Vanessa & Luis :: Engagement Session

I am so excited to be shooting Vanessa and Luis' wedding in July. So this engagement session meant a lot to me. I was looking forward to seeing them both again and working with them. They are a blast (man, I have some really cool clients!). I noticed that they both love to laugh, something that I am attracted to big time. They are also willing to try different/creative poses, something that I am also attracted too.

So we met up at their sweet place in Bridgeport and took off to Buckingham Fountain and Millennium Park. Vanessa's mom was ultra cool and drove us around the city. Seriously, how amazing is her mom?! We set up at Buckingham fountain and the walked around its perimeter. That whole area has some amazing landscaping and we took full advantage of it. If you have never walked around that area then do yourself a favor and check it out!

We then drove off to Millennium Park. This place has so many places to shoot at. We went to the Crown Fountain (aka water towers), the Cloud Gate (aka the Bean) and finally the Pritzker Pavilion. Each of these places have their own feel and look to them. The last image in the series is copmosed of about 8 photographs that were merged in Photoshop. After the series were taken we took off, literally, to meet up with Vanessa's mom who was double parked on Michigan Ave. I am sure that is was a funny site seeing three people running like mad through Millennium Park.

Kassie :: Senior Portraits

I had the privilege to photograph Kassie for her senior portraits. We decided to shoot at the beautiful Lake Katherine in Palos Heights, IL. I had been there before to photograph a family, but I did not spend a whole lot of time scouting out the entire area. This time I gave myself plenty of time to scout and I was able to find a few great spots. I was able to find plenty of spot actually. This is a great place to shoot.

Kassie was so much fun to work with. We talked about school and about the college she decided on attending. There were a lot of images of Kassie just cracking up that I did not post, but that just showed me that she is not afraid to laugh and enjoy life. Her lively spirit gave me a creative boost to try a few different ideas. I wish all of my portraits were this fun.

Oh Baby!

Baby portraits are so important to me. These little ones grow up so amazingly fast that you cannot imagine how much they change in just a short time. That is why I love it when parents set up portrait sessions for their infants and babies, these are very unique and tender times to capture them.

Prom Portraits

This past weekend was my nieces senior prom (I cannot believe that she about to graduate from high school!). I had the amazing opportunity to take a few quick portraits of her before she took off to enjoy her evening. I think she looked amazing.

Matt & Jessicas Wedding

I was very excited about Matt and Jessica's wedding. I met them a few months back at a local Starbucks here in Chicago. As soon as I met them I knew they were a fun couple, Matt is especially funny and likes to make people laugh (my kind of guy). It felt like we all clicked pretty quickly and had a great meeting as we learned a bit more about each other.

The ceremony took place at the beautiful Grace Episcopal Church in Oak Park. This church is amazing to look at and has plenty of room for a photog to move around. Pretty sweet. The acoustics were also great. We did not have enough time to shoot some alter shots (bummer), but the bride and groom were cool with that. So we took off to the reception.

The reception was held at the Morton Arboretum in beautiful Lisle Illinois. The actual reception took place inside the Ginkgo Room (Ginko trees have really cool looking leaves). This room has a great view of the arboretum, and a very beautiful pond just outside of the room. The sun was setting pretty fast so we made the most of the natural light and took a handful of fun portraits of the bridal party and a few sweet shots of the bride and groom. The grass was a bit mushy, so we worked as fast as we could.

So all in all it was a fun wedding with a fun couple. I really hope the best for Matt and Jessica as they start out their life together. They are moving to a different state soon, so I know that they have a lot on theor plates. But I have a good feeling that they will transition very smoothly. Thanks guys!