pool through ESPN.
FOLLOW THIS LINK TO JOIN: NMP Tourney Challenge
To sweeten the deal a bit this year, the winner will get a $10 iTunes Gift Card (plus, I will give you the official title of “Baller of the Year”)! What makes it even more exciting is that you can know absolutely nothing about college basketball and still win the whole thing! (it makes people like me a bit upset, but I’ve gotten over it…every year).
So head on over the ESPN, create an entry, and join the group! First games start this Thursday, so you have a couple days to do your research (if you want to) and get on board!
Some Helpful Hints:
- #1 teams have never lost in the first round (although a #15 has defeated a #2)
- Only once in the history of the tournament (last year) 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 ;)
That should give you guys a little added kick in picking your teams. Again, its open to anyone and everyone so spread the word! Only a couple days before the brackets get locked and you’re left out in the cold!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Monday Night Recap?
- March 9, 2009 -
OK, so I feel like it’s been FOREVER since I last posted, and for that I’m truly sorry! Things have been quite busy lately, and it’s going to get even more hectic, but that’s no excuse. Don’t worry, I’ll get back on track with all of this. But while I’m here, I figured I’d give a bit of an update of what’s been going on.
MacBook Pro
One of the main reasons why I’d been MIA: the logic board on my MBP fried. At first I thought it was my hard drive that crashed, and was just going to replace it (lucky for my I backup). Apple looked at it, though, and confirmed it was the logic board that was gone, so they got that replaced for me. Took about a week to get my laptop back- I felt so alone during that time. But it finally came home this past weekend, and I’m good to go! Thanks for your concern.
ABDC
Since I haven’t been doing the MNR anymore, unless you follow me on twitter you didn’t get updated on my following of America’s Best Dance Crew! Much respect to the top teams, but Quest Crew seriously was amazing. There was a heated debate between friends about who deserved to win based on the entire season- Quest Crew or Beat Freaks. My take: Beat Freaks were amazing. They had some great performances, EXCEPT for the last show, where both performances were unimpressive. Quest Crew brought something new each week. Some shows they were outperformed by Beat Freaks, but there wasn’t a single performance where they didn’t show up. Based on creativity and consistency, the best team definitely won.
S.A.L.T.
Cornerstone Fellowship at the University of Illinois in Chicago held their second annual SALT Conference, and I was blessed to help cover part of the event for them again. Now that I’ve got my laptop back I can start catching up on my editing again, and will get a full post up about soon.
One thing that I have a serious problem with is design: I am never satisfied and constantly try to design and re-design the heck out of things. I’m already thinking of revamping this site again, and I’m surprised I’ve kept it like this for as long as I have. One thing I decide to change up, which was a semi-quick one, was redesigning my twitter home page. I realized that more and more people me check out my tweets who might not actually “know” me or follow my blog like the three of you, so I re-designed it a bit to give a bit more info and ways to connect with me. So go to my page and check it out! (and follow me if you’re on twitter…you’ll definitely get updates much faster than just reading the blog :))
Wedding Website
This was the other big design undertaking that I took. Last fall I built my wedding website, and I was semi-pleased with it, but definitely not satisfied. About 6 months have gone by since it went live, and I felt I needed to completely overhaul it. We wanted to make it more fun for people to come to the site and bring people back more often. And since I’m already a blogging fiend, I think you already how I redesigned it. :) Once again, big ups to Kenny Kim for his e-session pics that are scattered throughout the site. Head over to our new and improved wedding website (http://www.nateandnithya.com/) and let me know what you think! (Don’t forget to sign the guestbook (multiple times if you’d like :)), and if there’s anything you’d like me to blog about over there, let me know!)
NCAA Tournament
It’s that time of the year again! This is one of my favorite sporting events of all time because you seriously do not know what’s going to happen next. My beloved Illinois is definitely in the tourney again, and it’s only a question of what seed they get (looking for a good showing in the Big Ten tourney this week to help them out). all 65 teams will be announced this weekend, and then the fun begins! I’ve set up a pool over on ESPN so you can go and get setup right now, but you’ll only be able to make your bracket after Selection Sunday. I’ll get another post up when it opens up to remind everyone, but head over there right now to create your logins and stuff (and tell your friends too…the more the merrier!).
Group Name: NMP Tourney Challenge
Also, to sweeten the deal a bit, winner of the tourney will get a $10 iTunes gift card! (If I win, I’ll wait patiently for one of you to send me a gift card :)) If that’s not reason to get involved, I don’t know what is! So again, let people know and get ready for the madness we all love, starting this weekend!
Alright, that should hold you guys over for a bit longer, right? ;)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Formal Engagements, Modern Events, Modern Weddings, Personal, [MNR]Chicago Auto Show 2009
- February 22, 2009 -
I’ve been born and raised in the greater Chicagoland area, meaning I’ve been here for almost 25 years now. Surprisingly, one thing that I had never done before was go to the Chicago Auto Show, held annually at McCormick Place in downtown Chicago. Now I’ve never been a huge ‘car guy’ per se, but I do believe it’s an experience to have. This past Saturday, I went with a couple a friends to this year’s show and it was an interesting event as a whole. It wasn’t as crowded as I expected possibly due to the fact it was the second to last day of the show, plus there was the 4-8 inches of snow that had just fallen the night before (gotta love Chicago weather!), but still quite a few people were there to see what’s new conceptually and just to sit in some really nice cars.
Well, without further ado, here’s a glimpse of some of the cars shown at this year’s show:
I saw this sign in the BMW section which grabbed my attention to sit and ponder for a bit…
For those of you looking to get me a wedding gift later this year and nothing on the registry catches your attention (or it’s all gone by the time you check it out) feel free to get us the next car which I believe stole a little bit of my heart yesterday: the Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren. I believe the price tag on this one was $495k, but I’m sure you can bargain that down a bit in this economy :) Oh, I’d like to have an orange interior, though…thanks!
And the big finish: BUMBLEBEE! Not sure how many of you grew up on Transformers, but it’s a classic! And with Transformers 2 coming out in the summer, GM brought out Bumblebee along with a couple friends (in car form) to the auto show, which was nice to see.
Here’s a question for you all: What’s your dream car (if money was no option)? Either put the car name, or describe it (if it hasn’t been made yet) in the comments below! Looking forward to hear from you all!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Events, PersonalWho Would Shoot Me… (Ed Pingol)
- February 17, 2009 -
Continuing in my series of photographers I’d love to photograph my wedding, it’d be an honor to have Ed Pingol.
He’s one (of the many) photographers whose work just makes me sit and stare sometimes. His ability to use off camera flash in such a dramatic and powerful way is so captivating…its that pure HDR (high dynamic range) feel to it. Couple that with his creative group formals/portraits and you have yourself a winner. When you look through his work, it is so clear that his couples have a blast, and he has a blast as well! What more could you ask for than your vendors having a great time with you at your wedding?
check out his work: blog
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalFAILBLOG: Verizon
- February 10, 2009 -
Not sure if any of you guys follow FailBlog.org, but they got some pretty fun stuff on there (mainly online pics and video). You can check out their videos on their youtube channel here.
This one, by far, was mind blowing for me, though, and I felt I should share…any of you guys Verizon users? (Now, I was a math major, but seriously…)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
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The Blender – Embarrassing Moment
- February 6, 2009 -
It’s happened! I finally came up with a name and posted a new video! Woo hoo!
The vide blog entries are going to be called “The Blender – a delicate mix of business, life and all things baller.” This name came out of nowhere a few weeks ago and not by reader suggestion, but I still feel like I should give away the $10 iTunes gift card. It only seems fitting to give it to a duo that seemed to have tried the hardest- Raina and Rincey from up my Wisconsin e-mailed me a list of 20 names! (Of course, a few were just duplicates that ended with ‘in under 5 minutes’, but still!) Here are a couple of their suggestions:
-”Rarely Updated Report”
-”Nate in a Nutshell”
-”Nate to the Point”
So congratulations guys…I’ll get you your ‘winnings’ shortly.
Now on to the video! It’s a little ‘getting to know you’ one, and would love to get some feedback! Let me know what you think, other things you’d like to hear me talk about, and also share along with me. That’s the only way to make this blog more of a discussion and it helps me know I’m not talking to myself :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: The BlenderFounder’s Week – Moody Bible Church (Alistair Begg)
- February 4, 2009 -
Last night a bunch of my guys headed over to Moody Bible because they are hosting Founders Week this week (a week long event in celebration of the founder D.L. Moody). Although I’ve lived here my whole life, this was my first time attending this conference, and it was an amazing experience. Alistair Begg simply spoke truth in his message, and it was great to hear!
One concept that really stuck out: ‘There is a significant number within the Christian framework that don’t understand/believe/can explain the truth of the gospel. So many people don’t tell or haven’t really heard the gospel; we tell the benefits of believing or the dangers of not believing, but not the gospel itself. In this we simply rely on human wisdom and empty the cross of its power.’
