Of government, football, motorcycles and kids sports

The few weeks have been flying by, with lots of shoots both hired and special projects and a few favors for friends.

The other big news is that I added a Canon EOS 5D MK II to my fleet of cameras, well, I don't have a fleet, but it sounded fun. The "5D" is a great camera, while not the best for shooting sports as it doesn't shoot at the 11 frames per second that it's big brother does, it does posses excellent image quality and also will allow me to shoot HD video. Editing it is a whole other ballgame.

One of my first assignments was to cover the Israel Idonije Foundation's Kick-Off event on the Southside. I'd never met Mr. Idonije, but have met plenty of other athletes through my years in newspapers. I'll say the first thing you'll notice if you have the pleasure of meeting "Izzy" is that he is a genuine guy. He cares about these kids that are the focus of his foundation.

Two days later, I met James Brown, a football player for Evanston Township High School. James had recently lost his father to cancer and since had put together some spectacular games, he was being profiled for the Tribune's prep sports preview. What a mature young man. One of the things I love about newspapers is meeting people, this was harder as the root of the story was him losing his dad, but this young man seems to have perspective. I wish him the very best in the future, which seems very bright.

Fast forward a week and it was onto Irish Gov't and photographing the Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland, Mary Couglan, for the group Education Ireland. If you or one of your kids/relatives is thinking of studying abroad, you want to consider this!

The day before my dip into Irish culture, I was fully back in Italy when I spend the late afternoon photographing one of my friends motorcycles, a 1975 Moto Guzzi T-3 that looks nothing like it did when it left the factory in Mandello Del Larrio. This will be used for promotional use in the near future.

Lastly, while practicing to be a father, I took picture of our friends kids last weekend partaking and learning the lessons of team sports. While both of their teams lost their games. Little Ella scored a hat trick in soccer and Mitch broke a nice 30 yard run... maybe he'll be the next Taylor Martinez!

Doors of Italy, Cappicolo, Moto Guzzi a look back at my June Honeymoon

As I referred to in my last entry, I was missing in action for a while. Part of the reason was a honeymoon in Italy after my February wedding. We spent 10 days in Italy (Rome, Florence, Pisa, Milan, Como and Venice).

We did many great things on our trip. It was my first flight overseas and I can with ease say.... dang, wish I'd done that earlier. We both love Italian food... I know, doesn't make us very unique, but that was part of our decision. I must say, in hindsight, there are some great Italian Restaurants in the Chicago land area. We got engaged at Vivo last July and celebrated our one year anniversary of that occasion at the same spot. http://www.vivo-chicago.com/websitedark/home.html They were great when I arranged our big day there. Tracy's other favorite is all around the city and suburbs, http://www.miafrancesca.com/ Plus I love Italian Motorcycles, OK European motorcycles as I ride a 1994 BMW K1100LT, but hope to ad a nice Guzzi in the future!

So back to Italy... we had such a wonderful time, the trains, the food, the people, the culture, the history. From cured meats like the Cappicolo at a open market outside our hotel in Milan, all the cool doors that were everywhere, the tour of the Moto Guzzi museum, to all the historic places we visited (Coliseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, The David, half a dozen Doumo's and Venice as a whole) . It really makes the United States still feel infantile in it's history.

Soon I'll be breaking into some more specific photo oriented entries, just wanted to share a bit more on the personal side.