Hot soft light » Rob Hart

IPPA Awards

Rob Hart — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:42:47 +0000

I was lucky enough to score some awards this weekend at the annual Illinois Press Photographers Association convention held in St. Louis, MO. I feel honored to have placed in the photographer of the year category behind Will DeShazer, first, and Scott Strazzante, second place. Will and Scott are some of my favorite people and and both great visual storytellers.

We had some amazing judges in Liz O. Baylen, David Eulitt, and Josh Meltzer. We also were lucky enough to have Erik Lunsford perform some stand-up comedy and show some photos. I always love getting so spend a few days with people who are passionate about making pictures and communing with a bunch of my friends. I think my favorite moment was when Liz said, “This photographer has some real purposeful seeing.” They were debating my portfolio and I almost had a heart attack.

I am so blessed. Thanks everyone who helped out this weekend. Much PJ love.

Memories are Made of This

Rob Hart — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:01:28 +0000

James Hart, my Grandfather, passed away last night. I owe him and my Grandmother a lot. They were there every day when I was kid. They were at every hockey or baseball game. They’d always take a bunch of us crazy grandchildren to their cottage. Grandpa was very helpful when we bought our first house and the night I directed them to sleep in a motel in Broadview that was frequented by prostitutes is a great story. And if you hear it from my Grandma, even funnier.

He is loved and missed.

Year of the Cat

Rob Hart — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:05:17 +0000

As the year wraps up everyone makes lists. I’ve been digging Señor Strazzante’s 2009 photo roundup, the Big Picture Blog, the Denver Post has great stuff, and I’m sure there will be many, many more.

I have friends that always complain about people sending him photos of their children, so my wife decided to make him a calendar of our cats. She asked me to come up with my favorite 12 photos. So here’s my 2009 year in cats.

Economy Shopping

Rob Hart — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:16:24 +0000

This story has been done and I’m ok with that. My newspaper wrote a story about the Economy Shop in 1919. I really wanted to find someone doing their holiday shopping on the cheap, the same way people have been doing here for 90 years. I love the hunt for a story, when the door opens and you stalk each room, spark up conversations and figure how comfortable you can make them quickly.

After 30 minutes of wandering a three-story house filled with treasures I found Patricia Green picking out five cent ornaments. “I’ve been coming here for the last, oh my god, thirty years. This place has been just a blessing for me,” Green said as I fumbled to get my audio recorder rolling. She was so cute and nice. Green allowed me to follow her as she shopped for everything you can imagine. Christmas tree with ornaments, bows, shoes, towels, bundt pan, wreaths, jewelry, and a $1 winter jacket. She shops for 7 grandchildren, 3 great-grandchildren and many kids in her Austin neighborhood that are in need.

They’ve got a few more sale dates before Christmas. It’s an adventure and shopping all in one.

OAK PARK 12/3/09 Patricia Green inspects an umbrella she would eventually purchase at the Economy Shop in Oak Park, Dec. 3, 2009. The 90-year-old store is staffed by volunteers of local charities. "I've been coming here for the last, oh my god, thirty years. This place has been just a blessing for me." Green said. Green shops for her seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and some of the other under privileged children in her Austin neighborhood. "Every Thursday, every Saturday I'm here. I look forward to coming here and shopping. When I leave I'm always happy like a little child at Christmastime," Green said. (Rob Hart/Staff Photographer)

Wedding self portraits

Rob Hart — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:48:51 +0000

I have a collection of images of myself shot using the windows at weddings in my downtime. It’s kinda nerdy, I know, but ingesting cards is super boring. So if you see me shooting photos out a window with a strobe going off come over and get your picture took with me.

Photographer Rob Hart http://www.robhartphoto.com Chicago Wedding Photojournalist.

More Oak Park365

Rob Hart — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:00:06 +0000

I’ve not been keeping up on my Oak Park yearly project. So here’s a few from last month that I liked.

Tim & Char Grand Island, MI. 08.05.2009

Rob Hart — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 22:39:24 +0000

This week I had the pleasure of heading up to Grand Island, MI to photograph Tim & Char Galloway’s wedding. It was a beautiful and intimate ceremony on the beach with some very cool people. I look at the photographs from my wedding every day, and feel it’s a great responsibility to help direct the memories of a great event in the lives of the bride and groom. Thanks to Tim and Char for being patient, fun, and so full of love for each other. You guys rock!

Click on the arrows on the bottom right to enable full screen mode.

