I have posted two blog entries featuring photos taken from the Salon Sanjoy photo shoots and finally the website has gone live. I am thrilled about how the photos look and absolutely love how the designer, Christopher Morast, has presented them. Christopher is a San Francisco based web designer who is a dream to work with.  His design for the salon is fantastic and the respect he has for photography and its importance for this site is obvious. The photos really become powerful when seen in the context of his design. Check out the salon site for more Salon Sanjoy

homepage of Salon Sanjoy

This is the second photo shoot for Salon Sanjoy, a new hair salon in Lakeview…3348 North Paulina Street. The photographs were taken for the Salon’s new website which will launch within 1 month. The salon is already open with Sanjoy doing innovative hair cuts and color as you can see in the photos.  The photographs will be featured on the home page of the website and in an online gallery and reflect some of the diversity of clients in Chicago.  The make up artist for the shoot was Nika Vaughan  http://www.nikavaughan.com/  and the styling was done by the staff at Salon Sanjoy.

If you are about to enter into a wedding photography contract and have no idea if your contract is sound and want to get advice about it, contact me through the Live Person website…

http://www.liveperson.com/hjb/

I am now offering expert wedding contract advice via the Live Person expert consulting site. You can make sure you are up to date on all the wedding photography industry lingo, have an expert review your potential photographer’s work and give advice and tips about things that might be missing in your contract or in their offerings. The process of finding a wedding photographer can be daunting with so many photographers offering so many different packages, albums, and contracts that the whole thing can put you in overload.  For example, who will actually make your wedding album? Is it made with templates or designed by a 3rd party? Who is the actually photographer who will show up on your wedding day….is it the same person whose work you saw and loved or does the studio say they can send anyone?  How many pages come in your album and how much are additional pages? Have you seen an entire wedding shot by your potential wedding photographer? How large are the digital files that come with your package? Will the digital files be converted into black and white for you or will they come only in color? Contact me on the live person site if you want help sorting through all of the details and  and are in need of insightful tips.  Don’t get caught in a wedding photography contract that doesn’t suit you…sort it out before it is too late.

HJB Photo, Heidi Brady, gives wedding photography contract advice on the Live Person expert consulting site

The Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness hosted a Breakfast with the Mayor last week to outline the year’s progress, unveil a new board of directors, award the Honorable Abner Mikva with a “partner in change” award, and unveil a new brochure that was created with a grant from the Taproot Foundation. I photographed the event for the Alliance and was part of the Taproot team which created the brochure. The brochure is part of renewed efforts to raise awareness about Chicago’s plan to end homelessness and The Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness is at the forefront of creating that plan.
http://www.thechicagoalliance.org/

Cover of Alliance brochure. photo by heidi brady

inside spread of alliance brochure. photo by heidi brady

Randall Doubet King giving the introduction to the breakfast

Nancy Radner, CEO of The Chicago Alliance, thanks Mayor Daley for keeping homelessness a priority and for taking part of the proceeds from the Parking meters and directing them specifically to the Plan to End Homelessness and the homeless system ( to the tune of $4.2M)…

Mayor Daley thanking Nancy Radner and the Chicago Alliance to End Homelessness for all of their efforts to end homelessness in Chicago.

Abner Mikva walking up to receive the “Partner of Change”  Award for his impressive record of service in Chicago

Nancy Radner and Abner Mikva

Keith Richardson, a formerly homeless man who is still on a 10 year waiting list for permanent housing,  gave his perspective of the homelessness story…..

Keith’s story is also featured in the Alliance’s new brochure. His speech was inspiring and received a large ovation.

As one of three Maybelline contest winners, I went to NY last week to do a photo and video shoot for Maybelline and Candace Bushnell’s new webisode “The Broadroom”….. Contest winners will be appearing in the 4th episode and my story will be featured in magazines and online in October.You can see a portion of my entry at http://www.thebroadroomonline.com/and can watch the 1st webisode….

Heidi Brady with Jennifer Esposito and David Greenberg

Maybelline sponsored Candace Bushnell’s (creator of Sex and the City) new webisode called “The Broadroom”.  The actresses in the Broadroom are Jennie Garth, Mary McMann, Jennifer Esposito, Talia Balsam, and Lauren Devereux.  Concurrently, Mabelline sponsored a contest looking for Colorful women….regular day to day women with colorful stories. I was chosen as a contest winner through my entry which explained my passion as a photographer and creator of a photographic children’s book called Drums, dancers and a bird as big as you! , which was published this year.  The contest winner’s stories will be integrated into the stories of the characters in The Broadroom.

Me putting on Maybelline lipstick for a film segment……

In the limo on the way to the premiere at Barney’s New York…..

Cool shoes in the limo ride….

Walking into Barney’s….

Colorful Life Contest Winners…..Jacqueline Wayans, Kara Forney, Heidi BradyCandace Bushnell giving interviews about her new series “The Broadroom”

Jennifer Esposito talking about her character Roan in “The Broadroom”

Me standing near the photographers at the red carpet entrance

Me and Kara Forney, another Maybelline contest winner

At the premier party in Barney’s New York

Milwaukee Avenue looking east

Photographs of Bucktown/ Wicker Park street life photographed for an assignment. Night views of the neighborhood shops along Milwaukee Avenue near the North/Damen Ave intersection. Bars shown include the Empty bottle and People. Also included are 2 shots of Division St near the damen intersection. Shown are the Boundary, Jerry’s, and Via Carducci.

Division street bars in Wicker Park/Bucktown

I stumbled across an awesome children’s book website called One Potato http://onepotato.net/index.php/site/
What a great, simple, beautiful site. Every week 10 forgotten or ignored children’s books are featured. The emphasis seems to be on illustrated picture books. This week one of the books featured is called Garmann’s Summer by Stian Hole. What a fantastic looking book with amazing illustrations. How have I never seen this book and illustrator before?

I am excited that 57th street books in Hyde Park has accepted my children’s book Drums, dancers and a bird as big as you!  into their awesome children’s collection! 57th street books is a fiercely independent Chicago neighborhood bookstore that has been a community pillar since 1961. Every wednesday at 10:30 am they have children’s storytime when local authors and illustrators read their work to children. Check out their website below for the schedule. Also, Sept 13th is the 57th St. Children’s Book Fair in Hyde Park. Check it out and support independent bookstore 57th street books!

http://semcoop.booksense.com/

http://www.57cbf.org/

Read more about my African children’s book here: http://www.hjbphoto.com/drumsdancers.html

I had the pleasure of working with the makeup artist Nika Vaughan yesterday on headshots for

a new hair salon website….I enjoyed working with her! check out Nika’s website here:

http://makeupenvy.com/