By Gini Dietrich
Ladies and gentlemen, please allow me to introduce you to one Chris Mader.
Who, you ask? I don’t recognize that name from the community, you say.
Perhaps you will recognize this: Photo Chris.
Chris is a staple among the Spin Sucks community, always providing great feedback, asking important questions, and keeping things light and fun.
But here is an interesting fact about Chris: I had to ask her a bunch of questions to write this because she can be found nowhere on the web. I think she spends all of her online time working on the Timothy Whaley & Associates presence…and here.
A photographer and a marketer, Chris brings an interesting perspective because she can talk about how to use photos in our content from a professional’s perspective.
For the past 11 years, she has spent her time as a photojournalist at weddings, which means (according to her), she’s the person who hides in the rosebushes and stalks people to get real reactions throughout the day.
When I asked her what she loves most about her job, she told me a story about how she became a photojournalist. Thirteen years ago last month, the photojournalist at her own wedding (to husband Tim) captured shots that still make her tear up. She says she loves to be able to capture and give those moments of emotion to couples to relives for the rest of their lives together.
Then she said something I’ll let her tell you in her own words:
Following the emotion of the day is very freeing. I hang out behind closed doors with the bride and whomever is walking her down the aisle. Those last moments: Eyes closed, deep breath, tears through nervous smiles, are priceless. If I know dad MAY cry, I’ll focus in on him during the vows. Goofy groomsman who thinks I WON’t take a shot, or six, of him goofing off. This is all terrific stuff to laugh at for years!
Kind of makes you want her job, doesn’t it?
On the personal side of things, she and Tim have two kids – they are six and three – and they live in Bolingbrook, which is nearly as far as Sean McGinnis lives in Iowa (not really, but both suburbs feel really, really far away to me; I guess that makes me a city snob).
Because she lives in Bolingbrook and not the city, she can have a veggie garden – I’m sorry, HUGE veggie garden – which she loves to tend to and she loves to read and play Words with Friends (note to self: Invite her to a game!).
I mentioned she’s not an easy one to find on the web, but she does spend time on the Timothy Whaley Facebook page or you can find her in the comments here nearly every day.