February 2020

Usually writing my monthly blog post late into the month doesn’t seem all that strange. However, with everything that has occurred with the coronavirus pandemic, it feels a little strange this time around. February really does feel like a time when life much simpler and everything seemed to be moving in the right direction overall. If you were to take the month at the surface, it didn’t look over impressive, but I was certainly feeling hopeful about what would be coming the rest of the year.

This month didn’t bring with it much in the way of photography gigs, but it certainly felt like things were moving in the right direction. I once again participated in the bridal tasting and preferred event at Illinois Beach Resort in Zion, IL. Compared to when they held their event in January, the event in February was better attended and there was just a much better energy in the room overall. It was nice getting to participate in an event like that early in the month. The rest of the month I got a few different inquiries from brides about being their wedding photographer. It was beginning to look like I would be having a busy summer with a calendar full of weddings.

The month of February also saw me begin to get into the business of reselling to make some money on the side. I started off my business with a combination of unwanted items from both my apartment and my parents’ home. I have a strange assortment of items from clothing all the way to figurines left behind by my Nana available for purchase. I was really excited when I thought I had sold my first item pretty quickly after listing them. However, I would soon find out that the only reason this person was interested was because they knew I was new to selling and were trying to run a scam on me.

I also had a decent social life during the month of February with some interesting variety to it. To start the month I went to CLC for a Friday evening showing of the Chinese film, “A Long Day’s Journey into Night”. The next weekend, my mum and I did our usual and checked out the February edition of ArtWauk. Then following weekend was one with a couple performance with a Friday night trip down to Three Brothers Theater for a visiting comedy group called Deep Space Comedy. The next night I went over to Waukegan High School to catch their performance of “Midsummer’s Night Dream. So I’d say looking back at February now and especially in comparison, it was a pretty darn good month really.

Gabriel

If you’re friends with me on Facebook, you might recognize my nephew, Gabriel, from my “Family and Friends Friday” project that I work on sporadically. Back in September last year, I had a portrait session with him. I guess I must have done an alright job because he contacted me about doing a shoot over his winter break. Originally we thought about trying for an indoor location for this shoot. However, the weather on this particular day was so nice that I felt like we’d be foolish to pass it up. Plus, I had some locations in downtown Waukegan that I thought would make for a good backdrop in his photos.

Deininger Family | Winter 2019

This was my second time photographing the Deininger family and both times it has been around the same time of year in early December. Originally we had planned on having this session in late November, but the weather was not looking particularly good for the date we initially planned. It ended up being a case where once again the beginning of December was the time that worked best for everyone. The last time I had a family session with them, I remember it being unseasonably warm for that time of year and I’m sure we were all hoping to be as lucky once again. While we weren’t quite that fortunate, we go weather that was good enough to be comfortable outside and get some great photos.