We were at the Chicago French Market during lunchtime this week for a new event called “Dine Around the Market.” It is going to be a monthly cooking demonstration using ingredients found at the French Market. This week, chefs from the Blackstone Hotel made three courses: a sweet potato soup with bacon and sourdough croutons, a salmon sandwich with Taleggio cheese, and bananas with custard. And the best part: free samples afterwards!
John and Katrina had met each other when they were very young, still in elementary school. They had lost touch over the years, but they were recently reconnected over Facebook!
We had fun shooting their engagement session at the beach with John and Katrina (and their dogs 
last June, so we were looking forward to the wedding day all summer!
The guys and girls got ready separately:
The ceremony was in a gorgeous old church
Dinner started with prayer and ended with cake
Instead of a garter, a frog was thrown…
But it kept going all night with a live band and lots of dancing!
Congratulations!
Whitney grew up on the same street as Leeann in Lake in the Hills, but they didn’t meet until high school. The University of Michigan is where she met Jacob, but they waited until after graduation to get married. They are kind and generous people; after their wedding, they are leaving the country to serve on the Peace Corps! We were happy to capture some memories from their special day.
How cute is it, that the bride and flower girl have the same shoes! They are from Hydra Heart on Etsy.
We discovered that morning that the bow tie wouldn’t fasten! Luckily, Jacob finished getting ready much more quickly than the girls, and we made a run to Men’s Warehouse, where a kind tailor fixed the tie.
Exchanging gifts:
Signing the Ketubah, a Jewish tradition:
A beautiful ceremony:
The new couple:
Details:
And finishing the night with some dancing!
One of my favorite fruits is the lychee. I first discovered them during a study abroad trip in Taiwan.
Like many other things in life, the unattractive outer shell belies a treasure within.
I’ve photographed these with the 100mm macro lens. It’s an underutilized lens, only making the briefest of appearances to greet the rings after a wedding. But I have no better tool with which I can examine small details. I love the layers of texture here. I’m thinking of magnifying it a bit and then converting it into a layer texture for a photograph.
Back to the fruit… I think I actually enjoy peeling the unfriendly shell. There is a little work, but it’s reasonable. Along the way, little drops of temptation ooze out the cracks. It all makes the reward just that much sweeter.
And, oh, what a reward it is. A fragrant, exotic, sweet flesh.
Lychees are only in season for a short time. There are canned varieties, but the limp, mild remnants found within cannot compare to fresh. I think this contributes to my love of the lychee. The scarcity elevates it from pedestrian staple to seasonal treat. I think there are many things we could apply this principle to, if only we were more disciplined.
