March 2016

I'm still trying to figure out where the month of March went. Man, did the month ever fly by quickly. While my photography has been lacking a little in terms of work during this month, I've made progress in terms of marketing my business. For one, I've started to explore a new avenue as I've started posting ads on Craigslist. For quite awhile I've scoured Craigslist looking for work, but never made the effort to post my own ads. I've gotten a decent response from my ads and gotten a few potential clients from them. Also in terms of marketing, I continued to ad my business to listings leading to my site continuing to move up in terms of SEO.

This month I didn't have any photo sessions with clients but I did do a little bit of photography from time to time. One of those projects I did was my self-portrait session where I dressed as a lumberjack. I also entered a photo of my cat in the Waukegan Park District's Pet Superstar Photo Contest. Despite my best efforts which included a bit of editing, my photo did not win. Finally on a more serious note on the last day of the month I photographed a luncheon hosted by Clean Power Lake County. I will write more at length on that in the coming days.

So far, I'm not entirely sure what the month of April is going to hold. I photographed a wedding on short notice yesterday. I'm photographing an event next Saturday and a portrait session next Sunday. Then as far as my personal life goes, I'm looking forward to the Cubs season beginning Monday. Hopefully this is the beginning of a great year for the them. Also, later in the month I'm going to Springfield with people from Clean Power Lake County to lobby for clean jobs in Illinois.  

Self-Portrait | Lumberjack

Before I shaved yesterday for work orientation, I had grown my beard since November. It felt like a fitting tribute and last hoorah for my beard was having a photo shoot. Since I had bought the the clothing needed to look like a stereotypical lumberjack and had a good beard, it seemed only right to do the photo shoot as such. As I said, the beard is gone as of yesterday morning, but I'm going to grow it back at some point. 

Daniela

When I had my work on display at Sidecar Studios last May, I held a drawing for a free photo shoot. The luck winner of the drawing was Daniela Lopez. Back in the fall, we tried to get together for a photo shoot but it didn't end up working with our schedules. A few weeks ago she got back in contact with me and we finally found time to have the photo shoot with her and her friend, Samantha. I learned two lessons from this shoot. First, sometimes it takes time for things to come together. Second, sometimes good things take time.

February 2016

February was an interesting month. I ended up having two paid shoots that I got off of Thumbtack. Also, I had a free shoot that I gave away as part of a prize drawing during when I had work on display at Sidecar Studios. I'm working on editing images from a couple of those shoots and hope to have them finished up by the end of this week. I'm so happy to have some work to do during these colder months. Also, I volunteered my photography skills for the Waukegan Park District a couple nights this month and did photos for their Mother-Son Sweetheart Dance and Father-Daughter Date Night. 

This coming month, I'm not sure what exactly to expect with my photography. I'm definitely looking forward to the beginning of spring and as a result more outdoor photography. While life may become a little busier with photography, life may be a little busier this month with my other jobs.  In about a week and a half, I have orientation for Six Flags and will have to say goodbye to my beard that I've been growing the past few months. Then a week later, I'll be attending Six Flags' Leadership Summit and learning about what this coming year has in store for the park. This is also the time of year where many schools will be having spring break and as a result KeyLime Cove be getting busy and I'll be working more there.

Michael | College Senior

A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to have a photo shoot with Michael. He is one of my clients that I met through Thumbtack. I was very excited to have the opportunity to use downtown Waukegan as the backdrop of a photo shoot. Leading up to the shoot, we discussed a little about what he was seeking for a location for the shoot. When he told me he wanted an urban setting and that he didn't have any place in particular in mind, I thought downtown Waukegan would work well. The two reasons it came to mind were that it feels like a very solid urban setting and I'm very familiar with it. He told me he was unfamiliar with the area but would trust my judgement. 

Dancing the Night Away!

Friday and Saturday night, I helped the Waukegan Park District by being the photographer for their Mother-Son Sweetheart Dance and Father-Daughter Date Night. Doing photography was definitely a learning experience for me in regards to taking portraits and printing on location. The first night was a little rough since I was attempting to take the portraits and print them nearly simultaneously. By the next night, I had learned my lesson and instead chose to shoot most the portraits at once and then print the pictures once I was mostly freed up from shooting. This system worked so much better and made things much less stressful for me. I feel like this event went well for the most part and I would likely be willing to do it again next year if asked.

Echevarria & Caceres Families

As the years go by, it usually becomes more difficult to get everybody together to have family portraits done. That's why when these two families asked me about doing family portraits, I was more than willing to do it. It was certainly an interesting and challenging shoot for a couple reasons. First, it certainly stretched the limits of space in my small studio space with having thirteen people total between the two families. Second, I took a lot of photos of a ton of different groupings. 

January 2016

Well here we are already one month into 2016. This as expected has been a slow time of the year when it comes to the photography business. I'm not too nervous about this fact and realize that at some point in the future, there will be a part of me that will miss this slow period. Since I've had quite a bit of time on my hands, I've been using my time to gain knowledge on photography and business side of it. Last week, I got to watch numerous webinars from some of the most respected names in the photography during the Turn It Up Conference. The last few days, I spent preparing for a shoot that I had yesterday. So you guys can look forward to me posting shots from that shoot later in the week. Additionally, I had a week in there where I didn't get much work done since my cat played with and chewed up my computer wire one night while I was sleeping. 

Happy New Year!

Hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and are enjoying the new year. I know I'm a little late in posting for this new year. The last couple weeks have been quite hectic as a result of the holidays so can you really blame me? 

I'm really looking forward to what this new year has in store for me. One of my goals is to catch up on a few shoots that I've been meaning to do before the summer season begins. My bigger goal is to find a wedding photographer that I can become a second shooter/assistant for the coming wedding season. I see this as the perfect opportunity to gain experience in wedding photography. If anyone knows wedding photographers in the Chicago or Milwaukee areas looking for an second shooter or assistant, please put me in contact with them.