Just Snow?

Snow? Is anything just something? Doesnt it always bring certain memories or feelings?

What does snow mean to me? (this year)

About 7 months ago we realized a couple things. One we're having a baby and two this baby will come on christmas, the official due date. Then we realized that the baby will come around the same time we get what? Our first snow fall. Well, here we are, the snow is here. The, not ours, christmas lights have been put up. The shopping has begun, the eggnog is being sold (brandy anyone?), the winter coats have been put on, the shovel is out of the shed. So when is he coming?!?! We our anticipting this little guy like nothing else we been thru. We wanna meet him. Wanna see what his face looks like, want to eat his toes, put that cute outfit on that has the dinosaur hoodie, that tax deduction(grin), put that chicago bears jersey on, that blackhawks sweater.

Come on already, stop teasing us and just come out!

This morning I took these pictures of the first snow. The whole time i thought of this. That this means he is SO close to being here. What is going to happen? How will things change? What will changing my first diaper feel like?
How much more can I love this new human being that I havent even met
yet?

Think about what memories you have of snow...

— Aldo Risolvo

Poldek Family

There arent many reasons I like to miss the Bears play but Im glad they made it worth it! Meghan, Kirk, Katie and Tommy. A great little family. They show us a fun time and we got some great pictures to boot! A quick story then on to the images...

We started off shooting Katie in her Halloween Cinderella outfit in her bedroom. She was full of energy. We shot a bunch of frames then mom and dad left the room so that Katie would focus on me instead of looking at them. So, click, click, we're shooting, then all of a sudden Katie starts running towards the door and I immediately thought she'd called it quits. Nope! What does she do? She closes the door and gets right back in cinderella model mode! It was pretty amusing! Thanks for the story Katie! We took some pictures of cute little Tommy, a few family shots and even Kirk got into model mode for some headshots for his dentistry practice, look at those teeth!

Extravaganza!

Dave and Jillian

On September 19th we had the pleasure of shooting the wedding of Dave and Jillian. On a great day and a great location at Fabyan Forest Preserve. They were a pleasure to work with and the kids were adorable! One of the girls read something during the ceremony and for the first time ever... I cried during the wedding. We had a great time. Thanks Dave and thanks Jill and I wish you the best.

Enjoy the "Best of..." slideshow!

All photos can be viewed at http://risolvo.zenfolio.com/davejill

It's Official!

Four years in the making! A gallery site of 'best o' Aldo'

Is it the best? No. Will I become rich and famous from it? Maybe a little bit more than I am now. I'm not saying I'm any bit rich and famous now so it's easy to say a "little bit more". Ideally I want to have this on my own site, which in honesty would be just an implementation of the same gallery but it would feel different. It would still be ALL mine. I want a website!! Actually, this was probably the hardest part. Hmm...

Anyway, I'll post another blog about why I even got this done.

So here's the link. Please spread it around, tell your aunts, uncles, grandparents, neices and nephews... you get the point.

http://risolvo.zenfolio.com/aldo

Tim & Lisa, Engagement

I had the pleasure of spending a few hours with Tim and Lisa.  They showed me around their neighborhood, the church their going to get married in and finally ending up at Navy Pier. We originally wanted to shoot mainly on the beach but, of course, as soon as we started shooting, it started to rain and I only got a handful of shots off. Not to mention the lifeguard YELLING at us to get off the beach! We then decided to go to the Loyola Campus and of course it had then stopped raining. We took some pictures in the campus then headed for Navy Pier. We parked in the garage and Im pretty sure Tim now has a permanent scar on his head from the low ceiling. Ouch! The rain that just passed gave a nice ambience and some nice light to boot. After re-enacting the scene from Titanic Tim decided that he wanted to take some pictures with cotton candy. I'm glad he did. Those pictures look like great fun as they DEVOURED the cotton candy.  We walked a little bit more around the pier as the weird movie-like fog rolled in and the air chilled. We thought that their were going to be real pirates coming off the pirate ship to attack us all. 

Congratulations and I wish you luck in your lifetimes together!

