Last week I had the pleasure of photographing the lovely ladies of the Victor J. Andrew Class of 2010. We had a great time! If you’d like to see more pictures from this shoot please follow this link.

For more information on 312elements photography please visit us on the web at www.312elements.com , or send an email to michael@312elements.com .

My wife is obsessed with cupcakes

When I proposed to my wife, Meghan, the first detail she decided on for the wedding was that there would be cupcakes. I’m talking about a matter of hours. She didn’t know where it would be, she didn’t know when it would be, but she knew there would be cupcakes. From that point on she’s been obsessed. We try a new cupcake from a local cupcakery once a week. After watching a few episodes of Cupcake Wars, she decided that she would try her own hand at baking, and with a little help from yours truly, she’s come up with a handful of great creations. Pictured above is her take on a Smore’s cupcake. It’s a graham cracker cupcake with marshmallow meringue filling and a cocoa cream cheese frosting. I couldn’t help myself, I had to get the camera out. You can learn more about her adventures in cupcakes on her blog The Perfect Compilation Tape

Photo by 312elements photography. For more information on 312elements photography please visit the website at www.312elements.com

It’s good to be Me (The day I met the Swell Season)

Sometimes out of the blue you get a phone call that truly can change your week. Not so long ago I received a phone call from a friend of a client asking if I’d be interested in working on a project with him. He was looking to film a documentary about a British Singer-Songwriter guitarist named Jim Martyn who recently passed. A local studio owner/producer is working on a tribute album and names like The Swell Season, Beck, David Gray, Phil Collins, and Snow Patrol are involved. At any rate the answer was yes and about a week ago I went out to the recording studio and got to sit in on The Swell Season recording. Needless to say I’m glad I answered the phone that day, before he went onto the next person on his list. Here are a couple of screen grabs from the video I shot. Once the project is finished, I’ll post some footage, or a link to the footage, but for now, enjoy the pics above and check out this write up in the Chicago Tribune.

Chicago Band Photographer

So when I’m not taking pictures of food or babies I do a lot of work with the music section of chicago.com.  Lindsey Wilson is doing some great things with the local music scene. I’ve done a lot of promotional and album cover work which I’ll post up here later, but these are some of my favorite live shots. I hope you enjoy. For more samples of work, please check out the official website at www.312elements.com .

Taking Social Networking to the next level. This is Megan Bhatia from OM Realty Group in Chicago, IL. She has a Video-Blog or Vlog, an active Twitter account, and a Facebook page where she posts her listings and video tours. She’s all about green living and her understanding of how to use social media is inspiring.  While her competition is putting their faith in the Sunday paper, hoping people find their website, and advertising listings in monthly catalogs, Meghan is doing the things necessary to drive relevant traffic to her business and interacting with her followers and friends. In an effort to keep her content fresh she hired me to take some pics for her to use in her assorted social media campaigns. Here are a few of my favorites.

A beautiful anniversary gift from my beautiful wife. This is a Hamilton Jazzmaster Viewmatic. Hamilton watch company was founded in Pennsylvania in 1892. During WWII production of consumer watches was stopped, with all watches manufactured being shipped to troops. The company has a great history and I thought the watch had a “timeless” look to it. It was an amazing and thoughtful gift that I will undoubtedly cherish for years to come. For more on Hamilton Watches check out their website.

Occasionally I’m asked about cameras. What I like what I don’t like etc. The above picture was taken by my wife with our Panasonic LX3. This camera has been hard to find since it hit shelves a couple of years ago. They’ve just released a new version, the LX5. The LX3 has been a great camera and I look forward to getting a few more years out of it. The main thing that separates this camera from your typical point and shoot camera is its lens. Without getting too technical, I’ll say that in most cases the lens is more important than the camera. The lens on the new LX5 looks pretty impressive because it’s a little faster than the LX3 and it covers a longer focusing range with its 3.8x optical zoom vs the 2.0 optical zoom on the LX3. At $500, it’s not a throw away camera, but it’s significantly cheaper than the money pit that is DSLR photography. To the majority of my friends thinking it might be time to purchase a DSLR, I might recommend picking up one of these bad boys and taking a photoshop class or spend some time going through tutorials on Youtube. You’ll probably be happier with the results. Read more about the Panasonic LX5 at here .

This is Dave Hiltebrand. We just launched his new website. Please check it out at www.davehiltebrand.com . He’s a lot of fun and performs regularly around Chicago.

This is Grace and she’s adorable! A really fun shoot with a great family.