categories: Personal, [MNR]
tags: blender, ceremony, chicago, cinematography, fantasy football, hindu, iamsecond, jaan, mandap, photography, video, wedding
interested in booking? Head over to the the contact page or shoot me an email to info@natemathai.com
- [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 :)
categories: [MNR]
tags: chicago wedding photographers
interested in booking? Head over to the the contact page or shoot me an email to info@natemathai.com
- [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! :)
categories: Modern Weddings, [MNR]
tags: chicago wedding photographers
interested in booking? Head over to the the contact page or shoot me an email to info@natemathai.com
- [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/ .
[2009.09.07] Monday Night Recap