Now for the slideshow!!

My newest self-portrait and me

Let's start with this, study it for a minute and then look at this, to see how it was made. Roll over the picture for notes, equipment, etc..

---background---

A small batch of Twitter friends joined together a few months back and started a Flickr group know as... #TOGether. Get it? Like TOG, phoTOGrapher... And no, before you even ask, we dont do ether! It's not the 80's anymore! Anywho... Every month or so we have a "contest" with no prizes but to brag and boast, no not really either. This latest, lets call it a project instead, was to do a self-portrait. Not just any self-portrait but a self-portrait using a.... mask! Woohoo!! Thanks Suzy.

---process---

I knew right away what mask I wanted to use. OK, now what? Do I just slap the camera on a tripod and take a picture of my ugly mug? That's it? Nah, you need more. So the mask I chose is pretty DRAMAtic. I figured I needed some dramatic lighting as well. What's more dramatic then a black background? (I'm sure there's something more dramatic but just go with me here, it's MY blog! If you dont agree...get your own blog and then talk about dramatic backgrounds! Sorry... didnt mean to be so dramatic! If you dont like it, get yo... OK enough) So I put a portrait sized black foam board on an easel, placed the mini-chair down in front of it. Attached the sync cord, place the settings... I used f16 on my Canon 70-200 f/4 at 118mm at 1/125. It's difficult to get the focus point on what you want exactly when your doing a SP. Using f16 should put everything important in good enough focus. I sit and start snapping away. It probably took about 20 pictures before I liked what I had, the placement of the lights. (Thanks to digital! I can only imagine the waste of film before this.) Then.... I had to enter model mode!! I hear the music change from this to this Aaawwww yeah!!! Uh, uh yea! I rip the glasses off and start posing. I pause to check to see how good im rocking it. I think to myself, what am I doing? Why is my shirt still on? Off comes the shirt, spin it like a helicopter! So after many other pictures, I realize that I didnt shave my face, the "hair" on my head needs to be shorter, I'm a hair beast, Im overweight and oh... Im not a model! Finally, after getting depressed, my real emotions start to show. The sad, I'm a nobody phoTOGragher, loser emotions, etc. You know, the ones we ALL feel, come on, I know you do! And its not even winter! I tried more and more and saw that one that I liked. I did slight variations. I did not crop that photo at all, framed it that way. I loved it right away. Sure I brought it into Lightroom and Photoshop. You're supposed to!! I dont care what anyone says! (maybe a topic for another blog?) I enhanced and cleaned up as I usually do. I liked this enough to treat it as I do for clients and more importantly as a piece of art.

There! I finally have it! I now have the picture I turned in and a picture I really like.

note to self: When editing a full resolution file with layers... make sure you "save-as" before you make it web-size.

Moral of the story... (do I have one?)

1. Have an idea? TRY IT!

2. You have to shoot. Get off the couch, off the twitter and off the facebook.

3. Experiment, try different things.

4. Put your light where its supposed to go, then move it around, closer, farther, behind you, over you, etc

5. Think of something unique! Think different.

6. Don't just take a picture... MAKE a picture! (quote stolen from somebody)

— Aldo Risolvo

Food. Good ol' Yummy Food!

Food photography... I've never really would have thought about it before. Lately I've been seeing some spectacular images. These images are so well lit and arranged and constructed and cooked and delicious and you get the point. I know this type of photography needs and deserves a lot of work, attention, and focus, not to mention supplies. One person comes to mind right now. This person said something to me once on twitter that pretty much sent chills up my spine, in a good way! Quote: "I'm obsessed w/ 'designing the blur' - an amazing & often ignored aspect of the shot." Designing the blur! How awesome does that sound?!?!? Designing the blur? Yes, we CAN design the blur. She does it all the time! And does it quite well. I am glad I got involved in Twitter. I would have never met her and would have never been inspired. She is Heather "HD" Connelly. You can see her more current work on her Flickr page. Thank you Heather for inspiring me, for teaching me and being *insert corny-ness here* my friend.

