Mario & Teresa

There were definitely times when I thought that this photo session would never happen, but it finally all came together in early September. It was a few years ago when my good friends, Mario and Teresa, first talked about having a photo session with me. While I was initially optimistic, over time talk of having this photo session seemed to quiet down and disappear. Then this past summer, I was caught off guard when Teresa told me that she was interested in having a photo session. While we may have put this off for quite a while, I was happy that we managed to get this photo session. In fact, this photo shoot was just a few days before their daughter, Ely, was born.

September & October 2017

September found me with a few different photo jobs, but not an overwhelming work schedule overall. In early September, I had a Saturday where in the morning I had a maternity session in the morning at Greenbelt Forest Preserve and then in the afternoon I photographed a two years old's Sesame Street themed birthday at Old School Forest Preserve. Then in the middle of the first week of September, I went to the headquarters of Premier Build + Design Group to do a few headshots. In mid-September, I cleaned up my studio space and showed off some of my latest work during ArtWauk. During that same weekend, I had a headshot photo session in downtown Waukegan for a local actor.  The next weekend found me at Salt Creek Golf Club taking photos for the 2nd Annual Kick to Cure Cancer Foot Golf Outing. The final Friday of the month of September, I photographed the wedding of Steny and Lisa at the Highland Park Community House. Then I finished up the month of September by photographing the sixteenth birthday of my friend's sister.

The month of October was much less busy in terms of photo work. In fact all of my photo work happened on a Saturday in late October. In the morning, I photographed a courthouse wedding and then did photos of the wedding party down at Waukegan Harbor. Then in the evening, I was the photographer for Waukegan to College's Oktoberfest at Bernie's Book Bank. It was actually for the better that this was how my schedule worked out since it allowed me to spend most of my time finishing up working on painting my parents' house. I celebrated completing work on the house by going down to Suwannee Hulaween.

So far things are shaping up pretty well for this month. I'm excited to see ODESZA perform at the UIC Pavillion this Saturday. Also, I'm happy that for the first time in quite a while I can focus on being a full-time photographer and have a couple events this month. First, I'll be having a show during ArtWauk at the Undercroft Gallery. Then, I'll be participating in Small Business Saturday at the Parlor. Life looks like it's on upward trend here.

Larsen Family 2017

The Larsen family was one of my first ever photography clients. Over the last 3 years, I have photographed their family 4 times. It's very interesting having the opportunity to get a glimpse into seeing a family change as the years go by. When I first met the Larsen family, they were a family of 3 and their daughter, Kitty, had recently celebrated her second birthday. Today, the Larsen family has grown to 4 family members with the arrival of Rocky and Kitty has had to adjust to no longer being the only child. As always, it was great getting to work with the Larsen family and are these children ever adorable these days. 

August 2017

Many times the months feel like they move by a pretty quick pace and August was not the exception to this rule. In fact, August feels like it flew by at ultra sonic speed and I feel like I'm struggling to figure out the events of this month. Well, I had a couple paid portrait gigs during this month. I'll give more details on one of my shoots at a later date. The other photo session was with the Larsen family. This is the third year that I've photographed their family and is it ever cool to see them grow year after year.

This was a decent month as far as my social life was concerned. One of the highlights of the month was going to Chicago to catch Pretty Lights performing at Northerly Island. Also had plenty of time to celebrate the changes that occurring in the lives of those that are around myself. Seemed like I got to experience quite a range celebrations from a baby shower to a send-off party to a 91st birthday party. Don't worry though, all that partying did not wear me out.

This month I also continued to volunteer for Clean Power Lake County. I was actually part of the planning committee for the beach cleanup and rally that we held. The major event of the day was the Lake County Climate Action Pledge that was introduce by Lake County Board Chairman Aaron Lawlor at the rally. The other accomplishment that we can pat ourselves on the back about is having a great turn to participate with this event.

