Metropolitan Imageworks

Now booking for the 11th Intimate Moments Marathon hosted by Metropolitan Imageworks and Moya Make-up.  Trust us, we have done this many times and we know how to bring out the inner beauty you have hiding inside.  Contact us and book your session and allow us to unleash the inner vixen.

Date: February 5th

Location: Chicagoland area

We have removed the need to register on the Metropolitan Imageworks blog in an effort to make it much easier for all of your lovely comments! Please feel free to share your comments on our posts and images!

Wishing all of the amazing and wonderful Metropolitan Imageworks clients, family and friends a happy, healthy and safe Holiday Season.  Thank you for making 2010 a successful and enjoyable year for the entire team at Metimages.

We decided to go virtual with our holiday greeting this year.

Let me know what you think of the stop-action photography as I would love to incorporate this in more projects in 2011.

Merry Everything,

Rachael

Know anyone in the Pennsylvania, New Jersey or Washington D.C. area in need of portraits? I will be in the area October 12-19 and I am looking to fill my schedule with sessions.

My tentative schedule will be October 13-16 Pennsylvania, October 17-19 Washington DC.

I’m available to photograph babies, children, families (both large and small group), seniors, head shots, pets, engagement sessions and anniversary sessions. I can accommodate indoor or outdoor sessions.  The session fee is $300 (or $500 for groups of 7+ subjects.)

Choose your date and location and send me an email to request a booking packet and contract.  Once I receive your booking fee your time is secured.

Session includes:

Photoshoot
Online gallery for 90 days
One 8×10 professional print
Disc of edited images with personal usage rights

Please share this with anyone you know in the area!

Join me on October 10th, 23rd, 24th and 30th for the first set of Fall Photo Days.  I will be stationed at locations around the Chicagoland area and offering time slots throughout each day for location portrait sessions.  I’m available to photograph babies, children, families (both large and small group), seniors, head shots, pets, engagement sessions and anniversary sessions. Any type of outdoor portrait session, really! The session fee is $300 (or $500 for groups of 7+ subjects.)

Choose your date and location and send me an email to request a booking packet and contract.  Once I receive your booking fee your time is secured.  Simply meet me at the designated location and I’ll photograph your session.

Session includes:

Photoshoot
Online gallery for 90 days
One 8×10 professional print
Disc of edited images with personal usage rights

Dates, Times & Locations:

Sunday, October 10th

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Glenview Woods, Glenview, IL
2:00 pm – 6:00 pm – 12th Street Beach/Northerly Island, Chicago IL

Saturday, October 23

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond, Chicago IL
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Cantigny Gardens & Park, Wheaton IL

Sunday, October 24

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Riverwalk, Naperville IL
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Lake Katherine, Palos Heights

Saturday, October 30

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Location TBD – Possibly NW suburbs
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Location TBD – Possibly NW Indiana

Your booking packet includes information about session attire, what to expect from the session and next steps.

Now is the time to get your portrait session done and have us help you with holiday prints, greeting cards and large wall prints. We also have lots of items appropriate for holiday gift giving!

In the event of inclement weather I will designate a back-up for indoor portraits or you can transfer your session to a weekday prior to November 1st.

Please share this with your friends and family! Give the gift of photos, you can gift a session to someone as well!

Contact me to book or with any questions! rachael@metimages.com

In the wedding arena we have a term, Uncle Bob, which we lovingly apply to a guest at a wedding who has a camera and has transitioned from appropriate guest behavior to “I’m going to get pictures just like the hired pro by standing where they are standing, shooting over their shoulder, standing opposite from them on the dance floor or standing in the middle of the aisle during the ceremony, climbing on the altar/pew/table, etc” and other general behaviors that prevent them from enjoying the wedding and also make a challenging day for the hired professional photographer.  Some of the challenges we face:

1) Not breaking a bone or piece of equipment when backing up to frame a shot and tripping over the person behind them, who also doesn’t see them because of the camera in front of their face.

2) Hours of additional post production work to crop and edit images and remove the Uncle Bob from the shot.

3) Having a worried client contact them after the wedding, asking questions about the light during the ceremony/reception and the quality of the images because they were emailed some images from an excited Uncle Bob and the quality is disturbing.

4) Keeping the length of time needed for group photos tolerable even though Uncle Bob wants to take a photo of each group, AFTER the pro has lined everyone up to perfection and keeps saying, “Wait!” while we all wait for the camera to fire.

