Amanda & Jose | Engagement

It is always a joy getting to experience new locations while doing photography. I’ve seen a ton of photos of Morton Arboretum and I’ve wanted to check it out for quite some time. So when Amanda told me that this was where we would be taking her and Jose’s engagement photo, I was very excited for their session. The day of this session was my first time there so it was good that Amanda and Jose had visited recently and taken note to stop in the arboretum for photos. It was a beautiful location for an engagement session and we even had some great weather for this late October engagement session.

Tuvara & John | Gender Reveal

One of the things I love most about photography is the fact that it brings a nice bit of variety to my life. In my work as a photographer I’ve certainly had quite the assortment of sessions and know that there are great deal more sessions that I have yet to do. I’m always happy when I get inquiries for a type of session I have not previously done. So naturally when Tuvara and John contacted me about photographing their gender reveal session, I was looking forward to capturing this moment for them.

Pielmeier & Peterschmidt Families

If these families look familiar, it’s because it wasn’t all that long ago since the other time I photographed them. The previous time I saw these families was back in late July when I was photographing the wedding of Katie and Dylan. On this day in mid October, I made the trek up to Holy Hill to both some individual and combined family photos. Started off this session by getting some photos of Katie and Dylan with their son. Then the timing worked out well so that right about the time that was winding down, Katie’s sister, Andrea, and her husband, Adam, showed up along with their three boys. From there I mostly focused on Andrea’s family, but also got a few shots in between of the two families together.

Janeth & Sean | Engagement

It’s interesting seeing firsthand how the world is so small sometimes and how people can be interconnected without our knowledge. I vaguely remember Janeth from high school since we both went to Waukegan and graduated the same year. However, the real surprise came after the shoot when I was telling my mum about how the engagement shoot had gone and happened to mention Janeth’s name. Soon my mum realized that she knew Janeth is a former paraprofessional my mum used to work with. In a situation like this you realize how small the world is sometimes.

Janeth and Sean’s engagement session happened in early October. Originally we were planning on having this session at a barn out in McHenry, however, they decided they wanted a bit more of a natural backdrop. So I suggested a couple different local forest preserves and they decided on Van Patten Woods after paying it a visit the day before our session. An added benefit of them visiting the day before was the fact that they had a pretty good idea of spots where they wanted to take photos.

Larsen Family | 2019

The annual family portrait session with the Larsens happened the last weekend of September. Just a few days before we were unsure if we would have to reschedule since there was rain in the forecast for that day. Luckily for us the weather held off and we managed to have their session as scheduled. It so cool getting to photograph the Larsen family year after year and seeing first hand how much the kids, Kitty and Rocky, have changed. Also, I was happy that we had this session at Roosevelt Park since I wanted to have one there for quite awhile.