The High School of Saint Thomas More

This was my first year of videotaping the spring musical for The High School of Saint Thomas More. This high school is blessed with all sorts of talent from freshmen to seniors.

Under the direction of Jodi Prosser they put together 4 great performances. This is just a sample of some of the songs from the show. Students ... please forgive me if you weren't on the clip below. And yes ... the DVD masters have been completed.

Note: this video is approximately 5 minutes long, so you might want to give it a chance to load.

One more time with Kelly & Matt

The last wedding video produced in 2007 was for Kelly & Matt. Earlier I posted part of the video from the Same Day Edit that was projected at the reception.

Kelly & Matt's video has now been completely edited and delivered and I'm ready to share another segment from their video.

Occasionally we have the opportunity to start earlier in the day as the bride, bridesmaids, groom and groomsmen are getting ready. This video is the pre-ceremony segment from our Same Day Edit package.

As for the wedding day ... ice, snow and howling winds couldn't put a damper on this party. The guests had a great time and so did we!

Thank you Kelly & Matt.

Feel free to add your comments.

(This is a Quick Time file.)

A Couple of Great Shows

Last weekend it was the Keller Convention Center in Effingham and this week was the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign. These were two really great bridal shows.

The one in Champaign is sponsored by WICD and is always a classy affair. This year they had two fashion shows that helped draw quite a few brides, moms and yes ... even a few grooms. If you happened to be one of those that we got to spend some time with ... thank you for stopping by.

Needless to say, Nicole and I had the opportunity to meet with a lot of brides throughout the central Illinois area over the past couple of weeks. We even had a few brides whose weddings we're scheduled to shoot stop by to just say hi and talk about how excited they are about their weddings. We love it!

Now it's time for me to finish up some corporate video work. As soon as that's been completed then it'll be time for me to finish editing a couple of wedding videos and designing an album or two. Hopefully, I can get all of this done before our first wedding for 2008.

It should be a fun year ...

Bridal Shows Around the Corner

It's that time of year again when all the wedding vendors congregate in some of the nicest reception venues ... showing videos, travel packages, floral arrangements, cakes to sample ... and of course, wedding albums.

Last year we attended 6 different bridal shows and 2007 turned out to be quite a success. So much so that 2008 is now halfway booked and we're just now getting ready for our first show.

With that in mind we have decided to limit the number of shows that we'll be attending. The first one will be at the Keller Convention Center in Effingham on January 7th. The second will be at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign on the 14th. Both are fabulous venues with an accommodating staff and excellent facilities.

If you have the opportunity to get out of the house and you're still looking around for DJs, limo companies or even a photographer ... this is a great time to find them all in one place.

Stop by my booth and introduce yourself. We can discuss your wedding plans and you can take a look at some of the new albums I have.

If you have any questions regarding the shows or my services feel free to email or call me at 217-345-9517.

Kelly & Matt

On December 15th we videotaped the wedding of Kelly & Matt at the Cathedral Basilica in St Louis. If you've never had the opportunity to see it, it's worth taking a tour through the church during the day.

When Kelly first contacted me she mentioned that she had been in a previous wedding I had shot where we produced a Same Day Edit ... or SDE. For those that aren't familiar with an SDE, it's a video that has footage shot throughout the day of the wedding set to music and played back on a projection system at the reception. In this case we also pre-produced a photo montage that preceded the edit.

These are always a challenge and impossible to do with only one or two videographers, so I called on my good friend Chuck from Katch Video to help out.

With Chuck and my wife Barb making sure the projector was setup properly and in focus for the 400+ guests, I was able to finish the SDE with about 20 minutes to spare.

The entire video was over 10 minutes and a bit too long to post here, but for Kelly, Matt, family and friends ... I wanted to post this portion for you to take a look at one more time.

Special thanks to the staff at the Adams Mark Hotel for their hospitality and to Westrich Photography for the use of the engagement photo in the video.

By the way ... you'll need Quicktime Player for the video.

Almost a new year ...

We're coming to a quick close to 2007 and it's been a great year.

It's been about a month since I posted anything new. And while I don't have any photos or video to put up right now, I should have something in the near future. We've actually produced three wedding videos (just need edited) ... the last wedding included a Same Day Edit. I'll definitely have some footage from that one. For those of you not familiar with the Same Day Edit, I'll post more information when the video is on-line.

The next 8 weeks will be the busiest of the year. I have albums to design, wedding videos to edit, and corporate video as well. Oh yeah ... let's not forget the bridal shows.

Our 2008 calendar is quickly filling up. As of today we are officially half-way booked for the year. We've been booking at such a good pace that instead of doing 6 bridal shows like we did in 2007 ... we'll now only do two shows.

