CHS Musical

This is my 6th year of taping the CHS spring musical and it just seems like they keep getting better and better. Therese Kincade does a fantastic job directing the show and the musical direction is led by Debbie Rappe.

This year's show is How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. I've never even seen the movie version, so this is my first exposure to the show. All I can say is if you get the chance ... buy your ticket now. (Only three nights left.) I've seen both casts and each one is full of talent ... both from an acting and singing standpoint.

You know ... it's hard to concentrate on taping a show when you're laughing that hard.

I was going to post a slide show of photos that I took during dress rehearsals. Instead ... I decided to post one of the main numbers from the show ... Brotherhood of Man.

Heather & Trent

What a way to start off the wedding season. Nicole and I had a great time up in Champaign this Saturday shooting Trent & Heather's wedding at the Wesley United Methodist Church. If either one of them was stressed out they sure didn't show it.

After the ceremony we headed out to the U of I Quad for a brief session. We had some time to kill before they had to be introduced at the reception, so we headed for an old watering hole that the bride, groom and wedding party used to frequent in the "old days."

Now I could show you the romantic and highly emotional shots that happened at their wedding ... but where would the fun be in that?

We'll start with a shot at the quad. (Make up your own title.)



An old friend.



Trent & the Ladies ...



Cutting the cake?



The REAL first dance.



Ok ... I don't want to give it all away, so I'll leave you with one from the reception. It was a wonderful day joining two great families.

I would like to thank everyone for making us feel right at home.

Let the season begin!

Time sure does have a way of creeping up on you. I've had some down time since the beginning of February and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity for me to catch up with all those little projects that just seem to hang around the office ... not projects for clients, but rather those housekeeping chores that we love so well.

I needed to toss out some videotape that I had shot over the last 17 years. I can be a real pack-rat and I hate to toss anything, but these tapes had absolutely no value at all. It almost brought a tear to my eye. ;-)

I also had planned to have my new shopping cart setup by now. I ended up running into problems with my host company and the cart system I purchased wouldn't work. So ... I'm now set up with the same domain name of scottbrooksphoto.com, but it's now hosted at bluehost.com. I've spent most of this week working on the cart and hope to have it up and running very soon.

So, now that "down time" is over, here's a quick run down of what's coming up.

Next week we're taping the Mattoon High School spring Musical. This will be my first opportunity to work with MHS and I'm really looking forward to it.

This year they're doing Disney's High School Musical. It's an extremely hot property this year since it's had a lot of exposure on the Disney channel. On Monday I'll be attending dress rehearsal and shooting some photos. Check back in next week for an update on the musical. I'm hoping to have a slide show of those photos up and running by the end of next week.

More theatre ... The first week in May I'll be covering Charleston High School's production of How to Succeed in Business. I've been working with Charleston High School for a number of years and I can honestly say that I always count performance week as one of the year's highlights. Not only is it fun, but I've had the opportunity to watch many of these fine, young actors mature as they've gone from freshmen to seniors.

And just as I do with all my shows ... watch for photos and a slide show on this site.

For those of you that can never get enough of weddings ... plenty to come this year. My goal is to get a few of my favorites up the week after the wedding. Can I do it? We'll see.

Keep checking in for new photos, new slide shows and new videos. This year should prove to be very exciting.

The Last Bridal Show of the Season

Wow! What a first quarter of the year. I spent the month of January working primarily on a corporate job ... but I also had quite a few bridal shows to do. Since we're now traveling a lot more for our weddings I thought it would be nice to get out and do some shows in the surrounding areas.

I managed to do two shows in Champaign-Urbana, as well as shows in Mattoon, Effingham, Monticello and even Terre Haute, Indiana. That's a total of 6 bridal shows through the first part of March. I'm done for this spring, but if I have time I might be doing one more show this fall.

I have to say that's it's been well worth it. The calendar is filling up quite nicely with weddings.

And as for non-wedding events, I look forward to the Charleston High School musical and the Eastern Illinois University Show Choir Camp. I've been videotaping these two events for many years and they're always a lot of fun.

If you haven't booked your wedding photographer yet for 2007, I do have some open dates during the summer and fall. However, from July through the first week in September, I'm booked 7 out of 9 weekends. Feel free to call or email to see if your date is available.

Forever Plaid

It seems like I've been on the road a lot ... and with good reason. In January and February I was working on a corporate project providing video production for their annual meetings.

This Sunday we'll be doing our 6th bridal show in about 9 weeks. After that I'll be taking a few weeks off before jumping into the wedding season.

So before we get to the upcoming wedding season I thought I would provide a bit more about my personal background. I'm the president of the Central Illinois Stage Company based in Charleston, IL. It's a small community theatre group and we typically do about one show a year.

7 years ago I had the pleasure of performing in a small musical-comedy, Forever Plaid. If you don't know the show, it's about 4 teens that had formed a singing group hoping to someday make it big. Then one day they were traveling to a show and were killed in an auto accident.

The four have now come back to perform the show that they always wanted to do in life. It's really a fun show and almost has a cult following. (Google it!)

Last year I had the opportunity to direct the show (as opposed to performing) and I had four good friends and great singers that received a standing ovation each night ... and deservedly so. Not only did they act well ... their blend was really great as demonstrated in this clip.

If you ever get the opportunity to see this show ... do it! You'll love it.

Tim & Laura

Tim & Laura were married on July 22, 2006. They met while Tim played for the Illini baseball team and Laura was a trainer. Beautiful weather ... beautiful couple.







No ... this isn't a posed shot. We went to the country to take advantage of a garden area. Unfortunately, the stretch limo was just a bit TOO stretched. There was no way they could make the turn coming out of the drive. The left font tire went in the ditch on one side of the road and the left back tire went into the ditch on the near side of the road.

Of course there was no way they were going to get it pushed out. Cell phone to the rescue ... a call to family resulted in a fleet of vans to pick us up and we were headed to the Keller Convention Center where the party continued all night.

Kristina and Shandon

I'm just now starting to get a few of my favorite shots up from 2006. This was the wedding of Kristina & Shandon at Allerton Park in Monticello, IL. To say the least ... it was hot.

It was August 5th and there is no doubt in my mind that the thermometer was pushing 100 degrees. As hot as it was ... everyone had a good time and it turned out to be a wonderful ceremony in a beautiful setting. Below are a few photos from the day.

Chelsea & Eusebio

For the majority of our weddings in 2006 we provided photography services, but we did manage to produce three wedding videos as well. This is the ending highlights for the wedding of Chelsea & Eusebio.

Right now I'm swamped, working on a corporate video, so it will be several weeks before my blog really goes into full swing. This post is really being provided for the friends and family of Chelsea & Eusebio.

I don't think there's any doubt that everyone that attended had a wonderful time. And for those of you that didn't have the opportunity to experience Vince Vance and the Valiants at a wedding reception ... well, there just aren't words to describe it. I think we can all agree that it was a unique evening.

Here's a short, 2-minute recap done in all black & white. I hope you enjoy it.