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The Knot Chicago 2011 Real Weddings

admin — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:14:16 +0000

We are so excited to announce that we are published for the first time on The Knot Chicago 2011 Spring/Summer issue! When I received the email from the Knot Chicago a few months ago telling us the good news that we’ll be featured, I screamed and shrieked as I read their email, and of course, Andy thought I was going crazy! lol… It is in fact one of my goals to be published in a magazine. I couldn’t believe it, couldn’t be more excited about it, and now it’s finally hit the news stands! When I submitted the photos that they requested, I had no idea what the layout would look like, or how many pages we’d be featured in… As I flipped through the magazine, I was surprised to see that we made it on 3 pages! We are on pages 50-52 under “10 Chicago weddings we love.” Of course, this wouldn’t be at all possible without the honor of photographing Antoinette & Rod’s wedding last June 2010. A BIG THANK YOU to Antoinette & Rod for having us a part of their wedding day! And last but not least, thank you the Knot!

If you’ve never picked up the Knot magazine before, it’s a must! It’s oodles and oodles of inspiration and information! My favorite part is the lists of “wedding ingredients” from real couples’ weddings where you can view the vendors that they used. And with that, I’d like to thank each and every vendor we worked with for Antoinette & Rod’s wedding. Here are some of their “wedding ingredients”…

Ceremony: Madonna della Strada Chapel at Loyola University Chicago
Reception: The Rookery Building, Chicago
Photography: Michele & Andy Rivera, assisted by Nick W.
Catering: Jewell Events
Consultant: Lola Event Productions
Floral Design: Vale of Enna
Officiant: Reverend Salvador den Hallegado
Makeup: Tina Salazar
Hair: Tina Saldana
Music: Monastero Entertainment
Cakes: Amy Beck Design
Videography: Rogie Cruz, RAC Visual Imaging
Formalwear: Theory
Bridesmaid dresses: Anna Elyse, Bella Bridesmaid
Stationery: Fine Press, Magnificent Milestones and Lele Designs

And lastly, I’m not gonna lie, the photographer in me wanted these images below in the magazine, but unfortunately, they didn’t request it…

If you want to see more of their wedding photos, check out their blog post HERE!

And their wedding slideshow HERE.

ispwp summer 2010 contest

admin — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:51:02 +0000

What an honor to 4 of our images place in the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers (ISPWP) Image Contest for Summer 2010! This past May, we got accepted as one of the members of this elite group of wedding photographers world wide. It was perfect timing for their summer 2010 contest. We are proud to say that we have placed within the top 20 of 3 categories after thousands of images from photographers all over the world. Here are the images below that placed. A special thank you to all of our clients who have made this possible! And congratulations to our colleagues who have placed as well! We love what we do, so we do!

xoxo Michele & Andy

Adriana & Armand’s image came in 2nd place under the Engagement Portrait Category.

Judges comments: “Beautiful lighting, lovely pose”

Antoinette’s image came in 13th place under the Bride Portrait Category.

Judge’s comments: “Georgeous leading lines”

And surprisingly, two of our images placed in the top twenty in “Framing the Subject” category =D

Meann’s image came in 8th place in Framing the Subject category.

Judge’s comments: “Stunning”

Erin & John’s image came in 18th place in the Framing the Subject cateogry

Judge’s comments: “Great composition”

we are hosting misha media 101

admin — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 18:46:17 +0000

Due to the high demand of people interested in our photo parties, but not having a party to join, we’ve decided to host a party ourselves! Limited seats available so reserve your seat today!

WHO: You of course!! Anyone with a Point & Shoot Camera or DSLR can attend.

WHAT: We will be covering: Basic functions and limitations of your camera, ISO, Aperture, Shutter and their relationship to each other. In camera metering and histograms as well as framing and composition. Shooting modes: what they are and what they do. Understand lighting, shooting exercises, open Q&A’s. All of this for only $99!

WHEN: May 8, 2010 at 1:00 PM-8:00PM (Dinner will be provided)

WHERE: Domain Lofts – 900 N Kingsbury St, Rooftop Clubhouse, Chicago, Il 60610

WHY: Because we LOVE photography!!