We're going to be at the Hilton Garden Inn in Champaign and the Keller Convention Center in Effingham. Champaign and Effingham are like a second home to us, so I would never miss those two shows.

Special thanks to all my couples who made 2007 such a great one.

Also ... Nicole, Barb, Chuck and Kathy ... thank you for your support this year. This has been a team effort and you helped make 2007 the best one yet for Scott Brooks Photography. 2008 is going to be even better.

Jill & Nathan

Six years ago a young 13 year old was a Jr. Bridesmaid in a wedding that I videotaped. This past Saturday I had the opportunity to photograph her wedding.

Jill & Nathan were married at The Refinery in Champaign, IL. Actually, with the help of Kathy and Chuck Moore, we provided both photo and video coverage of their wedding.

Hopefully we'll have a video clip available after the video has been edited, but for now ... a few of my favorite shots.

Father of the Groom (to be)

I've always been on the outside looking in when it comes to weddings. Next year that will change. My son Brad proposed to girlfriend Teri and the entire family was very excited to find out she said yes.

You can count two dates as being unavailable in 2008 ... May 23rd and June 14th. Brad & Teri will be getting married at Secrets Capri in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. We're all flying down to spend time in the sun, play on the beach and do some shopping. (Ok, I lied about me being excited to shop, but Nicole and Barb will have their track shoes on.) Brad and Teri will be staying on to honeymoon while Barb, Nicole and I fly back. I have a wedding the following week, so we can't stay too long.

You can bet I'll be taking the camera, but I'll set it down during the ceremony and let someone else do the work.

June 14th will be the reception back home, so we're looking forward to one heck of a party with friends and relatives.

Shonda and Andy

Talk about ambiance ... Shonda and Andy got married at The Stables in Terre Haute. A great restaurant in the old brewery part of town. That, along with great friends, relatives, and of course the food ... made for a fun day.

Here's a few of my favorites.

Bridget & Eric

In an effort to keep more current with my weddings I've decided to post a few more photos and less text. So ... here are a few shots from last weeks wedding in the big city of T-Town. ;-)

Moment of Silence for my Mac ...

Ok ... bad news around here. The other day my main photo editing machine ... my Mac G5 ... started making all sorts of strange noises. When I booted it up it started with a squeaking sound, that led to the fans sounding like they were powering up a 747, that turned into a clicking sound, followed with a folder and question mark on the monitor. Now I'm no computer geek or anything, but I'm sharp enough to know that somethin' ain't right!

As it turns out my hard drive is toast and I lost everything on it. At first I went into a full-blown panic because I thought my latest album designs were on there and I would have to recreate them all. However ... all album designs were backed up to another hard drive. I was able to hook up my Macbook Pro (laptop) to my external drives and keep working. If you had an album design that had been posted ... you're in good shape. I saved them all.

Now I did lose a boat-load of music. This is music that I use in production work as well as some personal stuff, so I can't say that I came out without any problems. Still ... much better to lose the music than to lose other files.

I now have a new iMac ordered that should arrive in the next couple of weeks. It will be my main photo editing and design machine. I'll continue to to use the Macbook Pro for when I'm traveling as well as some video projects. And as for my G5? I'm going to attempt to put a new hard drive in there and keep it going.

Can't say it enough ... always backup your files. ;-)

Wedding Albums ... Time to Order

BRIDES ... now is the time to get your album orders placed. I am completely caught up on print orders and have made it through the design phase with all my current album orders. If you're wanting your album designed, printed and returned in time for the holidays then get those orders in ASAP.

Traditionally Thanksgiving is my cutoff time if you want your album back in time for Christmas, but this year I have several weddings in November and December, so there won't be as much "down time."
_________________________

With any luck I'll be able to make an official announcement next week. I just have to wait for all the details to come in.

Ashley & Mike

On Friday I had the opportunity to attend the wedding of my niece, Ashley and the long-time love of her life as well as her best friend ... Mike.

It was an intimate ceremony at Fox Ridge State Park attended by close friends and family.

You can see the photo montage from their wedding here.

It's Been A While -

Yup ... about three months since my last post. I wonder how long that is in dog years?

Well at least it's been for a good reason. I've been cranking out weddings all summer long and staying on top of print orders, designing albums, engagement shoots as well as tending to all that fun administrative work that has to be done. Nicole ... my trusty assistant (and daughter) ... comes over occasionally to attempt to bail me out on the paper work that phototography seems to generate.