I was able to grab a few pics from my seat so enjoy the view!
This was a crazy sight: 2 people playing the same piano…at the same time!
It was also an awesome time to hear Christy Nockels of Watermark there!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Events, PersonalSuperbowl Sunday Recap
- February 2, 2009 -
Did you all have a blast yesterday? The anticipation into Superbowl Sunday was not the same this year as in years past, but still I had some fun times. Here’s a bit of a recap for all of you.
The Game
I wasn’t too excited about the competition…interested, but not really excited. I believed the Steelers would win, but hope the Cards had it in them for that feel-good story. We hosted a little party at my church to watch the game projected which was fun. For most of it though…we weren’t watching. Much of the time was spent either talking or playing games. But we did catch the important parts. In all seriousness, all you needed to watch was like that last two minutes of the first half, and the final 5 minutes of the game. But if you watch that, it was seriously one of the top Superbowls in recent history. Big props to Rothlisburger and Holmes for putting together an amazing finish to the game. And much respect to Larry Fitz as well…he played an MVP worthy game.
Commercials
Because of all the conversations and rounds of CatchPhrase going on, I didn’t really watch any of the commercials. I did catch up this morning on Hulu, so be sure to swing over there if you missed any. Here’s a recap of my faves:
1- Millers One Second Ad: The ad itself wasn’t anything amazing, but it was a great marketing concept. They hyped it up perfectly. And by only paying for a one second spot, they saved money, while drawing everyone (many people?) to watch a lot more of their commercials online. In that sense, brilliant. We’ll see how it plays out for their sales.
2- ETrade: The babies are always great…even more so, the bloopers here.
3- Cash4Gold: I laughed at the old commercials because it was funny even when it was not supposed to be. This one actually had the intent of being humorous…well done MC Hammer and Ed McMahon!
4- Monster: The one with the moose…genius!
5- Gatorade: Very well done…I wish there was something more…not sure what. It didn’t have a huge punch, but I still enjoyed it.
What were your faves? Which ones were hits, and which ones were misses?
The Office
After the game, there was a special 1 hour episode of The Office and it was truly HILARIOUS! The opening set was the best one ever. This episode probably had the funniest one-liners (and the most) than any other show. I know there are many people who haven’t jumped on board with The Office…you are seriously missing out. It’s in my top4 TV Series of all-time (alongside Law&Order, Seinfeld, and Friends). The writing is extremely witty and smart. I’m telling you, go online and check out this past episode, you’ll seriously be rolling. Here are a few of my favorite lines:
“Barack is president! You are black, Stanley!” – Michael Scott
[on the size of Michael's...stuff] “If it were an iPod, it’d be a shuffle” – Pam Beasley
“Boom. Roasted” – Michael Scott
That’s just a small tasting of the awesomeness in the show. Seriously, go check it out now.
Photobooth
For some added fun times, I decided to bring some of my gear with me and set up a faux-photobooth (err…maybe…”the fauxtobooth”??) during the big game as well. We had pretty limited space so I couldn’t find a clean wall to shoot against, so I instead used one light just to blow out the back wall as much as I could. It was pretty much a hack job, but quite a fun time! I’m looking forward to doing things like this more often…but the rule is I’m only taking your picture if your fun and creative. Enjoy these, and check out the full set on facebook!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalMonopoly (World Edition)
- January 29, 2009 -
I normally tell people I’m not a “game” person. I enjoy playing board games and such at times, but generally I don’t get excited about playing games. The main reason is I enjoy the ‘classics’. Playing games like Taboo, Catchphrase, Mad Gabs, etc. can be fun at times, but it doesn’t have the same lasting power I need. My games of choice: Scrabble, Chess, and Monopoly. These guys are much more lengthy in the amount of time it takes (it took us a little over 2 hours, I think), but they are so much fun!
One of my college roommates had his birthday a couple days ago, so my other roommates and I got together for a post-birthday celebration of Monopoly. But this wasn’t the old-school version…we got the new “World Edition”. I’m still not sure how I feel about it…it’s so odd not seeing Baltic Avenue, St. James Place, and Boardwalk…and instead bidding on places like Tokyo, Taipei, and London. I brought along my new macro lens to try it out, so here’s some shots:
One of the major changes: no more cash! everything is done with these plastic credit cards…it does speed up the game in figuring out how much money everyone has and making transactions faster.
I started out pretty well off with property…but I just didn’t have the money to build much…
And its very difficult when you circle around and see this.
Fun times, indeed! Forget all the Texas Hold-em games, Monopoly is the game of 2009! Any other Monopoly fans out there? What’s your favorite board game?
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal, engagementOn Goal Setting and Accountability
- January 26, 2009 -
As some of you (5?) loyal blog readers might have noticed, last year I created a “28 in 2008” list- 28 goals/markers/events/activities I wanted to get accomplished by the end of 2008. Some of them were easier, others were a big stretch…and a lot of stuff I didn’t accomplish. If you hit up the link, I did a recap of what I accomplished and what I didn’t, and what I learned through it all.
Basically, the main points that I learned was that I would never reach a goal if:
- I lost sight of the purpose
- I didn’t feel the goal was “truly” purposeful
- I didn’t have any accountability to reach it
For many of the goals, I didn’t have a greater “purpose” in doing so ingrained in my mind throughout the year, which made it a lot easier to push it off. For things that I felt for more necessary, I would put greater emphasis on it. Recognizing this really helped me learn something big about setting goals: Start with a great purpose to accomplish, then work your way backwwards to smaller goals/markers along the way. Only when I look past the actual goal and see something greater will I be willing to push myself to go up to and beyond it. Also, for most of the goals they were things that I was just keeping in my own head- though I posted it online, I didn’t set out to have others actively push me and keep me on track, which made it simple to let slip and not have to answer to anyone about it.
For 2009, I didn’t make a large list again, as it would be semi-purposeless (in my eyes) to do so again. I did, however, set up 2 goals, and have booked up accountability for it to help me along the way. They were both on last year’s list too, but now I have thought through actual purposes for it as well.
[GOAL #1] Read Through the Bible in 1 Year
Purpose: I wanted to greater knowledge of God and a vision for His kingdom and where I fit into it all. I want to have a foundation able to lead and teach others. I need to set aside more time to hear HOW God has worked in the past to have a better understanding of ways He WILL work in my present.
At the beginning of the year, like many, a bunch of my twitter-friends wanted to make a commitment to read through the Bible this year. And like other years, many start with a burst of energy and then fizzle out a couple weeks/months in. We wanted to change that, so we set up an online accountability. One friend created a Google Docs spreadsheet which outlined what passages to read in order to finish it in a year (or 3 months, as some are trying to do). And then everyone who wanted to do it would sign in, add their name and then ‘check off’ when they finish reading a passage. Having this in the view of everyone is a push enough to stay consistent, and we can call people out (in a loving way) if they fall behind too much.
In addition, so people aren’t just reading for the sake of reading, I set up a quick online forum that we affectionately called BibleTweet, where people would be able to post questions or insights so that people would be able to learn too! It’s only been a month, but its been awesome!
[GOAL #2] Get Physically Fit
Purpose: In order for me to perform my work effectively and efficiently, my health needs to be there. Moving forward towards marriage, I need to look good :), and more importantly after marriage and heading into family life, I want to be able to keep up with any little ones that might come into the world (whenever that might be).
A handful of my friends set up a “weight loss challenge”, where everyone put in some money in a winner-take-all battle. It was a great idea, except there’s a few of us who don’t necessarily need to lose weight..we’re just out of shape. So we decided to set up our own little competition: A 3-month fitness challenge. With a small $25 entry, it’s a winner-take-all battle, where we are scoring off of decrease in body fat %, # of workouts per week, # of miles run, and increase in strength (based off of pound increase for the bench press, bicep curl, shoulder press, and bicep curl). We wanted to have as much of a full body workout as possible, so this is what we came up with. And we’re keeping our weekly workouts and vitals transparent (for those involved), which is just the accountability we need. Plus, I don’t want to lose $25! So wish me luck! It’s been awhile since I’ve been really consistent with working out, but since starting this, I’ve got added motivation. (And hopefully once I’m consistent for a good 3 months, it’ll finally come up to be a regular discipline in my life)
I wanted to challenge you guys to take some time and set up at least one goal to accomplish this year. But before figuring out the goal, find out a purpose. What do you want from life? At the end of it all, where would you like to be? What would you like to see? What’s your driving force? Once you figure that, what’s a realistic (but challenging) step along the way to reach by the end of the year? When you figure that out, tell 2-3 people who will check up on you to make sure you reach and pass that goal with flying colors. Make this year the greatest one yet!
