Wes & Kate

June 7, 2009: Good wine, good friends, good times.

I have been running to tumbling tournaments for the last 2 weeks first a week in Amarillo, Texas and now I am in San Jose, California for a week. I will pull together some photos from these trips soon.

Here are some photos from earlier in the month at Wes & Kate's wedding reception in Chicago at the Columbia Yacht Club. It was great to see a bunch of good friends from my Tribune days.

- Jose Osorio peaking from behind his wine glass.
- Chuck Cherney always able to generate a laugh.
- Laura Garcia shooting as Wes Pope packs up the lights before heading to the Goat for one more round.

-john

All photos © John Konstantaras 2009

Rock Stars

Saturday June 6, 2009; Lola Balatro’s CD release party

"Forged in the still-smoldering ashes of turn-of-the-90s cock-rock and grunge,
Lola Balatro has begun its riveting ascent up the sacred mountain of rocklore."

The official CD release party for Lola Balatro, a rock/alternative/comedy band, was Saturday June 6, 2009 at Goose Island in Wrigleyville. There were a number of warm up acts, characters from the bands first music video Rock Star and the release of their new video "Questionable Beef."

I was at the party to shoot photos for a story about 80's Clown that I am working on and got to enjoy a really great event. The night was a lot of fun topped off with Lola Balatro performing the songs from their new CD.

Lola Balatro is Jeff Madden, Paul Thomas and Cork Kangas. You can check them out at their website HERE, on MySpace or become a fan on Facebook.

There next show is June 13th, 2009 at Montrose Station at 7pm, check ‘em out.

Here are a few from the show.

TOP: Jeff, Paul and Cork (left to right) belt out one of their songs on the new CD.

MIDDLE: Paul at the microphone.

BOTTOM: The show girl puts on a little extra for the final song of the night, "Rock Star."

-john

To see more photos from the night click HERE.

all images © John Konstantaras

80's Clown in Wrigleyville

Saturday, June 6, 2009; all dressed up.

This was my second night with 80’s Clown, Jodie Evenson, as he made an appearance at an the CD release party for the band Lola Balatro. Jodie and a bunch of other characters from the band’s first video Rock Star were on hand for this fun little get together at Goose Island in Wrigleyville in Chicago.

Jodie did not do any stand up, but here are a few images of Jodie from the night, I will post Lola Balatro in the next blog.

TOP: Kate helps Jodie with his bow tie at home before heading out to the show. Jodie left the Fiero jacket at home and added gold makeup, a bow tie and a tuxedo shirt for this special event.

MIDDLE: Jodie hangs out backstage with some of the other characters from the Rock Star video; banana guy Fuzzy Gerdes, leprechaun Richard Cotovsky, tuxedo guy and a coke dealer Mike Sheehan.

BOTTOM: Jodie grabs a smoke at Clark and Addison, walking down the street in clown make up you get some strange looks from the drunks in Wrigleyville. I looked for that interaction but it was to quick and dark and people reacted moments after he already passed by.

-john

To see more photos of 80’s Clown click HERE.

all photos © John Konstantaras

5 Star pix

Friday, June 5, 2009; tumble team photo day

Friday was 5 Star Elite tumbling team photo day. We got together to shoot our 2008-2009 team photo. I also set up a backdrop and shot individual portraits of the kids as well.

Here are three fun moments I like.

TOP: After the formal team portrait I had everyone show me their guns.

MIDDLE: Looking for something different at the end of the shoot I shot Ryan and Josh wide with their best tough guy look leaving the background stands in the photo.

BOTTOM: To keep the individual portraits fun I let all the kids show me their best jumps.

-john

5 Star team member can check out more tumble team pix click HERE. (Gallery is password protected.)

all photos © John Konstantaras

Kick, walk and run

Saturday, May 30, 2009; Stop two part two

The light was really nice at the Walk for Life so I shot a few photos of the event while our cheerleaders were having fun so here are a few more frames.

TOP: Martial Arts demonstration.

MIDDLE: Walkers on the track.

BOTTOM: A scene setter from Mundelein High School.

I am headed to another Walk For Life in Crystal Lake in a few days , I will shoot a little there and see if I have anything fresh to add.

-john

all photos © John Konstantaras

Cheerleders at the walk

Saturday, May 30, 2009; Stop two part one

After the birthday party, stop two today was supposed to be a graduation party but since it was an hour away in the opposite direction and we would have had time to say hi and leave right away to make it to our next event we had to skip it.