5) Capturing meaningful images during certain traditions, such as the cake cutting, when Uncle Bob is standing next to you and firing off his flash at the same time you are shooting.

6) Having a guest scold them for taking too many photos, when it reality it was Uncle Bob who had previously snapped a photo of said guest.

I discuss with my clients during pre-wedding consultations that I am not mean and I don’t prevent guests from taking photos during a wedding, after all I am sure 50% of the guests have a camera phone, point and shoot or some other camera at the wedding. I’m positive the clients might get some additional fun photos and instant gratification when tagged on Facebook the very next day.  It’s safe to assume the clients have hired me based on my portfolio, my shooting style and personality. They have a vision in their head of the wedding photos and they trust me to capture those moments and preserve those memories. All I ask is that I am not impeded on the wedding day by an Uncle Bob (who doesn’t remember that they are invited to the wedding first and foremost as a guest to enjoy the celebration with the bride and groom) moving around, competing for space, getting in the way as I try to capture moments, or even asking me questions about gear/shooting during toasts.

My personal thoughts aside – I just read a blog post from the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, www.ispwp.com, about the some of the differences between using a professional wedding photographer or Uncle Bob (someone who might be an enthusiastic photo buff and offer to shoot your wedding day and save you money!)

Uncle Bob vs. A Professional Wedding Photographer

I promise that as a professional wedding photographer I will not show up at Uncle Bob the CPAs dayjob and sit on his ledgers while he tabulates or pop up over the shoulder of Uncle Bob the surgeon and ask why he chose that particular scalpel or try to share the cubicle of Uncle Bob the office worker and attempt to use her computer at the same time. Fair is fair, right?

Many of you follow Metropolitan Imageworks and Victor, Mater and I on Facebook. We all have accounts so be sure to find us and Like/Friend us.  You might already know of the exciting times and happenings going on right now, but if you don’t, please take a seat and read what I have to share.

We’re going mobile and hitting the road in an RV to live, work and travel. How’s that for a doozie!? EVERYTHING is status quo for Metropolitan Imageworks – Chicago will be the major base and I am available for weddings and portraits and commercial work. It will be seamless. Just like the past winters we spent in Arizona, I will make plans to travel back every so often to work with my Milestones portrait clients and anyone else who needs to book me during those months. I also have awesome associate photographers available to shoot when I am not available (or for a different price point for weddings, hint hint inquire via email for more details.)

The next part of the update is we will be back in Arizona again this winter! So Arizona clients, please pass on the word I will be around from November through March and available for weddings, portraits, commercial work, IM Marathons and photography tutoring sessions. Victor starts a gig at an RV resort in Hope, AZ west of Phoenix October 1st and I will join him in November after my last Midwest wedding.

We have another blog, Roadsteader, where you can follow along on the RV adventure from the comfort of your brick and mortar homes and offices and laugh along with us as we learn the day to day of living in an RV and our antics of course, because humor is a big part of our day to day as it is.

I am also working on a calendar for the blogs, so you can anticipate where we will be and when we will be in certain areas.

I have a shooting gig in Telluride on August 1st and we plan to be in Denver for a while afterwards so I am putting out the call now for any interest in the Denver area for your photography, web, graphic and multi-media needs. Send me an email and let’s get it scheduled!

Without further ado, I am spending the next few days getting caught up on blog teasers and getting back into my blogging groove!

Honk if you see us on the road!!!

We’re doing away with the landline. You can contact Metropolitan Imageworks at 847-224-6428. Website and email will remain the same!

Lisa & Todd, July 4, 2009 of the Metropolitan Imageworks Best Wedding Image of 2009 contest.  A huge thank-you to all the couples who participated and to everyone who took the time to vote. We received an incredible 149 total votes! Lisa and Todd’s wedding image won with 59 of those votes!

The winning image will be made into a 16×20 Canvas Gallery Wrap and presented to Lisa and Todd!

Congratulations!!!

I’m proud to announce that one of my images received 8th place in the Venue/Location category of the ISPWP, International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, Winter Contest for 2009. It’s such an honor to be recognized with the incredible amount of talent in the membership of the ISPWP. This is my fourth winning image so I am ecstatic.

Check out the full gallery of winning images.

This image was taken on the rooftop of the Madison Museum of Modern Art in Madison, Wisconsin during one of my July 2009 weddings.