So far this year we've shot in Champaign-Urbana, Effingham, Monticello, Royal, Charleston, Paris, Marshall, Bishop, Hindsboro, and even Macomb. We'll be shooting in several more of those towns before the year is up as well as Terre Haute, IN. and St Louis.

More about upcoming events later ... I promise!

So how do I properly catch up on the year? I can't ... but I'll put up a short photo montage of a few weddings from the summer that will hopefully help.

I wish I could say that I've included photos from all the weddings, but instead I have to admit that I made it easier on myself in order to get back on track. I took photos that I had stored in a separate folder on my desktop and added some music.

So here's part of my summer in a two minute photo montage. Just click on Summer Weddings.

Kristin & Adam

A summer day in Allerton Park ... a great day for a wedding.

We weren't so sure when the day started out. It looked pretty overcast and a good chance of rain, but it ended up being a wonderful day with beautiful colors. Oh yeah ... and beautiful bridesmaids as well!



The Vine Walk provided a great backdrop for the arrival of Kristin and her father.



Nervous? Not Kristin and Adam. They laughed together all day long.



A moment in the gazeebo following the ceremony.



Here's something you don't see every day in central Illinois. A great dance band with that big band sound. My apologies for not getting the name of the band. If someone is interested in a band, let me know and I'll find out for you.



And they danced the night away. Thanks guys ... it was great to be a part of your wedding day.

For more photos from the wedding visit Kristin and Adam.

Video recommendation ...

Since filling most of my open Saturdays photographing weddings (as opposed to video) I've found that some couples are having a hard time finding a quality video company. After all ... video preserves not only a moving picture, but the audio as well. How many of you would like to be able to hear the vows from your parent's wedding? I'm guessing just about everyone. Yet, so many people turn that job over to someone that has no clue what they're doing.

So who would I recommend? Basically ... this one was easy ... I highly recommend Chuck and Kathy Moore from Katch Video. I've known Chuck and Kathy for many years now and can truthfully say that if you're wanting a high quality wedding video then contact them at Katch Video.

Chuck and Kathy mainly service the St. Louis and southern Illinois area, but I checked with them to see if they would be interested in stretching that into central Illinois and they said, "Sure!"

If you are fortunate enough to find that they are available on your wedding day then I suggest you get them booked as soon as possible. You won't be disappointed.

Their website is Katch Video. Take a look at their on-line videos and see for yourself why you need them to record your wedding.

Slide Show for Melanie & Derek

We've been asked before if we could create a slide show or photo montage for our couples. Of course the anwer is yes. Just like albums, not every couple is looking for a photo montage of their wedding day. On the other hand if you're not purchasing an album, an extended photo montage provided on DVD is an excellent way of reliving your wedding day.

I posted a few photos from Melanie and Derek's wedding further down the page. The following basic montage is from their wedding on May 5th with approximately 40 photos.

Kristin & Ben

Relaxed, laid back, a stress-free zone ... that's how I like my weddings. Kristin, Ben and the entire bridal party were great to work with. Only two goals for the day ... number one ... get married. Number two ... have fun! (Any couple that brings their dog in for some photos is ok in my book.)

Nicole couldn't make it this weekend, so my friend Jana spent the day with me, getting some great shots. (She took the one below with their dog.) Hopefully we can team up again sometime.

Jennifer and Adam

My apologies for getting a bit behind with my photos. I'm actually going to try and take a few days off for a family vacation, but before I did ... I wanted to make sure I had a few photos up from my most current weddings.

Jennifer and Adam were married in Sigel at 2:30 on May 2nd. I guess that's Doctor Adam. You see ... he graduated the night before and then drove down for his wedding. I guess that meant if I were to pass out or fall out of a tree (like I could climb a tree) that someone was there to take care of our medical needs. ;-)

After the ceremony it was off to Lake Sara for the reception. After a few photos in the tux and gown it was time to relax and unwind with boat rides.

Thanks guys ... we had fun.

Melanie & Derek

Melanie and Derek got married on May 5th in Thomasboro, Illinois. Now if you don't know where Thomasboro is ... don't feel alone. I've lived in central Illinois my entire life and hadn't heard of it, yet it was only about an hour away. So much for not needing a map.

As usual ... we had a great looking couple that was laid back and just wanted to enjoy their wedding day.

Here's a couple of Melanie.





NOTHING comes between a man and his John Deere!



Ok ... maybe one?



If you're in the market for a landscaper in the Champaign-Urbana area, look up Deem Landscaping. Derek's the man to call.



I like cake at a reception just as much as the next guy ... but set up a chocolate fountain? That's just not fair.



Friends and family can visit www.scottbrooksphoto.com/photocart to see or order photos from the wedding.

Thanks everyone. We had a great time.