Oh…and since a post is boring without a picture…ummm…hmmmm…here’s my a shot taken with my new toy quality piece of business equipment that will help me make your pictures that much more wonderful!
It’s the Canon 100mm 2.8 Macro lens! If I had jewelry I’d show you just how much it’ll spice up the ring shots at your wedding, but since I don’t…you’ll have to settle for this beautiful AA Duracell battery…look at the detail! :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalNMP Challenge: December
- January 25, 2009 -
Hey everyone, I seem to be off to a slow start with the blog in 2009, but don’t worry, I’ve ready for change!
This post is rather overdue, but I’ve been running into issues with my galleries, so I haven’t be able to load these images (the galleries still aren’t working correctly). So, instead of still waiting, I’m just going to post the set of submissions for December’s challenge…
[Sonia]
[Leena T]
So with that, the 2008 challenges are complete. As you probably noticed, there hasn’t been one posted for 2009 yet, and it’ll probably be pushed off a bit as I’m thinking of spicing it up a bit. When I get the details all hashed out I’ll let you all know. Just wanted to say thanks to all those who participated last year- I hope it challenged you guys to see things diferent both with a lens in front of your face and without :) It was definitely a pleasure to see a glimpse of the world through your eyes.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Who Would Shoot Me… (The Bebbs)
- January 12, 2009 -
Here’s the first of husband and wife team on my list coming in from our friends up north (…Canada), Jen and Steve Bebb!
Like many of the photographers, I have interacted with them through online communities and such. Recently, though, the Bebbs came out to Chicago for one of their workshops and I was able to get dinner with them and a few other photographers. And its such a different feeling actually interacting with them in person. Though I had head knowledge of how they came up in the business and things like that, its so much different hearing them tell you, seeing their passion for the work. Image-wise they consistently provide stunning images day in and day out, and ultimately thats the goal.
check out their work: blogsite
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Recap: MTC Winter Regional Conference
- January 8, 2009 -
From December 27th-30th, most of you know I was out in Michigan for a church retreat. I had been attending this conference since my freshman year of high school, and it has changed greatly over the years, both in the format as well as my role. One thing that stayed consistent throughout the many blessings this conference brings. I posted a general photo recap here, here, and here (3 days of it), so I’ll just give more info to go alongside that. I’ll post a full set of images up on facebook, so be sure to be my friend and then check it out!
What normally takes about 5 hours turned into almost a 12 hour trip, as both of the buses leaving Chicago broke down in some way, shape or form. We spent a couple hours on the side of the highway, then a few more waiting at a Wendy’s nearby before finally getting new buses and continuing our journey. So we showed up about 6 hours late, but at least we made it!
Almost every year we host the event at Michindoh Ministries Conference Center in Hillsdale, Michigan. I took this pic on the last day (as it was obviously too dark when we first got in…this is what we normally arrive to, though.
The two speakers we had were Rev. Biju Simon and John C. Mathew, both flying in from the East Coast. Pretty dynamic speakers that challenged us on the importance of missions work, as well as the centrality of the Bible in traditional church liturgy- a very eye-opening mesage.
One of the highlights was a creative presentation given by the youth of the Detroit church. To the song “Who Am I” by Casting Crowns, they did a form of ‘body worship’ using a black light – BALLER! watching it was amazing, photographing it…not so much. ;) For the tech specs, I shot these at f2.8, 1/30th, ISO3200 on the 5D. It’s near impossible to focus on anything in the dark, let alone some white hands moving around!
On the last night, the speakers asked all the kids to write down different addictions, struggles, and issues that hold them back in their life, and by choice they would come to the front and throw it in the trash- sort of a visual symbol of letting go of these things.
It was truly a sight to see these kids ranging from 13-22 making such a statement. I’m excited to see how God uses this generation in the years to come.
On the last day, I did a quick walk around the area and grabbed a few shots. In all my years, I realized that I never really took the time to just escape to the beauty of this land (of course, in the middle of winter it’s never really been a viable option). But it was beautiful! The first one is my new desktop background:
Like I said, a full photo recap is all uploaded on facebook, so be my friend and check ‘em out!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Events, Personal No Comments | add a comment
Recap: Christmas
- January 6, 2009 -
I feel like I’ve been gone from this blog for so long! I hope all of you guys had a happy Holiday Season and are ready to get up and running in 2009.
To start, anyone who still has images from the December Challenge can still send them in, I’ll get it posted within the week. Also, I was thinking of trying something a bit different for the challenge for 2009, so keep an eye out for that to come soon.
I’m playing a little catch-up here, and so here’s a recap from the Christmas celebrations here. On Christmas Eve, I went over to my fiancee’s place and celebrated with her family. With four kids, it was quite an eventful time, especially with the opening of presents.
Christmas was then held at my parent’s place, where my sisters and their in-laws came as well. We only have two little ones running around, so it was a lot more tame.
And here are a couple group pics by request: The siblings, then everyone (less one set of in-laws who left earlier)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Merry Christmas!
- December 22, 2008 -
A quick little Christmas message…stay warm everybody!
Like last year, I also made a couple of Christmas cards…and again, I have no wife or kids to put on it. So which one do you like better?
The clean and crisp…
…or the vintage?
Merry Christmas Everyone! Stay safe and warm!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalA Message to Parents…
- December 16, 2008 -
My parents worked really hard to provide for my siblings and I so that we wouldn’t have to struggle (they are 1st generation immigrants, moving to the US when my oldest sister was little). They allowed me to live sort of a western lifestyle without losing sight of my Indian Christian lifeline. I was able to do any thing I wanted to – I played little league baseball and basketball, participated in many sports tournaments, was a part of a chess team and volleyball team, and so forth and so on. Educationally they challenged me to strive for the best (…a B+ is nowhere close to being good enough) because they wanted me to excel in everything. Through all of this, though, my dad was never one to really show affection or encouragement (sort of an Indian-culture type thing). It’s something that I greatly got used to growing up, and something I never really longed for. My interests (somewhat obviously) were never really in line with my dad’s, as I was completely into sports (just not the ones he was in) and technology and creative arts…and that just wasn’t his style. And although he ‘allowed’ me to pursue my dreams and desires, he never really participated much.
Tonight I had dinner with my parents, which doesn’t normally happen because of our schedules. Partway through, my dad says “Remember, one Thanksgiving it snowed and we made a turkey?” Personally, I didn’t remember, but my mom was saying I was probably in Jr. High then. My dad started reminiscing (internally), then said “we should make a snowman tonight”. Normally, I laugh these off and carry on my way. But I realized my dad was being more serious than not, so I said “Alright, let’s go”. Now, for those of you not from an area that sees snow, you should only make snowmen after the snow sets for awhile so it gets hard enough to pack…right after or during snowfall its too soft. I still decided to humor my dad and we went.
After about 20 minutes of building a mountain, my dad finally accepted it and we went in. Here is what we finished it with…
What I realized though, is my dad is starting to recognize that I’m getting married in less than a year. It’s sort of as if he’s making up for lost time. He sort of re-living what he wish he did with me, but couldn’t because of how he was trying to provide for us when we were younger. But it’s better late than never. And I’m going to try my best to do my part for him over these next 9 months to help.
To the parents out there, don’t miss out on those little moments of your kid’s youth. Play with them as much as you can…you don’t want to think about what you could have done when it’s too late.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalBaking Competition
- December 16, 2008 -
During my senior year of college, I attempted to create a baking competition. The rules were pretty simple- each person would make one dessert, and it would be judged on taste, presentation, and creativity. My roommates and myself would be the impartial judges, and the winner would be know as the “Best Baker”. It didn’t go over too well…not only did people not participate, but they took the time to call me selfish and just trying to get people to bake for me. It was from that point that I turned away from baking.
Well, my roommate had sort of a bake-off for his company, and so I went over to help him out a bit. He was making his secret recipe for oreo balls.
To spice up the presentation, he wanted to add a little strawberry syrup on the plate, but couldn’t get an even flow. In my quick thinking, we cut a hole in the bottom of a paper cup, and BAM! I’m a genius! “Top Chef” here I come!
We finished it all with a few mint leaves for garnish, to help portray a mini faux-Christmas tree.
Hopefully he wins!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalWho Would Shoot Me… (Jesh de Rox)
- December 15, 2008 -
If there were no restrictions what-so-ever, I would also have Jesh de Rox shoot my wedding…well, maybe just the portraits. Actually, maybe just to talk to…he’s deep.