Well last night my wife went shopping. I got home from work and we decided to start cooking. I thought, hey, get the camera out and play around. I started taking a few shots along the way. Just taking these, un-setup, un-lit, un-composed shots are hard enough. This all made me appreciate what "HD" does all the more. (Is that the right phrase?) I'll post my shots below. I will definitely do this again andtry do it in a more controlled manner and attempt to "design the blur".

On a off photography topic... I had a blast cooking with my wife. We got to spend all night together in the kitchen, in the dining room, then the couch and finally the bed. Most of you know by know that she is pregnant and we have been loving it and getting along so so well. It was one of the best nights of my life. Im not even sure why... we even talked about it. Why was that night so special? Maybe 'cause we were getting along, feeding off each other, enjoying something we both like to do on occasion, with a good outcome may I say.... Whatever the case may be it was great. Then to top it off... She's trying to get me to feel the baby move, she's only 5 months! She trys all the time and she LOVES it when she can feel it. I try all the time too with no luck except on another occasion. So I try again before I fall asleep. Lo' and behold I feel something once and twice on my hand. Its like a flutter. I've been training to feel this for weeks! Then I think... ooh, let me try this... I put my face where I felt the movement, and I felt it on my cheek! Oh it was so cool. What a feeling. This morning someone even noticed I was being more chipper on twitter. Anyway... thanks babe!

Surf's Up!

We woke up sunday morning and my wife turned on the TV which she rarely does. After I made my coffee, I sat down and started watching "Riding Giants". A surfing movie. I was pretty much sucked in immediately. I even checked the "info" to see how much of the movie was left because I knew I was gonna be "stuck" watching the rest.

What a cool culture, cool personalities these guys have. Sort of carefree, they take a different approach to things. They do things most people will never do. (Kind of reminds me of another post I have in editing stage if I ever finish the tag-a-long pictures to go with.)

So I remembered I took a few pictures from the cruise we went on in January of '09. The ship had a wave machine and people were catching these "gnarly" waves and "riding the pipe". Well, not so much but I'm pretty "stoked" right now from watching the movie. Leave me alone!

Scott Kelby's Worldwide Photowalk

I've participated in photowalks before. This was different! This was arranged by the great Scott Kelby (and Jim Frazier)(grin). This was WORLDWIDE! People from all over the globe, Australia, Brazil, France, Canada... you get the point. I was in Geneva, IL. Photographers all over the world taking pictures at the same time(ish).  There were a total of around 33 people. Here's a group photo.  It reminded me of "Hands Across America" which I was in Elmwood Park, IL on Grand Avenue.  It just feels good to be part of something, a community, even a community within a community, I went with my West Suburban Chicago Flickrers (WSCF) group. The biggest meet-up by far.

When I go on photowalks it's more for the camaraderie. To be social, to share with like-minded individuals. Taking pictures is not a top priority. Now, when I go on my own personal photowalks, it's a different story. I take my time. I wake up early. It could be hours upon hours. I could take hours within a 5 foot radius. You never know. As long as I come home with at least ONE good great picture Im happy. Obviously I want more but im happy with one and greatly pissed disappointed with none.

Anyway... I hope you enjoy the pictures. Let me know what you think. I have to post 2 of my favorites to the photowlk website. It would be terrific if I were to win a prize!

View the slideshow! Go full screen! After clicking play, then click on the icon at the bottom right.

Grace!

grace: (noun)_ Elegance and beauty of movement or expression.

I'm uploading the child portrait session I just finished as I'm typing this. A three month old name Grace. She was just that. What a cutie!  A great smile that she didnt always show me when the big black camera was in front of my face but when I took it away she would smile at me with big eyes! What a great kid, I hope to see her again!

AJ's Slideshow!

This is my fourth session with AJ now and he's one of the cutest kids I've worked with!

I've been doing this long enough now where I can see some children grow thru my lens.

