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…

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!

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!

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 =)

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

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.

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

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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!

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.

I like to shoot people… I like to shoot in general…photography, that is…  do you?  If you like to shoot, join us on our Facebook Group where we have monthly themed photo assignments.  This past month’s shoot was COLOR.  We had 2 photographers that submitted images this month.  I just wanted to take a moment and thank Rodger Decilio and Gretchen Villaluna for submitting their images :)

“Determination Measured in Color”

ISO 100
f/1.8, 1/100

No title, No Exif

But as a mommy, I know exactly what Rodger photographed =P

We are having some gorgeous fall colors right now here in Chicago and I hope to be able to shoot sometime later this week to capture the beauty of my favorite season.  It’s truly one of the perks of living here in the midwest.  =D  Here’s my color image:

Nicely done Rodger & Gretchen!  Keep on shootin’  I love the vibrant colors in your images!

’til next time photogs…

=D Michele

I will also blog on last month’s let’s shoot theme for the 3 photographers that have submitted images…. no longer a ‘contest’, but more for appreciating each others work…

coming soon…

Congratulations to Jimmy Tan of Jimmy Tan Photography!  It was a close race between image number two and Jimmy’s image in the last 30 minutes, but Jimmy’s image has won this month’s shoot.  I want to thank all of the photographers who have participated in this month’s shoot!  I will email everyone as soon as I receive the next month’s theme from Jimmy.  ‘Til then, keep on shootin’!  If you are a photographer (amateur or pro) and would like to join in on the fun, join us in our Facebook Group! Below is Jimmy’s winning image: