Lisa & Rick-The Engagement

It was 80 degrees on Sunday when it's only supposed to be in the 40's! (but then again this is March in Chicago) I'd say Lisa and Rick got pretty lucky in picking that day for their engagement portraits.

Be sure to check back in July for their wedding pictures!

Giving Back

I'm proud to announce I was recently accepted as a member of both the American Child Photographers Charity Guild (ACPCG) www.acpcg.org, as well as Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep (NILMDTS) www.nilmdts.org

The ACPCG was founded by Erin Drallos of footprints photography http://www.footprintsphotography.com/. The ACPCG is a wonderful organization comprised of photographers who have networked together to provide individual or family portraits to families of extremely premature or ill children.

NILMDTS was co-founded by Cheryl Haggard and photographers Sandy "Sam" Puc www.expressionsphotos.com and Dave Junion www.junion.com. Their goal is to help raise awareness for the healing power of photography when confronted with the loss of a baby child.

If you've taken the time to read this post, please click on the links and to see and read a bit more about these organizations! If you know any families who would qualify for services, please do not hesitate to contact them immediately!

goin' to the chapel......

It blows me away how you can spend 8-10 photographing an event, make over 1000 images, and it's always one or two that just jump off the screen at you. It's usually the ones you don't expect either.

This particular bride decided to walk down to the sanctuary from the bride's room alone, luckily the stairs took her right past this large window which lit up the stairwell. The light from the window, the shape of the stairs, and the elevated angle provided by the landing above all came together to help put this image together.

Halfway to 1 Year!

What better way to celebrate 6 months of being alive than to have some new pictures taken! Even though she didn't have her nap schedule adjusted to the new and improved Daylight Savings Time schedule, Mackenzie was a great little model. Although I think you can tell from the picture above, she was ready to crash by the time we finished up.

The Stock Market...

Not all of the photography I do is limited to weddings and portraits. I also contribute to several "stock" photography sites where the focus of my portfolios on those site tends to center on product and still life images.

I've always been impressed by commercial product photography because the way an object looks to your eye is totally different than the way it is recorded by the camera. I might not be booking national ad campaign layouts anytime soon, but trying to look at every day objects from a different and fresh perspective helps develop some skills and technique that can be applied to other photographic situations.

The first year never ends

Even though my nephew is now almost 13 months old, I think he was too busy opening gifts (look down a few posts and you'll see what I mean) and writing "thank you" notes last month to get his official 1 year portraits done, so we wound up taking them this weekend. '

I wanted to try something a bit different, so rather than set him up on a backdrop with a bunch of studio lights, I just followed him around the house for a more environmental potrait look (his newly discovered walking abilities make it a bit tough to keep him in the same space too!).

Turns out he's really fond of opening and closing doors.