This man has done amazing things with his photography, and is most known for his work using textured images (which many try to emulate with very few duplicating). But more so than his style is his spirit. I’ve never personally met him, but through various online interactions and hearing interviews and following his work, it is evident just how much he loves life…and loves love. He doesn’t let himself be directed to fall into norms that society puts around him, and therefore is able to connect with people on a much deeper level, bringing about very powerful imagery in his work. His vision as he looks into the world is simply amazing.
check out his work: site | blog
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalThe 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?! :))
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalLeadership Fellowship
- December 11, 2008 -
Last night, the leadership team at my church met up for an end of the year fellowship, which was a great time. I’ve been so blessed to be able to serve alongside them over this past year, and I look forward to what’s to come in the future. We had some dinner, then played a couple games (a hand tapping game and this odd game called “Poor Kitty”), and then closed the night off with some praise and prayer. Afterwards, a couple of us stayed back to play a few rousing rounds of Cut-Throat Uno – it’s been so long since I played! For those who don’t know, here are the rules:
- Standard Uno Rules apply
- Regardless of turn, if you have the same color and number as a card that has been played, you can play your card and cut the rest of the group. So if someone puts a blue-9 down, you can put down a blue-9 even if its not your turn. Also, ‘draws’ are additive…if a person puts down a Draw-4, and then you put down a Draw-4, the next person must Draw-8.
- If anyone puts down a 3 (any color), everyone rotates their entire hand to the right.
- If a person puts down a 7, they have to trade their hand with anyone they wish
- (my favorite rule) you do not have to play card, even if you have it.
This play causes alliances to be drawn and much screaming in large groups. We only played 4 or 5-handed, but it was still fun! You know, people make the best expressions when they are playing games :) Enjoy!
IN OTHER NEWS
I’m going to my first Bears game of my life tonight against the Saints! Definitely a great way to have my first game- Bears facing a must-win game against Drew Brees and the Saints, night game, middle of winter with possible flurries during game time…BALLER! I’ll definitely be layering up…now do I bring my gear or no?
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Events, PersonalThe Intro
- December 8, 2008 -
As I said before, I’m stepping away from the “Monday Night Recap” moving forward, but one of the new things that I planned on rolling out every now and then (not every Monday, sorry :)) will be some videos! Here’s the first installment of my video posts…not sure what I’m going to call these, so if you have a creative name, drop it in the comments below! (To spice it up a bit, the person who gives me the winning name will get a free $10 iTunes gift card- woo hoo!).
**so you know, you can actually comment on different parts of the video itself. Just mouse over the “+” sign in the bottom right and click “add comment”, and a little comment box will show up over the timeline. This way, you can comment on a specific moment in time and everyone will know what you’re talking about. How awesome is that?!**
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalPlaydate
- 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!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalNMP Challenge
- December 5, 2008 -
THEME: Black & White (in color)
To end off the year of photo challenges, I thought this would be an interesting concept to ‘push’ your creativity with. Basically, I want you to take a picture that is black and white, but in color. This means, you CANNOT do any processing on the image to convert it to black and white, it should already be a black/white object. Make sense? You can make other adjustments to the image if you wish, but DO NOT desaturate the image or use other black and white/grayscale conversion. Sound good? Awesome! Looking forward to seeing what you guys do with it!
Size your images to be no more than 800 pixels on the longest size, and e-mail them to challenge(at)natemathai(dot)com with the month in the subject line. Happy Shooting (and Happy Holidays) Everyone!
I’ve posted the November submissions here, but here’s a ‘family friendly’ one :)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
[12.01.08] Monday Night Recap
- December 1, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] November is complete, so get your submissions in for last month’s challenge. I’ll post the last one of the year later this week!
- [Mumbai Attacks] It’s been all over the news, but in the last week there were some crazy attacks that occured in Mumbai, India, at major tourist locations. Although my family is primarily out of southern India, my churches missions team was currently up north, and they were about 1 hour away from the major attacks. They were actually scheduled to return home the following day, and luckily were able to make it home safely. I ask for continued prayer, though, for all those in India, as well as for the remaining members of our missions team who will be coming home later this week.
- [A Model] So a friend of mine seems like he’s interested in doing some modeling and asked me to take some pictures for him. He caught me a bit off guard when I showed up, saying he was specifically looking into hand-modeling…but who am I to judge? So what do you think, does he have what it takes? ;)
- [Family Thanksgiving] On Thanksgiving, I had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s place. They kill two birds with one stone by having both sides of the family over, which is nice. My job was making the punch (of which I did a mighty fine job in, I must say)…and later got blindsided by having to do the dishes. Ah well, I think I did a mighty fine job with that as well. Here’s a couple pics of my youngest niece celebrating her first Thanksgiving – she still seems very surprised about everything:
- [Black Friday] It’s turned into an annual tradition (this is year 2) going out for Black Friday. I wasn’t too interested in picking much up so it wasn’t too big of an event. We hit up TigerDirect (I waited outside for about 45 minutes as they did the smart of think of only letting in roughly 50 people at a time to avoid a mad rush and tramplings) to start everything out. Surprisingly I technically didn’t buy anything for myself. The picture below shows what I picked up (less a GPS system I got for my dad). All these are actully for all of you! It speeds up my processing time as well as gives me even more backup confidence with the precious images I take for you (pictured is a 4GB memory upgrade for my Macbook Pro, 1TB hard drive, and a casing for 2 internal hard drives).
- [Inlaws Thanksgiving] On Friday night, I made my way over to my fiancee’s place for the second Thanksgiving dinner. Another great time of feasting, and I also helped set up their Christmas tree. Here’s a little family picture of them. Also, my soon-to-be brother-in-law just got a Canon XSi and here he is putting it to good use (…this is generally what events start to look like once parents get a dSLR…its AWESOME!)
- [Michelle and Suresh] On Saturday morning, I shot the engagement ceremony of Michelle and Suresh, who will be having their wedding next May. Here’s a little teaser for you:
- [Turkey Bowl] My church held our first annual Turkey Bowl- a touch football game between the older and younger guys. And as expected, us older guys won it 13-6. I caught the extra point that put us up 7-6 in the first half, as well as helped hold down their offense (once I showed up, they were shut out the rest of the game). Although it was touch, I did get my lip busted by getting hit in the face, and lack of stretching has caused some back pains, but its slowly getting better. Ah well, it was worth the W.
- [506 Thanksgiving] After the morning festivities, my college friends got together for our seasonal dinners. This was quite possibly the longest/latest we’ve hung out since we were actually in college, as I think I went to sleep around 3am (and my roommate lives like 5 minutes from my house). As always, it’s a great time for us to just catch up with what’s going on in everyone’s lives, play some games, and definitely great food (as always). It’s crazy how we’re all growing up and moving to different stages in our lives…my how things have and will continue to change, but it’s always great re-connecting. Also, a week ago I helped redecorate/rearrange my roommates place, and we finished it off by framing a couple of my Chicago pics for his wall…don’t you just love framed art!?
- [Bears] We started out well, not letting AP run all over us. Then we got stopped with a drive inside the 3 yard line on four straight plays, and then gave up a 99-yard TD pass to former Bear Bernard Berrian. And that was the last we heard of the Bears offense in that game. We’ve dropped our standing atop the NFC North and have a tougher road to finish the season than the Vikings, but I still think we can make a playoff run. Here’s to hoping…
- [Fantasy] This will be my last update, as my season our officially over (I finished with a win though!) I end off the leage in a sad 9th place. It’s been a great season- what you all have missed out on, though (for those who have been following) is the message board- it’s been quite fun talking trash week in and week out. I also had been doing weekly predictions of our matchups since about Week 8, and I’ve been above .500 so far. All in all it’s been a fun- playoffs start next week for those remaining, and we’ll see how it all plays out.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR]Movie Review and Thanksgiving
- November 27, 2008 -
On Tuesday, my fiance and I went to see Slumdog Millionaire, and I wanted to get a recommendation out to everyone to go out and watch it! It’s an independent film only playing in select theaters, but definitely worth the travel. The basic premise of the movie is a kid from the slums of India has made it onto the Indian version of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” and makes his way to the last question. The whole country is buzzing, and everyone questions how it could be possible…many assumptions of him cheating somehow to do it. Entangled within is a well written love story as well. The cinematography of it all is amazing, probably the best movie I’ve watched this year and quite possibly in my top 10. There is also such a great portrayal of life in the slums of India, the experiences they have, the living conditions, and the possible options that many have to choose as they grow. It’s especially challenging in light of the season we are in, as many of us can live so comfortably. So with that, go out and check it out! You can find out on the movie’s website to see which theaters near you are showing it.
Also, as we all know today is thanksgiving. I’ve just returned from church and was reminded just how great God is…there are so many things overlooked that we need to give thanks for, both individually and in our communities. I’d like to list a few…
- Life. Quite possibly the most overlooked for me. Everyday I wake to an undeserved gift and I need to constantly be reminded that it’s a bonus to be here, and I need to do my best to live it out right.
- Salvation. For over 10 years I’ve been trying to faithfully follow Christ, and though I fail many times, I’m completely indebted to the the gift of salvation I’ve received. Completely unearned, extremely undeserved.
