November 2022

November started as a fairly quiet month, but picked up as the month progressed. The first couple of weeks were fairly quiet with not much standing out from one day to the next outside of finally going to get my latest booster shot. Then by the middle of the month life started to pick up a bit beginning with taking a weekday trip down to Chicago to help my body move into his new place. A couple days after that I finally went on over to the DMV to renew my license after the deadline got extended a few times due to the pandemic. The next day, I went on up to the Kenosha Comedy Club to see Ian Lara perform.

The follow week seemed to fly by as I was kept busy by watching US Soccer play in the World Cup and hanging with family for Thanksgiving. Monday morning I struggled to focus on working because I was eager to watch US’s first match against Wales. By Wednesday afternoon my siblings from Minnesota had made it into town for the Thanksgiving. Over the next few days spent time hanging out with them for much of the usual Thanksgiving festivities as well as having a bonfire the following evening. One of the things I did miss out on though was when some of my family opted to got out for a hike on Friday while I decided I’d stay home to watch the US battle England for a hard earned draw.

October 2022

For many photographers the month of October is one of the busiest times of year for them. The previous two years that was very much the case with my photography business as I was booked for a lot of weddings in October. This year my October was busy, but it was with other work beside my photography work. The totality of my photography was done over the course of the last two weekends of the month as I photographed a courthouse wedding, an engagement session, and a family session during that time. Instead I was kept busy by working with my brother-in-law on doing some renovations on a house in Lake Forest for much of the month. Meanwhile, to end the month of October I was tasked with housesitting for my parents as they went out of town for a week long trip.

Kelly & Thomas

Currently, if I have free time during a weekend and the weather is nice, I often choose to go out to any one of the numerous picturesque nearby locales to do some wandering and photography. Part of me embraces this opportunity to explore and capture the world on my own. Meanwhile, the portrait photographer in me also wants to capture people in these settings. This is why I offer an open invite for a free mini portrait sessions during this time when I'm out doing photography during the weekend. 

A couple weekends ago, Kelly and Thomas took me up on this offer for a mini session over at Illinois Beach State Park in Zion. I arrived about an hour before golden hour so I could do some hiking before their session. Then I headed over to the beach a little before our scheduled time and found a location I liked for their portrait shoot. 

Mid Year Evaluation

Since July is the halfway point of the year, I feel like it is a fitting time to evaluate how things are going in the year 2022 so far. At the start of the year I had a number of goals that I was going to start small on and build up as the year progressed. This planned worked fairly well for the first month or two as I managed to accomplish most of the goals I had set during that time and as a result was feeling pretty good about myself. Unfortunately when March came around I sort of fell behind and failed at following through on a lot of my goals. I think the only goal that has stuck around has been reading more as I’ve read 11 books in total.

Kelly & Jeff | Wedding

At the beginning of June I traveled up to the Milwaukee area to photograph the wedding of Jeff and Kelly. They had a nice ceremony attended by friends and family at Adoration Lutheran Church. Following that we did some formal portraits at Boerner Botanical Gardens. After that we headed on over to Root River Banquet Hall for a fun filled reception.

April 2022

This is my first time posting one of my monthly update blogs in quite awhile. There’s no sense in trying to give an update on everything that has happened in the mean time. Plus if I’m being frank I feel like there might not even have been all that much that happened since then either. So instead I’m just narrow this post down to writing about last month and what’s coming in the month ahead.

The beginning of the month started off with a busy weekend as I kicked off the month with taking some portraits of family over at Bowen Park on April Fool’s Day. Then the next day I had my first wedding of the year as I photographed the wedding of Ana and Abraham at a community center in Gurnee. However after the rush of photography of those couple of days to begin the month, business slowed down significantly the rest of the way. The next time I had some photography work was Easter weekend when I photographed the courthouse wedding of Lluvia and Heberto.

The other thing that I have started this month is offering free mini portrait sessions on select weekends at some of my favorite Waukegan and other surrounding area locations. The availability of these sessions was limited this last month since I came up with this idea late in the month. Also, the weather plays a factor as well because these sessions are mostly going to be outdoors. My sole attempt to do this was April 23rd when I was out at Bowen Park wandering to do some of my nature photography and was ready to get photos of people with the Siberian squill if people were interested.

Currently for the month of May I potentially could be offering free mini portrait sessions a couple weekends in the middle of this month. So if you are interested in the opportunity to have a free mini portrait session, follow me on my social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram. On weeks that I plan on offering free mini portrait sessions, I’m going to try to post to my story on my social media accounts which day(s) I plan on having sessions on a weekend. Then the day(s) of I will post a story about what my location will be on that given day.

This coming weekend I am doing prom photos for my nephew, Gabriel, and his girlfriend so that’s why I’m opting against any additional portrait sessions this coming weekend. Then the last weekend of the I’m taking off since it’s Memorial Day weekend and also I’m planning on going to Summer Camp Music Festival on that Sunday. That’s pretty much the only set plans for this month so there could be some chances to meet up with me for a portrait session. 

The main thing I’m going to be working on this month is completely rebuilding my website. It has been a very long since I have made any sort of update to my website so it’s much overdue for some changes. Over the last week or so I’ve been doing a little research and come up with some ideas of how to improve my site and I’m looking forward to starting to institute them in the coming weeks. Hopefully when I post my next monthly update blog, my visitors will be greeted by a much different site.

Shari & her children

This is from the other half of the portrait session at Bowen Park from the beginning of April. During this part of the session we got a lot of great photos of my sister, Shari, and her children. Also had some photos where my folks, Dominisha, and Jordan jumped in as well.

Lluvia & Heberto | Wedding

Originally Lluvia and Heberto's courthouse wedding was supposed to take place on Good Friday. However, when we arrived at the courthouse this past Friday, we found out that they were not doing marriages on that day due to the holiday. Luckily my schedule was fairly open this weekend and I was able to make it Saturday morning when they got married by a judge.

Dominisha & Jordan

The first day of April I went over to Bowen Park for a couple portrait sessions with my a couple of my sisters, their children, and my parents. The first part of the session was Dominisha and her son, Jordan. Also, my parents jumped in for a few photos as well.

Ana & Abraham | Wedding

When you think of April showers, you normally think of rain showers. However, this past weekend during Ana and Abraham’s wedding we ended up getting showered with some snow flurries instead. They had their ceremony and reception at Stoney Brook Cambridge Rec Center in Gurnee. We took most of the photos indoors for obvious reasons, but we also made sure to get outside for a moment to capture a few photos on the balcony with the snow coming down in the background.