The Dream Job

I remember the days of sitting in front of a computer in my cube back in my corporate days. Although the cube was actually triangular and it was called a pod. Leave it to Corporate America to just dress something up cosmetically and change its title in an attempt to make it something more glamorous than it really is. As William Shakespeare wrote, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." I think that goes the other way too. I spent more than a few hours dreaming about my perfect job.

Until I found photography, that dream job changed all the time. Once I dreamed of being a ski instructor. Another time it was a gymnatics coach. A human performance researcher for athletes. A travel writer. The list goes on and on. That all ended when I found photography. I truly feel like I'm living my dream job. Really it's my perfect job. Well, except for one job. It's a job that has always fascinated me and captured my imagination. Nicole, who recently married Aaron, has that job.

Nicole works with dolphins at the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Yes, she gets to play with, train, study and care for dolphins. Dolphins have always fascinated me with their almost mythical stories that are actually true. The stories are countless. How dolphins can sense a baby's heartbeat in the womb, how they have saved swimmers' lives in the open ocean, how they can understand sign language; all amazing stories. In fact, I've even looked up vacations where you can work with dolphin researchers and spend time in the water with them. So what a perfect bride for me. I honestly had to bite my tongue a few dozen times during the day so I wouldn't just ask some random question about dolphins.

While Nicole was a perfect bride it wasn't just because she has my dream job but because of how the day went. The dolphin thing aside, there were countless details about the day that made me so much enjoy the wedding. Nicole and Aaron were just easy people to be around. Always calm, always polite and so considerate to each other. The planning of their day was perfect. Never was their a moment where people were rushing. The scheduling of the day was impeccible, leaving ample time to enjoy the moments instead of looking at a clock.

Nicole and Aaron planned an amazing wedding day. It was perfect because they were able to give each other their undivided attention without worry about other details. I think that full attention and being in the moment not only makes for a great dolphin trainer but also a great way to approach a wedding.

DIY

When it comes to certain things, I'm not much of a do-it-yourself type of person. Well that's not completely true. I guess I will eventually tackle it myself after some procrastination. Typically, having someone with experience and competence with the task at hand seems a much safer option than me getting knee deep in something I don't really know much about. Sticking to photography seems my best option. Thus, I'm always impressed when someone takes on a large task that I wouldn't even think to tackle. That's why I was so impressed with Kathryn and Marcus doing many of their own preparations for the wedding. Which I would guess maybe meant Kathryn did much of the prep for their wedding.

Walking in to Kathryn's home, I find her doing her own makeup and hair. A few minutes later the girls are going over the look of the bouquets and I come to find they had rearranged some of the flowers. At the reception location, all the name card holders, in the shape of various animals, were hand made by Kathryn herself. Apparently not only is she an amazing figure skater and engineer, but also a sculptor? Yeah needless to say I was impressed.

What impressed me even more is how Kathryn and Marcus handled the day. Sometimes I hear stories of brides who have a hand in every little detail of their wedding and have made everything themselves, it often accompanies stories of a stressed bride realizing she took on too much. That was so not the case with Kathryn. Instead, she was spending time sword fighting, yes...sword fighting with her bridesmaids laughing as it was the best day of her life. Yeah it was supposed to rain, it was supposed to be cold, but you would never have known by looking at Kathryn and Marcus smiling, cracking jokes and laughing all during the day.

A few days before each wedding, my second photographer and I will talk in preparation for the day. I often start the conversation with, "O.K., they're a really cool couple." or something similar. I think Milli, Bonnie and Cris are finding that phrase to be redundant. Kathryn and Marcus have shown me again why I'm really lucky to be a wedding phtographer.

Gets Me to the Church on Time.

I've probably been in a hurry to more weddings than most people have been to or will ever be to a wedding. Not that I'm often late to my clients' weddings but more that they may get a bit behind and...well, since I am with them I'm late to weddings too.

I'm a big believer that how a person handles unexpected bumps in the road says a lot about them. Inevitably, in life, despite our best efforts, things we didn't plan for throw us a bit of a curve. I am actually a big fan of these little hiccups in life. I think they help me to keep perspective. They also allow me to people watch, another favorite activity, and see people making a bad situation worse. I often secretly chuckle as people get worked for something they can't do anything about. Airports, bus stops, restaurants are all locations that seem really conducive to minor setbacks.

I like to think of these little setbacks as great "war stories" that I can pull out at dinner parties where the conversation may be a bit slow. Now I'm not in any way diminishing real problems that come up in life, but think about how many times we've been worked up for what really amounted to nothing, it's those instances I'm talking about. It was a situation at Maria and Jose's wedding that really showed me who they were.

The trolley having arrived at Maria's to pick up the girls, left without them to get the guys. Apparently, there was a bit of a cross in communications. So there the girls were without transportation to the church. In wedding terms this is as close to meltdown material as you can get. Of course there was the initial shock and awe, but a few minutes later a plan to get everyone to the church had been hatched and Maria was happily on her way. By the time her car pulled up to the church, it was as if nothing happened and she was in great spirits. It's that attitude and ease that I know will help carry Maria and Jose through all that life throws at them.

Maria and Jose, thanks for letting me spend an amazing day with you. Now we all have a great little wedding war story to tell at parties and will only serve to make the memories of the wedding that much more interesting.

Click to Cure 2009

It's that time of the year again! Come on out to support my annual Click to Cure event for cancer research!

