Ashley & Isaiah | Wedding

After traveling to Wisconsin and Indiana for weddings the previous two weekends, it was a welcomed relief to photograph a local wedding once again. Ashley and Isaiah’s wedding day helped to remind me how unique every wedding day really can be. Going into this wedding day, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect since I had photographed a wedding at Bowen Park a few weeks prior. However, I soon found out my thinking was a little off in that regard.

A couple differences that I noticed early on was the seating layout and energy from the guest from the previous wedding I photographed at Bowen. Granted what sets this wedding a part from others in my mind was the fact that ceremony started much later than planned. I’m used to weddings occasionally being behind schedule and the ceremony starting a little, however, this one ended up beginning almost 50 minutes late. The reason for this drastic of a delay was the officiant was running late and then got caught in a bit of a fender bender. I did my best in dealing with this delay and I’m only a little disappointed that my time photographing the bride and groom together was limited.

Addison | 6 Months

If you follow me much, you know that I don’t normally use props during sessions. However, when a client owns props that they would like to incorporate into their session, I’m more than happy to work with them to make that happen. So when Addison’s mother told me while we were planning the shoot that she had some props that she was interested in bringing, I was interested to see what she brought along. Clearly, she made good decision on props that gave us a variety of looks for this milestone session.

This session happened in early July and Addison was actually closer to 7 months old by the time this session happened rather than 6 months old. Then again you’d be none the wiser if I had not mentioned it. Originally this session was planned for mid June, but ended up getting reschedule since the weather on that day was looking to be on the cooler side with a chance of rain as well. Then, with both our schedules we didn’t have a time that worked for everyone until a few weeks later since there was a period where we traded off time out of town.

Eliza and Niko | Prom

At one point I was thinking about doing mini sessions for prom at Bowen Park, but I ended up dragging my feet and it didn’t end up happening. Maybe if I don’t have any sessions scheduled for the day of prom, I’ll do it this coming year. Luckily for Eliza and Niko, they were only couple that I was doing prom portraits for this year because they ended up running a late in getting to the park. Also, we were fortunate that the rain held off and we were able to get their session in before it hit.

Cruz Family

This portrait session with the Cruz family closed out my very busy month of September. Lacy told me that she was inspired to schedule this photo shoot after she found their outfits during a trip to Gap. The day of this session I was a little worried there would be rain and luckily the weather held up making for a pretty good session. I tried my darndest during this shoot to get the little girl to smile for these photos, but she just was not having it. I’m pretty sure in the ones where she’s smiling a bit, I’m receiving assistance behind the scenes from her parents.

Nahf Family

This family portrait session occurred on the last Friday evening in July. Originally we had planned on having this photo session a week earlier, but it ultimately got pushed back because the weather forecast looked iffy for most that afternoon.  Seeing as the weather was much better the day of this portrait session, it turned out to be a great decision to re-schedule. Everything went well with the only real trouble was getting the dog, Percy, to not be distracted and look at the camera. 

Summer 2016 Birthdays

Over the last few months, I've spent a lot of time editing photos but haven't found the time to go through my images and post them. Since over the last few weeks my life has been a little less busy, I've finally found time to finally get caught up. That folks is why even with it feeling like winter outside and summer seeming like a distant memory, I am posting these photos now. I wanted to say that these photos took me to places far and wide, but the reality is that for the majority time I was in Lake County. The lone exception was a sweet sixteen party in Chicago that was planned by Ellis Illusions.

Larsen Family

As I said in my previous post, I ended the month with a family photo session. I first got in touch with the Larsens by responding to their posting for a family portrait session on Thumbtack. I later ended up meeting them in person prior to the shoot as they visited my booth at Dandelion Wine Arts Festival. This was an exciting shoot because it was the first time photographing someone that was not friends or family. It was a pleasure to photograph the Larsen family. I want to build on this experience and do some more family portrait sessions.