- Family/Friends. How can we not be thankful for our loved ones around us? I think about some people’s and communities where if you hit hard times, you don’t have a place to really turn to. I am so lucky to have so many people who care and are willing to lend a helping hand no matter what the need is.
- Fiance. It’s been 2 and a half years of a blessed relationship, with about 9 months left before marriage. I’m thankful for such a strong support, and God’s provision in how we’ve met and where we are headed.
- Photography/Clients. I’m constantly amazed that I’m able to do what I love as “work”. And I’m so in awe that people are willing to financially support me in my endeavor to share with them a glimpse into my vision. This past year was great, and I feel like I’ve been able to give to and receive so much from this industry and all those who I’ve worked with – thanks for making it a joy for me to do this.
- You. It boggles my mind sometimes when I think about how many people read my blog and follow my work. It’s not as if you have any obligation to come here, yet you do time and time again, and I am extremely thankful. Your comments and words definitely encourage me to keep going. This blog is for you!
It’s definitely not an all-inclusive or exhausted list. But seriously, I just wanted to give thanks. Before heading off to 3 Thanksgiving dinners in 3 days, a black friday outing (should I bring my camera to document the madness?), an engagement ceremony, and a flag football matchup this weekend, I’ll end with a paraphrased quote I heard earlier today:
‘God has given me so much, yet I ask for one more thing: a grateful heart.’
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[11.24.08] Monday Night Recap
- November 24, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] Just a reminder that there’s about 1 week left in this month’s photo challenge so get your images in!
- [Guys Night Out] Last Friday, my fiance went to Phoenix to visit her sister, which meant time for a Guys Night Out! It started with a couple of us getting a dinner at La Tasca in Arlington Heights, a tapas restaurants. Afterward, we headed over to Pinstripes in Barrington for some good old bocce ball! I went and played bocce a week earlier for the first time, which got us hooked to come back again. It’s a pretty fun/relaxing game. Well after that for an hour, we ended the night with a little Quantum of Solace. I was never a huge Bond guy, but it was a pretty decent movie. I was getting very tired though as it’s seriously been awhile since I watched a midnight movie. All in all, an entertaining night with the guys. Here’s a couple pics from our bocce game:
- [Zachariah Family] On Saturday morning I headed out for an early morning mini-session. They wanted to get a couple ‘formal’ pics taken for Christmas cards, so we did a quick session in the morning and will be doing a full portrait session with them a little bit late. Here’s a quick teaser of the kids:
- [Ecumenical BBall Tournament] In Chicago, there are quite a few Indian churches in the area, and every now and then we try to set up various types of meetings and events to bring the churches together, and this Saturday there was a 1-day basketball tournament, with each church setting up their own team. I swung by for a bit after the session as a bunch of my church friends were playing (as well as a bunch of regulars from Summer League) to check it out. If anyone knows the outcome fill me in as I left pretty early, but here’s a couple images from the start of it all…
- [Bears] Finally, an easy victory. Our defense was finally able to get pressure on the QB with a couple sacks and pulled off some picks as well. The downside: Hester still doesn’t know how to return kicks (and hasn’t made it up on offense either). I still believe he’ll return at least 1 punt or kickoff for a TD before year end.
- [Fantasy] Even though I’m already knocked out of the playoffs, my role this week was to play the spoiler. Sadly, it didn’t happen. Now I’ve got one last game next week to save my pride and keep from being the worst player in the league. This always happens when I play fantasy sports. Ah well, here’s to next year.
- [Norwegian Recycling] I’ll finish it off with an awesome mashup that I found. This guy goes by the name Norwegian Recycling and does an amazing job with mashups of a lot of pop/rock/rap songs. It brings me back to my slideshow days…I never mixed like this though. Enjoy this one:
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR]Who Would Shoot Me… (Jerry G)
- November 23, 2008 -
If there were no restrictions what-so-ever, I would also have Jerry Ghionis shoot my wedding.
He leaves me speechless whenever I view his work. With countless awards won, he sees things that others miss. Jerry is like the MacGyver of wedding photography, being able to take a flashlight, a candle, and a stick of gum and turn it into the most beautiful portrait you’ve ever seen! Seriously, what grabs my attention most is his ability to fuse the strong quality of true photojournalism, while at the same time producing some of the most amazing posed/directed portraits I’ve ever seen. I seriously sit in awe looking at his composition.
check out his work: site | blog
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: PersonalChicago Photowalk
- November 19, 2008 -
Yeterday afternoon I decided to do a little photowalk in Chicago, as I realized I haven’t many opportunities as of late to “shoot for myself”. It’s fun just wander around with no rush, no real direction, and just let your eyes lead you. So I stuck my 17-35 on and headed around Millenium Park and the likes. For all you photogs out there, I challenge you guys to take your least favorite lens (if you always shoot tight, take a wide angle, or vice versa) and spend a day just shooting with it. Here’s a handful of views of the city through my eyes…
*note: Again for the photogs out there, these images were all shot in JPEG and processed in Bridge – none of them were brought into Photoshop except for my standard branding/resizing action.
And we’ll end it with my favorite ‘bean’ shot…
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[11.17.08] Monday Night Recap
- November 17, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] Just a reminder that we’re a little over halfway through November’s challenge, and the weather (at least here) is changing drastically into winter so be sure to get your “Fall” pictures taken!
- [NavJeevan] The NavJeevan Centre is an organization in India that my church is connected with, which helps children of women who are in the Red Light District. For the past few years, we’ve been able to send a team out every year for a few weeks to serve out there, build relationships with the kids, and things like that. This past Friday, most of the team members took off for two weeks, which include my sister and brother-in-law. In total, its a team of 8 that will be out there spanning 4 weeks. Keep them in your prayers, for both physical and spiritual protection.
- [Winter] I’m not sure what the true definition is for the change in seasons, but this is how I know:
- [Bears] For the first time Lovie’s career as head coach, we lost to the Packers…and it was to Aaron Rodgers too! It was an extremely sad game to watch. Our defense got owned, and our offense played like…our offense. Not a good combo. If we don’t make changes fast it’s going to be a fast fall from the top.
- [Fantasy] It’s official…I’m knocked out of playoff contention. I had some poor management yet again with my RBs, but even if I picked the best lineup and my opponent made the worst choice, I’d have still lost – it was just one of those weeks. All well, it was a fun 11 weeks so far, and for the last two I’ll just play the role of spoiler.
- [Snuggies] For some reason, I seem to be stumbling across a bunch of infomercials as I flip through channels. And the latest one that scared me was for “Snuggies“…I seriously thought it was some sort of cult-ish outfit when I watched. Would anyone of you guys wear this? Or more importantly, do any of you already have it? (And if so, please disregard the “cult-ish” statement :) ) The big question: Have you purchased anything off an infomercial, and did it live up to the hype?
- [MammothMen] So a little while back a group of 6 awesome photographer friends got together for a week away for Snowboarding and fun times in Mammoth, and its become a regular occurence now. They have now doubled in size, and are on version3 of their trip, which is being fully documented on their blog. So if you’re looking for an overload of awesomeness, be sure to keep up with them. If Indians enjoyed cold weather sports, I would so be looking for my own set of Mammoth Men. But alas, we do not…but is anyone looking to just get away for some fully documented fun times!?!?! Let me know!
- [Wish List] Christmas is right around the corner, so I guess its time to start thinking about what I’d like to get (that’s reasonably priced and not photo-related). Any suggestions? What was your favorite Christmas gift and why? What are you looking forward to getting this year? Help a brother out!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR]Carolyn and Chris :: wedding
- November 12, 2008 -
A short while ago I second shot Kenny Nakai at the wedding of Carolyn and Chris. Except…this wasn’t your normal second shooting scenario, because Carolyn is Kenny’s sister! And to make matters even more exciting, Kenny was a groomsman as well! I give him major props for having the energy to fulfill the duties of brother-of-the-bride/groomsman/photographer.
Back in September Chicago got hit with a terrible storm, flooding streets like crazy. That didn’t put a damper on this wedding, though. Once you got inside the First Presbyterian Church in Evanston, there was no reminder of the weather outside, and everything was beautiful from start to finish!
For a more complete coverage of the wedding, be sure to hit up Kenny’s blog as well. Now on to the pictures!
One of the more powerful moments of the wedding is when the bridal party prays over the bride or groom…
Some brides are nervous before the walk, but Carolyn was all smiles…
After the ceremony, we headed out to Grazie in Des Plaines for the reception.
The flower girls were the cutest things ever. And it seems they got to the cake just slightly before Carolyn and Chris did…I love this shot:
The first dance…
First Dance version 2.0 (quite possibly my favorite first dance shot to date…)
As a surprise to Carolyn, not only was there a father daughter dance, but each of her brothers danced with her as well. Quite an emotional time for everyone there – now that’s love.
