Angel & Achint | Chicago Bucktown & Wicker Park | Engagement Session
Sunday, May 9th, 2010
Angel smiled shyly as Achint gently put his hand on the small of her back and led her to the rear of Ipsento Coffee. Suzy and I greeted them enthusiastically, and they introduced us to Angel’s mother and sisters who had made the trip with them from Champaign to Chicago to take advantage of some city shopping. It had actually been Angel’s sister, Sarah, that first got in touch with me about the engagement session in Wicker Park, and we chatted excitedly while waiting for our coffee. Talent runs deep in the Scarbrough family, and I was thrilled to meet three of the five girls in their indie eclectic rock band, Seventeen Sisters.
We sipped coffee with Angel and Achint in the back of Ipsento getting to know them better and listening to the story of how they met. Every time I hear the events that conspired to bring a couple together I am moved, and their version of how a Mississippi girl and an Indian boy found love in Champaign, Illinois was no exception. In fact, it was beautiful. It is always my desire to reflect the authenticity of a couple’s relationship in my images, and the better I get to know them, the more intuitive this becomes. As we prepared for our shoot, Angel shared that while fun and adventurous, she and Achint are a private couple, conservative with public affection. It meant so much that they were trusting Suzy and me to capture such precious moments between them in light of this. There was a purity and simplicity to their strong, quiet love, and it was very moving.
As we were getting ready to leave Ipsento, I grabbed this shot of Angel and Achint. I just ADORE the decor here, especially the antique windows on the walls and doors as accents.
Armed with warm coffee and pastries, we ventured out into an unexpected blustery Chicago day to capture Angel and Achint’s celebration of their engagement.
Suzy captured some fantastic moments between them here in the alley too!
There is something about the grittiness and vibrant colors of the blue line stop at Damen that I just love! We spent some time shooting outside and then went up on the platform. While I was photographing this,
Suzy captured this view:
I really enjoy shooting as a team, not only because it makes the session more fun, but because there are two creative minds working together who see the same scene with such different eyes and catch details the other didn’t.
Here’s a shot directed and captured by Suzy, that so very well expresses the sweet, quiet affection between Angel and Achint:
While walking down the street to our next destination, I caught this, but no matter how hard we tried, we COULD NOT lose that guy next to them! So alas, here is his moment of fame.
Nancy, owner of Una Mae’s in Chicago was so gracious to allow us to spend some time in her boutique on Milwaukee. I have a weakness for this place and have already made several purchases here, including a pair of red fingerless gloves the day of the shoot after losing mine on the El!!
The warmth inside Una Mae’s after braving the elements lent us to more playfulness!
In spite of the cold, we had such a blast with Angel and Achint, and I’m so thankful to have gotten a small peak into their world. Huge thanks also goes to Suzy Rohan of Lily Red Design who was a fabulous second shooter and also played the roles of driver, mitten chaser, Starbucks scout and keeping me sane. 
OK, a natural disaster, maybe. I keep meaning to change my middle name to Grace. It’s not in my genes, so I may as well make it part of my name if I’m to have any hope at all. My day started out great. Church and lunch with friends, and a relaxing afternoon sipping tea and reading at Starbucks. I went into work upbeat in spite of it being a slow night. And then I tried to open that dang bottle of Moscato. Nevermind my favorite wine key that has been with me through thick and thin the last four year got confiscated at the airport. Or that the cork felt like it had expanded entirely too much to be extricated. I had this. But that dang new wine key. It kept faltering. I braced it against my hip, pulled hard, and BAM! The bottle broke and a trail of blood was streaming from my finger. No worries. 20 minutes later, index finger wrapped in gauze and red duct tape and I was good to go. Sure, I looked a little bit like E.T. but that wasn’t going to stop me. Relatively smooth night, and I was rockin’ and rollin’ despite my injury. Until I shattered a pint glass all over the bar floor. I mumbled something about it not being my day, as the busser (whom I adore) came to my rescue. It’s ok; I flashed a smile to my patrons and continued as if nothing had happened at all. But then someone had to ring in those cappuccinos. Oh those wretched cappuccinos. I’m a bartender, not a barista. Creating perfectly frothed milk? Not my specialty. I can down a cup at Intelligentsia or Starbucks, no problem, but accomplishing such a task? Not so much. But here was my moment to shine. I was gonna show those coffees who was boss. Doin’ great, doin’ great, milk frothing, yeahhh it was frothing…..dialing down the pressure….and, uh-oh, it’s getting higher, now frantically turning the nozzle, crap it’s gonna overflow, and BAM!!! Frothy milk explosion. All over the counter and my cute black top. Awesome. I couldn’t even glance behind me at the onlookers. I felt my the heat creep into my face as I hurriedly began cleaning up my mess and presenting the cappuccinos to the server who ordered them. Suddenly I was in first grade again. I could feel the icy stares and there was nothing I could do but bear it. It was like they were all laughing at me, but were too dignified to express it out loud. In my humiliation, I began lamenting the less than glamorous work it sometimes takes on the path I have chosen to fulfill my dream.