I know many reading this blog know the story of my own experiences with cancer in my family. Since the Click to Cure event last year, a few more people I know have been affected by cancer. I've also heard so many stories from people. It's seems nearly everyone has some story about how cancer has affected them or someone they know.

This year, we are raising money for the Cancer Research Foundation in Chicago. It was started by the Goldblatt family, yes of the Goldblatt stores. They support new and innovative research that often large organizations or governments overlook. Yet it's often this new research that leads to great leaps in science.

On July 12th, I will be shooting portrait sessions for a minimum donation of $100 to the Cancer Research Foundation. Bring your family, friends, dogs, cats, anything you want photographed in the name of a great cause! Here are the details:

Studio 415
415 W. Huron St.
Chicago, IL
July 12. 10:00AM - 6:00PM

There are no reservation times. Walk in, we'll spend about 15 minutes taking photos, and you'll leave with a disc of all the images. We'll have food, music, and a lot of fun. One hundred percent of the funds raised will go to the Cancer Research Foundation.

If you can't make it but would still like to make a donation, please write a check to the Cancer Research Foundation and send it to my address:

Dennis Lee Photography
7311 N. Honore St. #3
Chicago, IL 60626

So come on out, support a great Chicago organization. Oh and it's my birthday too. Yeah I'm using anything I can to get people to support something so important.

A Rude Awakening

I love my sleep. While pretty much nocturnal, sleep, when I can get it is something I really cherish. The only problem with sleep is the waking part. Invaribly, I will be in the middle of a great dream where I am flying and then wake up only to try and force myself back to sleep to the continue where I had left off. I think the term is called lucid dreaming where you can sort of take control of your dreams. It's something I love and hate waking up to.

I think weddings are sort of like great lucid dreams. You're an active participant and it feels surreal sometimes. And, as in great dreams, the day also goes by too fast. Then there is the wake up and back to reality. This blog was originally going to be about something else. It was still going to be about Christina and Mark, two unbelievably lovable, fun and easy-going people, but I was going to have a different start. But then I imagine Christina thought her first few days back from honeymoon would also have a different start.

The day after Christina and Mark got back from their honeymoon, the bank where she was at, got robbed at gunpoint; the guman standing right next to her. So there she found herself in a totally different surreal moment than the one of her wedding and honeymoon. Not the welcome back to reality that anyone would want. In fact, it may have been the ultimate rude awakening. All I can say is that words can't express how glad I am that she and everyone else made it out safely.

As I was working on Christina and Mark's wedding, I found myself reminiscing about the day. How Christina in her beautiful dress still wanted to walk along a wooded path to see Mark and have some private time together. While some brides treat their dresses like museum pieces, not even wanting to sit or move in them, Christina knew that more important than a dress was the time she wanted to spend with Mark. This was just one of many instances where I knew they are a couple that gets it.

So as I watched their slideshow again, I just went back to their wedding day and only remembered how great the day was and no event could overshadow that.

Check out their slideshow at www.dennisleephoto.com/christinaandmark

Laws of Attraction

If you've been reading this blog for a while you've probably figured out that I have a facination with people and how they find one another and what brings them together. The stories are as varied as the personalities. I've heard stories of introductions from friends, random meetings, airport conversations, sporting events, etc. You name a situation and I bet people have met and fallen in love that way.

What I find really interesting is the process of people falling in love. The actual mechanics of it and how it progresses. It seems that as we humans fall in love, we see the person we are falling for in new ways. One example of this and one of my favorite psychological phenomenon is what is called the Pratfall Effect. Basically, it states that if we are interested in a person and find them attractive, that a small blunder or mishap will actually increase the liking effect. So if you're out to dinner and you like someone and they spill wine on themselves chances are that will cause you to like them more. Looking back at my personal experience I can say this is true for me. Someone has a small blunder and I think it's cute and endearing.

Then I guess the day on the canoe for Rebecca and Hector helped their relationship along. During the ceremony, I heard the funny story of how Rebecca and Hector spent a day on a lake. Let's just say that it wasn't smooth sailing. But I can only imagine the laughs and conversations the situation caused. If the Pratfall Effect held true, then each little mishap just helped push them a little bit closer to each other. Considering, that was the story told at the wedding, I would say the Pratfall Effect worked for them.

So there I was listening to the ceremony, chuckling and trying to hold my camera steady as I photographed two of the most kind people I've met on the most beautiful day of the year. Rebecca and Hector share this amazingly quiet intimacy that, without having to make a huge scene, just reveals itself. A quiet connection.

In a world that has become increasingly about putting yourself out there and telling everyone via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc., exactly what you are doing at any given moment it was refreshing to see two people whose deep connection to each other showed more about themselves than any website ever could.

Vera Wang Fall/Winter 2009. Evening of Bridal Luxury

I had the pleasure of working with Vera Wang Chicago to cover the Fall/Winter 2009 bridal collection at the Four Seasons Hotel, downtown Chicago. There were some trends I was very excited to see. Color finally taking hold in wedding gowns. No more stiff bright ultra white fabrics but rather soft draped organza and beautiful tulle overlays that accentuated not only the body but also the movement.

Sonia Roselli along with Jen Jackolin from Sonia Roselli Esthetique helped the models look gorgeous with makeup that was very fresh, matte with a slight sunkissed cheek that was complimented by nude lips. All of which kept in line with the natural ethereal look inspired by the gowns.

Chicago Social magazine helped put together an amazing event that also supported a cause that is close to my own heart, that of breast cancer.

So without futher ado, the 2009 Fall/Winter collection.