After the bouquet and garter toss, they opened up for a night of dancing. Some people weren’t that into the dancing, though, and found some more entertaining things to keep them occupied…
Carolyn and Chris, you guys had a beautiful wedding and it was my pleasure to take part in it. I wish you all the best as you move forward in your married lives. Take care!
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[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)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
[11.03.08] Monday Night Recap
- November 4, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] For those who haven’t done it yet, I’ll give a bit more time to get your submissions in from last month’s challenge (self-portrait). I’ve just posted the November challenge, and here’s the image to get your thinking:
- [Fantasy Basketball] In the middle of last week I realized I joined a fantasy basketball league with some kids from my alma mater, and I finished the first week with a 6-4. I also realized why I don’t do fantasy basketball or baseball anymore – it requires way too much time! Unlike football where it’s a once a week thing, these sports have games pretty much everyday. It’s still fun, but I realized I don’t have time like I used to to keep up with it…but we’ll see how it goes!
- [World Series] Yeah, I didn’t care that much either. But for those who do care enough but didn’t hear anything…the Phillies won. Woo.
- [Chicago Sports] The Bears have the best record in the NFC. Do we think they’re Superbowl winners? Nope. The Bulls have started out pretty strong. Are we expecting them to go deep in the playoffs? Not Really. Why? In recent years, Chicago teams have now been consistently good during the regular season (see: Cubs 2007-2008, White Sox 2005-2008, Bears 2003-2007…) yet haven’t been able to finish. So I guess we’re a bit spoiled with consistency and now need big finish. So which team will do it first?
- [Bears] We pulled out the win, yet it was really sad. Detroit hasn’t won a game all season, yet were up 23-13 in the 3rd. Adding insult to injury: Orton is hurt, Mike Brown is hurt, Vasher is hurt, Hester has forgotten how to return kicks. Next week will be a huge game though…Grossman’s first full game back, going up against the undefeated Titans. Should be fun! (or very depressing)
- [Fantasy] 1.32 Points. That’s all I needed. If I knee McGahee wasn’t playing I would have played Pittman, which would have done it. Or if Leftwhich would have thrown a 15 yard pass to Washington at any time during the 4th quarter, I would have won. But no…this is depressing…
- [Vote] you’ve got a few hours to learn about the candidates to figure out who you agree with the most. Then for those who didn’t vote early, go out and vote tomorrow. And then we’ll see what the next 4 years look like…
- [Should I go?] Downtown Chicago is going to be buzzin’ and crowded like none other. Should I schlep my gear and try to see how close I can get to Grant Park during Obama’s party, or save myself the time, worry, and pain and just watch the polls with some friends?
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
I love Twitter…
- October 29, 2008 -
I consider myself to be a rather early adopter on things, especially with technology (at least being knowledgeable). About a year ago I signed up on Twitter, and it wasn’t too exciting for me at the time because of the lack of use by others – you definitely need a community to make it worthwhile. But since the iPhone hit many of my friends, twitter became so easy to update and more and more are starting jumping on board. Also, so many photogs are on twitter that it’s a great way to stay connected in the industry since I can’t make it to every social or networking event and such.
My fiance (and others) are not huge fans of it, and I keep trying to convince them of the relational benefits that I’m reaping. I’ve been a terrible phone person with keeping up with people in the past, but through twitter I’ve reconnected with some people and know a lot more of whats going on in their lives than ever before (and vice versa)! Now when we see each other in person, we bypass a lot of the formalities and can get deeper into conversations. And more so than just random knowledge of what people are eating for lunch, I’ve gotten a lot of personal benefits from it. Let me share a few:
(1) I was leaving work one day, and wanted something refreshing to drink…so I twittered that. I got a response from a friend who works at Starbucks who recommended an Iced Venti Passion Tea Lemonade…and hooked me up since she was going there to study anyways!
(2) In an effort to expand my fashion knowledge and such, I made a request to see if anyone had magazines laying around that were not in use (I was going to get a subscription, but figured I start with this first). Within an hour I had 3 people offer, and have already received a handful of mags.
(3) In need of a GPS, I posted for recommendations. I got a slew of responses with what people are using, what price points they are at, and things like that, which helped me make a decision on what I just purchased (and am pleased with my Garmin Nuvi 750).
Some bonus perks are I’m able to have my facebook status update with my twitter status, which frees up my time from having to be “as connected” to facebook…because I do twitter quite a bit though, you facebook friends probably see my status update a lot. Sorry!
All this just to say…I love Twitter. It helps me stay connected, get quick answers, and keeps me entertained throughout the day. Do you guys use twitter? What’s your favorite part about it? And for those of you who don’t, why not?
Oh right…it’s rude of me to have a post without a picture…so…ummmm…here’s what my desktop looks like right now (I’ll be getting this shoot up soon…):
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[10.27.08] Monday Night Recap
- October 27, 2008 -
- [W] I went to watch “W” with a couple of my college roommates last week. It was a very interesting portrayal of our current government leaders, basically exaggerating various characteristics of their past or present. I don’t believe that it’s in any way an truly accurate look at the reality of the leaders, although I don’t believe that was the original intent. From a creative standpoint, the movie was pretty well-made, although there were a handful of scenes that I didn’t think were necessary to the story, and there was also no correlation with the flashbacks (and I constantly was looking for a correlation). All in all, though, I think its an interesting movie overall and worth the watch.
- [U of I] This past weekend I made a trip out to the University of Illinois, which is always fun. It was slightly different than normal, as there were about 20 friends not from the school who were visiting because of another friend’s birthday. Although I had every intent to take some pics, I barely took out my camera, and when I did I didn’t shoot much. So not going to be that much of a photo documentary as before. But now a recap:
- [Ballin'] One of my joys is being able to ball with the college guys when I get a chance. 50 degree weather, but we played some outdoor ball on Saturday. Unlike last time (when I ate a steak dinner before some midnight ball), I actually played decent. Fun times, indeed.
- [Birthday] My friend celebrated her ‘supposed’ 21st birthday on Friday (I still think she’s like 12…), and she had quite the celebration. Like I said, there were about 20 visitors who came as surises for her, at multiple times of the day for 3 different surprises. We got together at Houlihan’s for some dinner, and this is pretty much all the pictures I took this weekend (all shot with my 17-35):
- [E-Session] The main reason for this visit, though, was because my fiance and I were taking the second half of our e-session with Kenny Kim. You can be sure I’ll be linking to the images when he posts them, but for now you can check out our wedding website (work in progress), and here’s one of my faves from our first session a few months back that we turned into our save the dates:
- [Quarantine] Sunday night my fiance and I went to go watch Quarantine, which is surprising because (1) it was her turn to pick the movie and (2) she always picks romantic comedies. Sadly, she wanted to watch ‘Nights of Rodanthe’ but it was no longer in theaters, so she settled for this. It was a decent film overall. I’m not a fan of unrealistic movies (for scary movies), and this one had a more realistic flavor to it, which made it work.
- [Quality Time] My past few ‘encounters’ with my fiance have been a bit rough with various other responsibilities and events going on, but this weekend we had an extended time together which was great! We were able to just spend some quality time together, as well as make some progress on wedding planning and such. All in all, I couldn’t ask for a better weekend with the soon to be Mrs…less than 10 months away!
- [Gas Prices] When I left to head out to U of I on Friday, the cheapest gas price I found was around 3.09. This is what I filled up with when I left (felt so liberating) {sorry, the iPhone takes pictures sideways…}
- [Fantasy] I done and done it again. Another breakout game provides another W, and helps me jump another 3 places into 7th overall…people are starting to get scared!
EDIT
- [Photo Challenge] About 1 week left to get your self-portraits in…help me connect a name with a face!
- [Winter Weather] Today I woke up and had to scrape ice off my windshield…I’m not ready for this. Need to go invest in some gloves, hats and scarves soon…
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
[10.20.08] Monday Night Recap
- October 20, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] Just a reminder there’s about a week or so left in this month’s challenge… (which means I need to start figuring out the next one…oh geez…)
- [Dancing] Much of this past week was filled with dance practices for my friends’ wedding on Saturday. I might of stated this before on this blog, but I dabbled in many arenas of the creative arts trying to find what I could excel at – dancing wasn’t one of them. I ‘retired’ at the end of last year because it was too time consuming and my body couldn’t handle it anymore (I’m old), but made a comeback for this one wedding this year. I think I’m retired again. Anyways, there are a few different versions (of varying quality) floating around but here’s one for your entertainment (the guys are in the last two sections: “Board Meeting” and “PYT”)
- [Sunil and Theresa] All that was for the wedding of my friends’ Sunil and Theresa, who got married this past Saturday. My friend Kenny Nakai was their photographer (along with David Lai), so I left my gear at home since I had plenty of other responsibilities to fulfill. All in all, it was a fun time – definitely will be anxiously awaiting Kenny’s pics. The video above is just a glimpse of all the went on – I feel like our community has turned wedding receptions into a local “America’s Best Dance Crew” crossed with “Star Search”! I believe in total this one had a drum off by the bride and groom, a slideshow, 3 choreographed dance routines [the set above only counts as 1], 5 speeches, and a partridge in a pear tree.
