Vince 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 vaughn show comments | add a comment
Arizona 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