I never thought I would feel a connection with these kids but I do and I am loving it.

iPhotography

Let me start by saying im not sure how I completly feel about this. I'm more of just thinking aloud and hopefully letting you into, what I think is, an obvious future. This has been going on for about a couple years and it's been growing and feeding me into this blog. This has a lot to do with the amazing invention of the iPhone and the fact that it is now a better camera makes things, well, I guess worse. 3mp, better in low light, auto-touch focus (which will most likely show up in our bigger SLRs with live-view) and a couple more things. This is typical for camera phones now a days. My issue has to do with the editing, the post-processing, the "photoshopping" without using photoshop. I mean some of this stuff looks great! Vignetting, selective color, selective focus, b&w, tinting, on and on...

Their are plenty photographers that show, sell, their work for use on the web arent there? Look around, its everywhere and PLENTY of it. The obvious use in advertising, not to mention stock photography. So does the web need 21, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 5, 4, 3 even 2mp?? No, it doesn't. Does it need PS or the like? Nope! OK, so how do we usually work? We take our, at least, $1500 camera, our hopefully expensive lens, our hopefully expensive tri-pod, which I think the costs are too much, and take the picture with our wireless remote. Then we bring it in to our $700 piece of software and edit it for hours right? Right. Well, how about this? We take our PHONE out of our pocket, slide and press a few buttons, actually touch the screen of where we want it to focus, compose the shot and click the screen. No shutter, no mirrors, no chip that is bigger than a quarter size of the iPhone. Then we can open the picture in one of many, many different apps that we purchased for probably a few dollars or even FREE and "edit" away in a few minutes. Not to mention being able to post that picture almost whenever you want.

So what does this all mean? Is the, proverbial, writing on the wall? Do some people actually care more about getting their pictures online? Portraits of their kids, senior pictures, headshots and even yes, their weddings onto to their facebook page? A web slideshow? Their blog? Can an iPhone take care of all that too... sure, to a certain point. Will it get better, easier? You bet it will.

The industry is talking more about all this convergence of video. Grant it, it is pretty awesome but I think we need to have more discussions on where this "low-end" type of photography is headed and whats it all means to all of us as professional and amateur photographers.

Right now, we think its pretty damn cool but I hope it doesnt bite us in the rear.

— Aldo

Let me know how YOU feel. Comment or click a reaction.

You're baby grew alot last night...

You're baby grew alot last night she said to me. My wife took a trip for work without me. She asked me to go with her a while ago but didn't find it necessary and didn't want to spend the money. Almost 2 months later, what we've trying to achieve finally comes to fruition, I hate that word. We, she whatever, became pregnant. So now, yea, I wanna go with her now, I wanna be there everyday, every step of the way, "take care of her". So when she tells me "your baby grew last night" my heart kind of dropped. Grant it yes, it's only been almost 4 months but this is amazing, a "miracle" they say right? So yea, I'm gonna feel upset, I missed something. Two weeks ago I felt her tummy and it was firmer than the previous days. When I told her I could feel something she was ecstatic! So happy that I finally, after asking me everyday to "feel, feel, feel" I could FEEL it. Earlier today she said there's a bigger bump on the left side. So, my baby grew alot last night and I missed it. I'm looking forward to kissing that left side growth when she gets back. And hopefully I'll never hear that again from 615 miles away. 

Here's one of our first ultrasound videos...

There they were...

During my lunch break today I sat and watched "the three free months of Showtime" Directv gave the company for being a loyal customer. I flipped on an older movie with Demi Moore, pre-Ashton im sure. They showed an aerial view of NYC and there they were. On the same televison set I saw it happen. The twin towers were right there. The vision of the those planes crashing into them. My boss telling me to get back to work, my wife calling me on a phone she couldn't quite figure out how to dial on. Holding back the urge to rush over and interrupt her classroom that just so happens to sit, only 1/2 mile east of the airport, directly under a flight path. All the while my coworker is at the hospital expecting his, now 8 year old, daughter.

I could go on... But I don't have to.

Btw, the movie was "Passion of Mind" from 2000. It's about a woman with split personas, split lives. Does that 11th day in September make you feel that way too sometime?

The Best of Sam and Haley's Wedding June 6th, 2009...