I love Brownies

Rob Hart — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:09:19 +0000

The other day I was editing my new wedding portfolio and that turned into me playing with some of my old camera’s. How do you force yourself to edit in nice light? I’ve got a few Kodak Brownies and decided to use it to make some photos of the cats. These were shot through a Brownie Hawkeye. After chasing the cats around some nice light I left my gear laying about and decided to find my Mamiya 645, because the Brownie viewfinder is way to small. Then I spent an hour in the basement finding my old film gear, rediscovering it, playing with it. Even going through a box of 8-tracks. When my wife came home and there were two cameras laying on the bed. In any other house this might be seen as creepy.

This “Through The Viewfinder,” or TTV technique, has been done many times by numerous photographers, there’s a flickr group, numerous,numerous blogs, but my most recent favorites were done by Chip Litherland. I planned on doing a series this summer like this, now I just need to spend some time in the basement to find the right gear.

What goes around

Rob Hart — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 19:05:39 +0000

Saturday a school bus loaded with designers, manufactures, and salesmen, all wearing bright green shirts unloaded in Maywood before 8 A.M. My wife, Christine, and her professional organization, the Illinois Interior Design Association, teamed with Rebuilding Together for an event they called “What Goes Around” sponsored by Allsteel.

Christine, Ashley Hinz, the leading forces on this project, and their wonderful team of over 45 people totally changed the lives of two women who really needed it. The homeowners, Maggie and Gertrude, hung in the backyard all day and were not allowed in the house to see the transformation. I spent all day making only 18 trips to Home Depot and picking up 11 pizzas so there was little time to make frames.

At about 5 P.M. with *most* of the work complete Maggie and Gertrude got to see their new living space. It was a totally amazing experience to see someone walk into their own house and not believe it’s theirs. As some work was finished in the kitchen they sat on the couch and kept repeating how they didn’t recognize their own house. It was very cool to be a part of this event. The “before” pictures are here.

4/25/09 MAYWOOD, IL Maggie and Gertrude see their new space after over 40 volunteers has spent a day re-habbing their home in Maywood on Saturday, April 25, 2009. The house was part of a project through rebuilding together and the Illinois Interior Design Association. (Rob Hart/Staff Photographer)

The crew.

Suburban chickens

Rob Hart — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:21:27 +0000

At 9 A.M. today I was in a warm room, quiet except for the soft groans that come from someone getting a kick-ass massage. Forty five minutes later I was chasing a pair of hens around a backyard in Oak Park. When I came across an item in an email this week from the Green Community Center about a resident who raises chickens in her backyard I was sold. My love of the bizarre, needs no documentation. I was expecting more than two chickens, to be honest, but then reality sets in and the Village of Oak Park allows two fowl per backyard. The owner, Helen Standen, declined to be photographed. So Poppy and Magnolia became my stars. This is shaping up to be a fad, or a trend, or whatever. There are many websites, Backyard Chickens, Urban Chickens, and even a good blog about one in Chicago. Most days my job rocks.

So I totally want some chickens now. My cats would *love* them.

4/24/09 OAK PARK, IL Helen Standen's chickens Poppy and Magnolia run around her backyard where she raises them at her Oak Park home on Friday, April 24, 2009. Standen harvests the eggs daily and build her own coop. (Rob Hart/Staff Photographer)

excerpt from Chris LaFortune’s story:
Perhaps this comes as a surprise, but Helen Standen doesn’t mind that people call her the chicken lady.
“I home school, too,” the Oak Park resident said. “I’m used to being different.”
Standen grew up just outside of Cleveland on 12 acres of land. Her parents owned goats, pigs, other farm animals, but they weren’t really farmers.
Standen’s father traveled a lot for work, her mother was an avid gardener and canner.
“Looking back now that I’m grown up as a parent with kids, I don’t know how my parents did it,” Standen said.
So she’s quite content with just the two chickens that she owns and keeps in her Oak Park backyard. Poppy and Magnolia, two ISA Browns, have a coop in the back of Standen’s yard, a structure she built.
“It’s great for the soul to produce stuff, to make stuff,” Standen said. “It doesn’t have to be of professional quality.”
The Standens first owned chickens in 2004. They’ve lost a few over the years to various mishaps, and the current pair came in last year.

4/24/09 OAK PARK, IL Helen Standen with one of the two chickens she raises in the backyard of her Oak Park home on Friday, April 24, 2009. Standen harvests the eggs daily and build her own coop. (Rob Hart/Staff Photographer)

My favorite reporter and partner-in-crime on the Oak Park 365 blog, Chris LaFortune.

Staff Writer Chris LaFortune holds a chicken in Helen Standen's backyard in Oak Park, IL.