CONTACT: For questions please contact us at: emailme@mishamedia(dot)com or call Michele Rivera 630.935.7435

** You must pre purchase your tickets here prior to the event as we will not be accepting walk-ins or payment at the door.

Reserve your seat here: http://mishamedia.eventbrite.com/

Please tell your family and friends, this is a great opportunity to learn your camera in a fun and relaxed learning environment.

We hope that you can join us! Our challenge is to teach each and everyone of you about your camera and have fun while doing it! Camera technical jargon scaring the heck out of you? Don’t worry, we’ll explain it technically & the not-so-technical-ghetto-fabulous way! We promise that after taking our class, your photos will never be the same! :)

Also, if you’d rather have a private class, we offer those as well! We recently had a “two on one” session with Elaine and here’s what she said:

“I really enjoyed the lesson. I definitely learned so much and I can’t wait to apply what I have learned. I promise I will never get off the “Michele Mode”…shocking! I recommend to those who want to learn more about photography to take a class from Michele and Andy. They are an amazing team! Thank you so much!”

I ‘super glued’ Elaine’s camera to the Manual Setting and she’s coined it the “Michele Mode!” haha…

misha media photo party & then some…

admin — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 20:14:54 +0000

Do you have a DSLR and have no idea how to use it?! Let’s face it, you’ve invested so much money on your camera and you’ve been shooting in automatic mode… it’s like you’re still shooting with a point and shoot. You have all of this technology in your hands but you don’t know how to use it…We are launching Misha Media Photo Party 101! “What the heck is a Photo Party?!” It’s very similar to a Tupperware party, purse party, jewelry party, or for the guys out there, a fantasy football draft, if you will… Instead of going to a workshop with 50+ people that you don’t know, we came up with the idea of having a photo learning experience in the comfort of your ownhome amongst friends and families. Basically, it works like this:

Photo Party hosts will invite their friends and families who are also interested in photography minimum 6 people.
We will show you the in’s and out’s of your camera and teach how to take better pictures.
Party will consist of approximately 4 hours of teaching photography (don’t worry, we’ll make it a fun experience) and approximately 3 hours of shooting and learning the light.
Cost is only $99 per person.
Limited availability of dates, so inquire now!

We are now booking select dates for the Misha Media Photo Party and if you are interested in hosting a Photo Party, please click HERE to fill out the form for details and host benefits. This is the perfect time to learn about your camera… Winter is over and it’s beautiful outside!

If you already know your camera basics and are interested in taking it a step further, we are also offering Misha Media Photo Party 201 and Misha Media One-on-One Sessions.

If you are an aspiring wedding photographer, we also offer a Misha Media Two-on-One Weddings! (Andy and Michele with you). You will learn wedding photography from client correspondents, lighting, a walk through of a wedding day, work flow, business back end and more! Ask us anything you want!

Misha Media has been in the business for about 3 years, shot 200+ weddings, 100+ portraits, and a ton of vacation photos! We’re not saying that this is the correct way, but it’s the Misha Media way! We’re so grateful for the blessings He has given us and we want to extend the opportunity and share our love for photography!

Below is a picture Michele shot in Boracay, Philippines. To see more of our work, check out our online portfolio!

WPPI 16×20 Accolade of Excellence

admin — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 19:16:03 +0000

Woo hoo! We are so honored to be recognized amongst international photographers to have achieved such a prestigious award. This past March, we attended our annual photography convention, WPPI in Las Vegas, and for the first time, we entered two prints for the 16×20 Print Competition. It’s so great to be recognized for something that you love to do! It’s kinda like getting on the honor roll or the dean’s list, if you will.

To our 2010 Clients: Fasten your seat belts because it’s going to be a wild and fun ride ahead of us! Thank you for choosing Misha Media to capture your day!

Our “Layers of Love” print received the award. A special thanks to Mark & Fremy for the opportunity!

