Below are some of the images available for purchase at the Sidewalk Sale. If you are interested in viewing Jacques-Charles' work or purchasing a print (or two), please come early as quantities are limited.

Giant replicas of Grant Wood's farmers in his 1930's American Gothic painting (Art Institute of Chicago) have been erected in front of the Wrigley Building. Corey + Mike adopted a contemporary version of the farmers' poses with modern bag and mobile phone. For the final images, the colors of Corey's jeans match the farmer's wife dress and Mike's jacket and jeans match the farmer's.

Rather than the traditional under the dirty L shot, I used a slow shutter speed with a little flash to give it a more busy and urban feel.

Whoo Hooo!

I changed Corey's shirt color to blend with the cityscape colors perfectly.

Lips on lips on lips

The lens is laser sharp wide open and exhibit very low distortion (1.7%).

Here is one of my favorite image from Corey + Mike engagement session photographed with the Zeiss 21mm last week.

Reviews of the exceptional Zeiss 21mm can be found at photozone.de and at Diglloyd.com.

JR's complete prime collection includes the 15mm f/2.8 fisheye, Zeiss 21mm f/2.8 Distagon T* ZE, 35mm f/1.4L, 50mm f/1.2L, 85mm f/1.2L, 100mm f/2.8L MACRO IS, 200mm f/2L IS, and 300mm f/2.8L IS.

We know he's a little boy and are looking for a name so feel free to help us out with suggestions. We have three criteria:

1) the name has to be comprised of "two names" separated by a hyphen (just like mine, Jean-Rene, and that of my three other little ones: Jacques-Charles, Natalie-Soleil, and Pierre-Andre);
2) the name obviously has to have a French ring to it;
3) the name should not easily be "butcherable" (a new word I just made up) in most Latin-based and Germanic-based languages;

On November 3rd, DxO launched version 6 of its DxO Optics Pro Raw Converter. My favorite new feature is the expanded range of many corrections (sliders), allowing for artistic interpretation rather than just accuracy. My favorite previous feature was definitely the DxO Geometry corrections linked to the lens modules, allowing for quasi-tilt-shift lens controls over the image.

You can download a free 30-day trial version here (Windows only at the moment - Mac version to come).

Download the full 11-page Sacred Heart Brochure containing my images here.

Reviews of the lens can be found on dpreview.com and photozone.de.

I'm particularly proud of the the image of Christina + James with the wind blowing the veil layered in front of the city's skyscrapers. To shoot it, I sat in the front passenger seat and lowered the camera as low as I could between the front seats and lit the scene with a dash of flash while dragging the shutter to give the backdrop a tiny bit of motion.

Ceremony:Fourth Presbyterian

Reception: Prairie Production

Hindu Ceremony and Lunch: The Belvedere

Ceremony and Reception: Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

Ceremony: Assumption Church (where I got married)

Reception: Hotel Allegro

Here are a few images from Danielle + Michio wedding at the MCA, featuring a very colorful exhibit.

The fact that it's over 30 degrees outside (Celsius -- I refuse to convert to Fahrenheit), he constantly wears his snow pants because he likes to pretend they are fire pants (can't you see the resemblance). As if that wasn't enough, he needs to also wear boots because Jack Morrison always wears his boots in Ladder 49. Of course, a fireman would never go out without his breathing tank, so a rolled-up sleeping bag serves this purpose. The firehose comes courtesy of a bicycle pump hose that he inserts at the back of his t-shirt (not pictured).

An image is worth a 1,000 words, so here it is: