Friday Night Lights (Wedding Rehearsal pre-gameday Practice)

Mr. Barthel having a great time.


Jeness, Todd's Sister. The Best "Man." Easily the best dressed out of the Groom's side ;-)


Todders stealing a kiss from the bride to be, Kati.


20 Years. That's how long a certain Todd B. and I have been friends. From 3rd Grade Mrs. Zacek's class to now, we've done nothing if not mature together. So this past weekend on Sept 23rd, he got married to a wonderful girl, whose family I might have known almost as long. Kati and her older brothers Danny and Jason have lived not more than a 200 yard stretch of land away from my parents first house in Homer (now Homer Glen) Illinois. Danny and Jason were always on the same bus as I was, and Danny and my cousin Chris were friends. I was deeply honored to stand as one of Todd's Groomsman.

I brought my camera gear at his request "just in case" and it turned out to be a most excellent idea. Alot of times couples choose not to have a photographer onhand for the intimate rehearsal dinner, at the expense of not documenting a night just as emotional as their wedding ceremony. It's such a great way to recognize the important people in your life and how they're able to complete all your plans for the wedding and reception ahead.

Barring some weather concerns, there really wasn't a single thing out of place for the evening. It made for a really great night for photos. Critique wise I think I could have paid just a bit more attention to the settings of my flash and diffuser, along with moving to a lower ISO for higher fidelity while still retaining most of the background. Indoors at f4 gives just the right depth of field with the 24mm-70mm L Lens, but at 1/60th shutter with the autoflash (420EX, diffused and bounced) the subject stands out from the background by 2 stop or so. I really need to invest in a remote flash setup, so as to provide a background light. Time to start saving up those pennies again ;-).

Without further comment... the Martin-Barthel Rehearsal Dinner, held at the lush Pheasant Run Resort.

Martin-Barthel Rehearsal Dinner

Sep 22, 2006 - 157 Photos

[GT Alums*] + [BBQ] +[Dairy Queen] = Guaranteed Good Times

My buddy Dave spent some time in the ATL for Labor Day weekend. Thursday night college pals Maggie, Dave, Todd W. and myself ate at the venerable meat palace of the illustrious Williamson Brothers. Let me say this... if you like dead animal, you owe it to yourself, your appetite, your tastebuds, and your stomach to dine there. Wow. Double Wow.

After a hearty meal and a healthy talk (about the only thing healthy that night), we changed locales to something cooler and sweeter. Dairy Queen! I myself was stuffed to the gullet with Q, but the others didn't mind getting a sweet to counter the savory. Todd was a huge influence in my rekindled facination with photography back in college, so I brought my gear to show him and convince him that he needs to join the digital-SLR revolution.

We had a great time catching up and stuffing face.
Let's do it again sometime, cats.


Mag-azine and Dave


Todd


Magster

*them not me.

Day at the Races

Todd, my friend of almost 20 years, is getting married this month. Last month we had the Bachelor Party thrown by his sister Jeness, who is the "Best Man". Rightly so, because these two are pretty much inseparable siblings. I grew up with them and I consider Jeness to be a long lost sister, as much as Todd is as close to a blood brother as one can get.

The activities of the day (from 11am-God Knows When), included but were not limited to: Drunken Bus Ride I, Arlington Park, Drunken Bus Ride II, to Sam Maguires Irish Pub, and Drunken Bus Ride III to "Club O" gentlemens' club. I'd like to make a personal salute to all the Barley, Hops and Yeast that died to make the epic amount of beer that our troupe consumed.

I was sort of torn between socializing and taking pictures, so halfway through the day I packed up my 20d and concentrated on having fun. I did take more pictures with Todd's Canon digital powershot, but I haven't gotten those yet. Some real keepers there too.


Jeness and Todd


The only fulltime professional female trumpeter/Bugler Bonny Brown.


Fellow Groomsman (along with myself) Neil!



You can view my selections from the events here:

Barthel Bachelor Party Selections

August 26, 2006 - 46 Photos

Contradictory post about not posting.

Heh, of course I went into blog-hell. Those of you that know me in person might be perplexed because as extroverted as I am in person, it's hard to believe that I don't blog every minute of my life here on the vast text vacuum of the world. The more I think about it, I'm not into just generic broadcast of my existance. Maybe because I feel that the internet is too big. Who's to say somebody reads this? It's so annoying to talk to a wall. So I guess it makes more sense to me to post pictures along with one way words. I guess I like feedback. I read friends blogs all the time and try to comment because I figure it lets them know I read what's gone on with their lives. Anyway I've taken some pictures here and there, so I have some material other than web diary conundrums.

-k