The second print we entered was “Windy City Bride”. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the award for this particular print. We missed the award by one point due to technical errors… Lesson learned : Plan ahead! A special thank you goes out to Majka & Ziggy!

winter in chicago

admin — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:51:29 +0000

I have to temporarily interrupt Robilyn & Darell’s blog updates to share a little bit of what I did yesterday… Yesterday, I shot for myself =D As a photographer, sometimes you just gotta go out there and shoot… anything and anywhere… so I picked up my camera and had a photo drive (usually called a photo ‘walk’) but in the midst of winter, I persuaded Andy to drive me around our neighborhood… It was so beautiful after the snowfall we had overnight from Sunday to Monday. I was so inspired to get the shots because I knew that the beauty wouldn’t last too long… So with frozen fingers and toes, I shot these images for my winter 2010 collections… Photographer’s note: All images shot w/ my Nikon D3 and Nikor 85mm f1.4. Yup, I’m a Nikon girl, and darn proud of it!

I wasn’t as lucky last year with the newly fallen snow look. But if you want to check out images from last winter, click here.

’til next time… Michele =)

the Knot Best of Weddings 2010

admin — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 20:30:08 +0000

We have been selected as one of the Knot’s Best of Weddings 2010! It’s truly an honor and a blessing to be chosen for this award. We thank all the brides, grooms, and fans who have voted for us. Without you guys, this would not have been possible. Thank you so much for your support! This is such a huge motivator for us to keep going! Thank you! It was kinda like winning the lotto, not that I’ve had any personal experience or anything, but I had to look multiple times to make sure that our name was really there… =D

Thank you! Michele & Andy

:: chicago smugmug : misha media ::

admin — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:33:00 +0000

I have been invited by Daniel Gin to speak at this month’s Chicago SmugMug meeting which will be tonight at 7pm. I have never had any formal talks about photography, aside from the shoot we hosted last March… so when Dan asked me to speak about something that I am very passionate about, of course I agreed!! But agreeing also came with a good dose of nervousness… I hope you all can stop by and say hello… I will try my hardest… I promise I will!

Chicago Smugmug Meeting

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

7 pm to 9 pm

Daniel Gin’s Studio

1000 W. Monroe

Chicago, IL 60607

This is an open invitation and you do not need to RSVP. However, if you’d like to RSVP via Facebook, here’s the invite.

:: clark family ::

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:38:47 +0000

We had the honor and privilege to photograph the Clark family! Desmond Clark plays tight end for the Chicago Bears, #88. As a huge Bears fan, you can imagine my nervousness and excitement when we first spoke on the phone. I think I spent the first 3 minutes (ok maybe just 2 minutes) telling him how big of a fan I am of the Chicago Bears :) It was truly a pleasure to meet his wife, Denise, along with their twin girls “A” and “G”.

Also, congratulations on the win yesterday! As faithful Bears fans, we were watching like many other Chicagoans!

It was really chilly when we first started our photo session, so we started out with jumping jacks to get us all warmed up! Thank you for braving the winds!

We heard “fuzzy pickles and fuzzy pizzas, and fuzzy anything you can think of…” all day from the girls “A” and “G” — which made it so much fun! They were coming up with some really creative nouns.

The girls being silly :)

Denise and Desmond, thank you so much for allowing us to capture you and your family! We look forward to our night shoot with the both of you!

Michele and Andy

:: fall 2009 ::

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 03:03:57 +0000

This is for all of our families and friends who cannot experience the beautiful season of Fall, simply because of their geographic locations… this is through my eyes, with the company of my family sharing the love for photography… Happy Fall to all! For my fellow Chicagoans and Midwesterners, it’s not too late to capture the beauty… go out there and shoot! It’s not going to last much longer… See behind the scene photos here.

Camera : Nikon D3

Lenses: 50mm & 105mm

The beauty about not having to drive… I shot this through the window of our car en route to Starved Rock. The rays of sunlight was amazing!

Again, through the window of our car… Power lines that look like Pokemon…

Real life Farmville… lol… Thanks Mari for the heads up!

There were sooo many lady bugs!

It actually rained for about 10 minutes right when we arrived… passing rain, perfect for water droplets on the leaves…

My 9 year old niece, Maddie, found this little snake (about the size of a large earthworm) in the grass… how she found him, I have no idea… I “burned” the edges just to make him pop out a little bit in the photo. Otherwise, the color of this snake helps to camouflage him against the grass, sticks, and dried leaves.

We wanted to travel light and did not bring a tripod, but I really wanted to slow my shutter down to capture the motion of the waterfall. Held my breath, wedged myself right against the rocks and squeezed my shutter.

f 14, 1/5 s, with continuous shutter release of my camera.