So we were off to Mundelein where our 5 Star Elite and Ultimate Athletics level 5 cheerleaders were schedule to perform their first public exhibition at the Mundelein Walk For Life. The merger of cheer teams is a pretty big deal for both of our gyms because we are taking the best of both gyms, tumbling and cheerleading, to make a couple of really killer squads.

Here are a few frames of them practicing, playing a water balloon toss game and having fun.

-john

all photos © John Konstantaras

Run 'n Gun

Saturday, May 30, 2009; first stop

Saturday was a busy day, in fact it was more than we could fit in. We started with a family birthday party for Caitlyn who turned 3-years-old. Unfortunately we had to make it a quick stop and only got to hang out for about an hour or so.

Here are a few photos of Caitlyn, Matthew and a friend blowing bubbles at the party. How do you go wrong with kids and bubbles?

I think I had at least a half bottle of bubbles in my hair when I was done, fun times.

-john

all photos © John Konstantaras

Hanging out

Friday, May 29, 2009: With the grand kids

My step daughter, Sue, has 2 children Guinevere and Amira, I am still trying to get used to being called grandpa but I really do love it. I love to hang out and shoot photos of them. In fact I have so many photos I really need to lose a few more hours of sleep and start catching up on my editing. I am not even going to ponder how I am going to handle all the baby photos from my kids who are now 20 & 21-years-old.

When Guinevere was born in 2006 I started my first photo blog and documented the first year of her life. You can view Guinevere's blog HERE. At the end of the year Paulette and I designed a photo book and it came out great.

The second child always seems to get the short end of the stick as far as attention and photos go but when Amira was born last year I wanted to make sure I kept shooting and plan to have a book ready for her first year as well. Amira has a photo blog as well but I have a lot of catching up to do on hers. You can view Amira's blog HERE.

Here is a triptych for each kid from one of our recent visits.

Guinevere is getting to be a big girl and loves to have her picture taken by grandpa.

Amira is teething and having second thoughts about some of her baby food these days.

-john

all photos © John Konstantaras

Standing tall

Sunday, May 17, 2009: Bradley Jordan

I have been shooting sports for over 25 years and covered athletes at all levels from NBA finals to pee wee soccer. I love to shoot great action photos but telling stories and actually getting to know people is so much more of a rewarding experience. I am always looking for something special and every once in a while I run into a someone that just stops me in my tracks. A few weeks ago I was reunited with someone who has been on my "someday" story list for years.

I have been shooting tumbling and trampoline meets for almost 10 years and more than 5 years ago I saw Bradley Jordan at an AAU Junior Olympics, Brad is like greased lightening, flipping and twisting his way through his routine.

Brad has Majewski osteodysplastic primordial dwarfism type II, he is 15-years-old, 38 inches tall, weighs about 30 pounds. This is a really really rare form of dwarfism but what is even more rare is that Brad’s older sister Bridgette also has the same form or dwarfism, she is 17-years-old, 28 inches tall and weighs 19 pounds. You can learn more about Brad and Bridgette at their website HERE.

On Sunday at the AAU Trampoline and Tumbling State meet in Normal, IL I was with my wife’s team 5 Star Elite when Brad stepped onto the tumbling floor with the advanced level tumblers. Everyone who has been around tumbling knows Brad and cheers him on. If you have not seen him you cannot help but be amazed as he works his pass down the floor.

I made some photos as Brad competed and I found his mom Christy with him after he was done as they were buying flowers for Brad’s sister who was graduating from high school. I introduced myself and told her I would like shoot more photos of Brad.

Christy told me that they were currently working with a former Tribune photographer on a video documentary project. As it turns out Tom Van Dyke who was let go from the Tribune with me in April was shooting the video. I called Tom and we talked about Brad a bit and Tom told me about a good friend of his, Gary Parker, who has been shooting photos for the Little People of America Organization for years. Gary’s work is amazing and after looking at his images I do not know that I could do it any better. You can visit Gary’s website and check out his work HERE.

The Jordan’s have had many stories done on them and I am sure the last thing they need is a freelance photojournalist hanging out especially when they have a great shooter already documenting their lives.

I think there are different ways to achieve greatness in sports. One way is to be physically better than everyone; to run faster, to jump higher, to throw a ball faster and farther. Another comes deep down in the soul and it has to do with overcoming obstacles in your life and doing things that many would never think possible. To me Brad is really someone special.

Hopefully I will get to meet Gary in the future and look forward to seeing Brad at many AAU competitions in the years to come.

-john

all photos © John Konstantaras