- [Bears] Bittersweet? Scoring 48 points is nice, but giving up 41 is not. Definitely not what were used to seeing with the Bears D…we were looking like the Broncos! But a win is a win is a win, and I’ll take it.
- [Fantasy] It happened again – If I’m going to win, it’s because all my players perform. I just need some consistency! But I can’t complain, I jumped out of last place finally and am starting my push into a playoff run as we go through the second half of the season.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
[10.13.08] Monday Night Recap
- October 13, 2008 -
- [Bulls] On Thursday night, I caught the Bulls first preseason game. I was thoroughly amazed at how little I knew about who was on the squad. To my surprise, Roger Powell was picked up for the preseason squad! Powell went to U of I and was a part of the amazing run in ’05. Time to reminisce the greatest comeback in NCAA tournament history (I’m a little biased, maybe):
If he earns a spot, I’ll have a reason to really follow the Bulls more.
- [Julie and Mark] On Saturday morning I was out for an e-session with Julie and Mark, and blessed with some beautiful weather! Here’s a little teaser:
- [Bears] Wow…we should be 6-0. Granted, as I watched the first 57 minutes of the game, I didn’t expect us to win. But Orton pretty much ran the 2-minute offense to perfection driving down the field for the score to put us up by 1 with 11 seconds left. Who would have that a squib kick leaving 6 seconds, and a pass down the sidelines leaving 1 second on the clock would be enough to get the Falcons in FG range. Blasted Jason Elam.
- [Cowboys] Anyone watch the game? Now that was even more kicker madness. To end regulation, Folk has an opportunity to tie the game for OT, but gets his kick blocked. BUT, the Arizona coach called a time just before it, so he got another chance – and hit it to force OT. Then after a poor offensive drive, the Cowboys are forced to punt near their own endzone…AND THAT GETS BLOCKED AND RETURNED FOR A WINNING TD! My goodness, football was crazy yesterday.
- [Chicago Sports] It’s been a painful year. First the Cubbies throw out an amazing season. Now every Sunday the Bears are toying with my emotions. I’m not too excited about the NBA season – I’m seriously going to be having some heart issues or emotional trauma.
- [Fantasy] It happened again – my RBs do not perform (combined they give me just over 5 points). And the week where it actually makes a difference if my kicker puts up 10+ points, he puts up 5. Now I need the Giants D to put up 25 for me tonight…or I go to 1-5 for the season. It’s slightly embarrassing that I post about this. Oh, and insult to injury? My stud QB Romo is expected to be out for 4 weeks with a broken pinkie. Wow.
- [Made of Honor] So my fiance was in town this weekend, so we were able to hang out in between the busy-ness of both of our schedules on Saturday night. She normally picks the movies we rent (we alternate if its in the theater), and this time she picked “Made of Honor“. Normally I can handle romantic comedies of sort, but can someone please create a new storyline? It was semi-entertaining the first few times…but come on. Where is the creativity people?
- [What are you looking for?] I know I post many random things especially on Mondays, but if there’s anything you guys have a question about, feel free to ask! No guarantees I can answer everything, but I’d still be willing to give it a shot if you’re interested. So if you do have a question, feel free to post it in the comments below, or just shoot an e-mail to info(at)natemathai(dot)com.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal No Comments | add a comment
Rock the Vote?
- October 12, 2008 -
I don’t try to use this arena as a political platform, nor do I consider myself extremely knowledgeable to do so. But I have a couple questions. First, here are two videos that have been floating around quite a bit recently.
This first one is a call to vote…very creatively made. I’m a sucker for creativity…
And here is a news report by John Stossel for 20/20 regarding the massive call to vote, and the knowledge of many of the people who are signing up. Hmmm…there isn’t a way to embed the video, so check it out on the ABC News site, then come back to give your opinion.
What’s your take? Do you think it is our civic duty for every person to vote, or for those who don’t know enough not to vote? Should voting be done by those that are knowledgeable? What’s the greatest benefit – having everyone vote regardless of what they know about the country/candidates/issues, or having a ‘select’ group vote who are well-versed to make an informed decision?
[I think ultimately the best option is for those not well-versed to become well-versed and vote...but will that really happen?]
Let me know your take in the comments section below…looking to hear your guys’ stance on this! (Again, this isn’t about specifically who you are voting for or whatnot, but just the situation of who should actually vote)
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[10.06.08] Monday Night Recap
- October 6, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] Sorry peoples, I was fighting a semi-fever and unknown allergic reaction all last week…I promise I’ll get the next challenge up within the next day or so.
- [Cubs] It doesn’t upset me that the Cubs lost, per se. Its one thing to just get outplayed by a better team. But we didn’t play up to potential. Nothing against the Dodgers, but they aren’t good enough to sweep us. We just played like fools. 7 runs in the first game? 4 errors and 10 runs in game 2? Soriano, Ramirez, Edmonds, Soto and DeRosa go 1 for 15 in game 3? That’s just not right. We’ve got the guys who can play, and I hate to chime the “There’s always next year” mantra, but it’s true. We’re becoming a consistent force, now we just need to do something in the post season.
- [Revival] This past weekend, my home church hosted a Revival retreat, and we had Pastor Reggie Ramos of Immanuel Community Church as our guest speaker. It was a very powerful weekend (personally as well as for our community) as Pastor Reggie challenged us every moment on the centrality of the gospel. We’re looking forward to big things as we wind down 2008.
Pastor Reggie is also a photo enthusiast, so he brought his gear on the last night and I had some fun shooting two bodies. I must say, I do like the feel of it… - [Abraham Family] On Saturday morning, I was out at Wheaton, Illinois to shoot some family portraits. Here’s a teaser:
- [Bears] The Detroit-Chicago games used to be a big deal. But now we’re 3-2 at the top of the NFC Central, while the Lions are 0-4 after getting rocked 34-7. It was a fun game though, and we even got to see Grossman hand the ball off a couple of times to end the game. Good thing we’re keeping him fresh. :) The Bears are making the transition from the dismal Cubs post-season slightly easier…
- [Allergies] So for a little over a week, I’d been fighting a daily allergic reaction to something, and it’s been impossible to set up an appointment with an allergist. Luckily, my dosage of benedryl had gone down from like 4-5 a day to just one in the morning, and now for over 48 hours I haven’t broken out in hives or taken benedryl! It’s the little things that make me happy. I still need to find out what it was I was actually allergic too, but I’m glad I’ve gotten over it at least for the time being.
- [Fantasy] It’s really sad. The guy I’m playing had 3 guys in his lineup on a bye week. Easy win, right? Not when nobody produces on your team. I’ve ended the week with 65 points, and now my fate rests on the Vikings D getting torched tonight on MNF (he’s got their D).
We put his daughter to work handing out pens with our welcoming team, while his eldest had some fun in our kids room…
Aurum and I used to be a part of CFC at U of I together, and he’s now an pastoral intern at Immanuel…It’s always great to reconnect…
Like I said, Pastor Reggie brought his gear, so I was messing around with some of his stuff. I took this shot with his 30 1.4…looks like I’ll be adding a few fast primes in my arsenal…
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Modern Portraits, [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
Phuc and Sherry :: wedding
- October 1, 2008 -
I second shot with Kenny Nakai for the wedding of Phuc and Sherry recently, and I was so excited for this one! Weddings are such an amazing and fun time for me, but its even more exciting for me when there are many traditional/cultural aspects to it. Phuc and Sherry were having two tea ceremonies along with a church ceremony. I love shooting these events because they really show the roots of family traditions and the richness of a culture. And I LOVE learning about different cultures!
We started out at the Phuc’s place with the guys getting ready.
We then headed over to the bride’s place for the first tea ceremony, which started out with some ‘door games’. What happens is the groom and the groomsmen go to see the bride, but the bridesmaids stop them at the door. Then through various games, the bridesmaids test the groom to see if he is fit for the bride. After performing a few acts, the girls finally let them in to complete the tea ceremony, where the bride and groom receive blessing and gifts from the elders of the bride’s family.
Afterwards, we headed over to the church for the wedding ceremony.
After the ceremony, we moved ahead to the second tea ceremony. This time, Phuc and Sherry would give tea to Phuc’s family, and be received by them and given gifts.
From there we went downtown for some portraits.
Here’s Kenny doing his thing-
Phuc and Sherry, I had a great time at your wedding – thank you for giving me the opportunity to take part in your wedding day.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: Personal[09.29.08] Monday Night Recap
- September 29, 2008 -
- [Night?] OK, more of a midday recap, because I took the day off to fight a cold and odd 3+ day allergic reaction. And because of it, you guys win with a bonus post later tonight!
- [Photo Challenge] A couple more days left for September’s Challenge. I’ll try to get the October challenge up by the end of the week…we’ll see how I’m feeling.
- [Fogo de Chao] On Thursday I got lunch with a friend at Fogo de Chao in Chicago – my first time to a Brazilian Steakhouse. I never was a huge steak person, but I must say I was satisfied. In addition to the food, our attention was taken by a few rather large men sitting next to us, one who looked very much Brian Urlacher of the Bears. Towards the end of lunch they got up to leave and my friend asked to get a picture with Brian, to which he responded “I’m his brother, Casey”. Sure enough, Brian does have a younger brother named Casey who plays for the Chicago Rush. I wonder how many times that happens to him…
- [U of I] I made the trip down to U of I with a couple friends this past weekend to visit my fiance. An extremely busy weekend with so much madness and very little rest. Here’s a sub-recap…
- [Allergies] 24 years of my life and never had a reaction to anything. But somehow at the end of the drive to U of I, my upper-left lip started swelling up. It wasn’t going down, so I took some benedryl. It started going down, then my upper right and lower left lip started to swell, so I took more bendryl. I continued taking benedryl which helped through Saturday. I stopped at around 3ish, and when I woke up the next morning both my arms had mosquito bite-esque spots from my wrist up to my biceps. So I took a few more bendryl which helped for awhile, but later Sunday it started flaring up again, this time my entire face and my back and sides. Another night of Benedryl and now I’m doing better, but got red spots still. I went to the doctor, who said it was some allergic reaction, and referred me to an allergist. So now we’ll see when I get an appointment and find out what this madness is all about.
- [Mini-O's] My campus church (CFC) hosts a mini olympic event every year, which is a fun time of competition between all the different small groups of the church. Here’s a tease, and I’ll post the rest later tonight:
- [Dinner and a Movie] My fiance and I left mini-o’s before the final competitions, and got to spend a little time together. First up was Tropic Thunder. My review- highy unimpressed. The previews and the first 10 minutes for funnier than the movie as a whole. For dinner, we went to Jim Gould’s, where I continued my steak-eating. Nice food, a bit pricey but definitely satisfying.
- [Midnight Ball] Well…it was more like 10pm, but I got a chance to play some ball with the guys out there. Word of advice: Never eat a steak dinner before playing ball with people who have never seen you play before – it doesn’t do well for their view of your skills.
- [CFC] A line from Pastor Min’s message on Sunday morning that caught my attention:
- (is doing good and going to church enough?) “Christianity is not that superficial.”
- [Dead Battery] Yep. After church, went to get lunch, then swung by the place I was staying, packed up the car, turned the key…nothing. Completely dead. We called a tow (through my friend’s AAA), who came by, and jump started the battery. Now we just need to drive it to an Auto zone and check if the battery is fine. Driving down the road, coming up a red light, brake…dead. In the center lane. Called our friends to come and give us jump, before they get there the tow comes back with the girl shouting “Don’t worry, I’ll help you guys!” She turned around, got out of the car, and gave us a head start in pushing my car to a nearby walmart. We jumped it again in the parking lot, and drove it all the way to the car center just before it died. Awesome. We got there just before they were closing (becuse they were short staffed), and they were nice enough to do a quick battery replacement for me. Luckily we found out about the battery before even getting on the highway…that would have been rough.
- [MLB] Everything is set for the playoffs! With the Brewers win over the Cubs and the Mets loss, the Brewers picked up the wild card spot, meaning the Cubs are playing the Dodgers in the first round this week. I’m excited! Craziness in the AL, with the White Sox totally crumbling at the end of the season are still 1/2 a game back. If they win their game today, they will be tied with the Twins and have a one game playoff to see who makes it in to October baseball. Woo hoo!
- [Fantasy] It’s not a good sign when you’re kicker is the second highest scorer on your team. I got rocked due to the bye week…I’ve got a lot of ground to make up in the next few weeks. Wish me luck!
Alright, my head cold and the benedryl are taking its toll on me, so I think its time for a rest before I post my pics on Mini-O’s.
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR] No Comments | add a comment
[08.09.22] Monday Night Recap
- September 23, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] A little over a week left in the challenge, so get ‘em in!
- [The Office] It’s back! TV has been rather boring outside of sports lately, so I’m greatly excited about the 1-hour season premiere of The Office this Thursday. I watched a couple episodes from last season over the past week to get hyped! So, what shows are you guys looking forward to? Anything I should get hooked on?
- [Cubbies] We CLINCHED!
- [Bears] I don’t want to talk about it. We should be 3-0.
- [Fantasy] After an 0-2 start, I broke out with a killer week this time, having the top score in the league, and the 2nd highest overall! My team is pretty stacked even though I don’t have all the high-profile big name players – my guys just produce. I’m looking to take this thing from here on out!
- [Rest] Yep…finally a weekend of rest. I like it. Got to hang out with my nieces on Saturday, watch my Cubbies, and on Sunday I had church, Bears (I said I don’t want to talk about it), some dancing, and then spending time with my fiance. These are nice breaks in a busy schedule. Won’t have another one of those until December, I think.
- [Revival] My home church is hosting a revival retreat (themed “Refocus”), and I wanted to give you all a heads up! It’s an amazing time to regain that energy and focus to push through the rest of the year and finish strong. It’s open to anyone and everyone, so spread the word and make sure you’re there. The retreat will be held from October 2nd-4th, and you can check the site for more details.
- [Pic] Ummm…a post without a pic? That would just be rude. I messed around with some off-camera lighting on Saturday with a self portrait (I need models…) of sorts…what do you think? Head shots can be fun/interesting, don’t you think?
be sure to visit the contact page if you’re looking for a chicago wedding photographer, available nationwide.
natemathai | filed under: [MNR][09.08.15] Monday Night Recap
- September 15, 2008 -
- [Photo Challenge] Already got a couple submissions so far, so keep ‘em coming! About two weeks left in this month’s challenge.
- [Storms] Chicago got hit by a tropical storm over the weekend, and it was madness! I pulled out of my house on Saturday morning to find my entire sub-division flooded (not too deep, though). On the drive to the wedding there were so many road closures with flooding, and we actually saw a car with water up to the headlights! And today, my normal 15-20 minute commute to the train turned into an hour in the morning, and an hour and a half on the way back! Very upsetting.
And to think while we all were concerned/complaining about this, down south Hurricane Ike was raging through. It’s crazy to think of how powerful and uncontrollable the weather is. It gets me thinking that regardless of how big and great we think we are, there is always something greater. We are weak people. Perspective is always good to have in life. - [Persecution] Also on a serious note, there has been persecution going on in Orissa, India. In recent weeks, Hindu zealots have burned churches and houses, killing many. Even still, evangelists and missionaries are still there, some fleeing into forests for safety and protection. More than anything, just lift up prayers for those enduring the pain and struggle. We are so blessed with the freedom we have here.
- [2.1] Apple came out with the 2.1 update for the iPhone, which was supposed to fix many of the bugs. The too that I’ve already noticed (of which I am pleased) was the typing and contact search are more receptive (it used to stall) and battery life has greatly improved even with 3G on all day. Of course, my battery did die yesterday at around 7pm, but I think thats because I was checking my fantasy stats every 5 minutes starting at noon. Have you guys had any positive/negative changes with the update?
- [Paris] I was flipping through the channels, and stumbled upon previews for Paris Hilton’s upcoming reality show: “My New BFF” on MTV. I was seriously shocked. Is this really what reality shows have come to? I guess its a good thing because it will force me to watch TV less. Anyone actually interested in watching this show?
- [Caroline and Chris] On Saturday, I helped Kenny Nakai out with wedding out in Evanston, Illinois at the First Presbyterian Church. This was a much different “second shooting” role, though – Caroline is Kenny’s sister, and he was groomsman! I was greatly impressed with his ability to be both a groomsman and the primary photographer. Obviously, an update will come later, but we all need a teaser (I wish I could tease you with more…but it will just have to wait):
- [D3] I feel a little dirty. With Kenny serving his groomsman/brother duties at the wedding, I would occasionally shoot with his D3. I never thought I would shoot Nikon…and it sucks because I was (obviously) greatly impressed. Impressed enough to switch? I think not. Now we just wait patiently (like we have for the past YEAR) for Canon to announce the next great beast. Rumors say its going to be announced this weekend…follow the evolution here.
- [Bears] I don’t want to talk about it. 2nd and 1 at midfield at the end of the game…2 incomplete passes and a failed run to turnover on downs. Seriously Turner? Of all the times to start passing? I’m