July 2017

Wow, I'm pretty far behind on making a post about July since we're already half way through the month of August. My photography business has not exactly kept me busy, but then again I have not made an effort to pursue new work. The only photo job of note was making a trip to Premier Build + Design's office in Itasca to do some a few headshots. The real work that kept me busy during the month of July was the ongoing work on my parents' house. July was really the month that I finally got back into the swing of things.

The most notable event that occurred during this month was the torrential rain and flooding that resulted from it. As far as Lake County communities, my city, Waukegan, did not get hit hard. However, many of the surrounding communities were not as fortunate and dealt with some pretty significant flooding. I feel like my problem of having a little longer commute around obviously pales in comparison to the people who had damage to their homes and were displaced by the flooding.

For Clean Power Lake County, we are constantly working to reach our goal. We started off the month of July by marching in Waukegan's American Independence Parade. As always that was a good opportunity to make our cause more visible to our local community. Also in July, Waukegan's city council approved signing onto the Paris Climate Agreement. This a move that the volunteers with CPLC have working towards making happen. I have also been helping plan CPLC's next event which is our beach clean-up and rally.

Finally, July was a good month in regards to the social part of my life. If I were to choose a major highlight of the month, I'd have to say it was the block party. The block party is always a good time so I'm always happy when I can make it. This year, I decided to invite some of my friends that I know through CPLC to join in on the fun. Everyone ended up having a blast and enjoying themselves. The part of it that I thought was pretty cool was how it helped to connect from different parts of my life. In fact, since the block party me and my friends have been getting together for game nights most Sunday evenings.

June 2017

I'm a little behind on making a post about the month of June. My two accomplishments of note for this month was photographing a wedding and hosting a photo exhibition for ArtWauk. Since I've already posted about the wedding, I'll skip on rehashing about that and instead go straight to my photo exhibit. Since I've done so much photography so far this year, I am trying to participate in ArtWauk and show off some of my latest work. As I continue to participate, I'm making progress and improving things. This time around, we had a few more people stop by and I got my name in the program for ArtWauk. Now that I'm mostly caught up in life, I have to get back out shooting so I have photos for a show in September. 

Also, I am continuing my work as a volunteer for Clean Power Lake County. In fact, I can proudly now say that Dylan Blake Photography is now a coalition member with CPLC. I even had a small table set up at my show with petitions and literature from CPLC. The major event held by this organization this month was the Future Energy Jobs Act Town Hall. There were over 100 people in attendance including some local political officials. The legislation for FEJA went into effect at the beginning of June and could be very beneficial if utilized by the Waukegan community. 

Additionally, the month of June lead me to venture up to Michigan to attend weekend 1 of Electric Forest. Despite the rain that happened the first day of the festival, it was great time once again. Plus, for the first time I got to see one of my favorite artists, ODESZA. They put on such breathtakingly beautiful show that will really stick with me. After getting back from Forest, I've gotten back to working on my parents' place. I've started off so far by doing some yard work and taking down a couple buckthorn trees. Later, I'll be get back to painting the house and hopefully finish that up this year.   

Taylor & Brian | Wedding

Being a photographer at times means that you have to be willing to be flexible. Last week truly put me to the test when it comes to flexibility. Last Saturday, I had the pleasure of photographing Taylor and Brian's wedding at the Loft & Chapel at Cedar Ridge in Waukesha, WI. It was a pretty nice day with relatively little in the way of hiccups. Having said that, I'm sure you're a little curious how as to how I got my flexibility tested. 

The real test was the days leading up to the day of this wedding. At one point, I thought I would be able pull off having a booth at Dandelion Wine Fine Arts Festival and photographing this wedding. This idea seemed so very foreign about this time last week. I was questioning whether I was going to participate in Dandelion Wine since there was rain in the forecast and didn't think I'd be photographing the wedding since it had been awhile since I had received a response. Since Saturday's weather forecast was improving, I was considering working late and trying to pull together a booth for the festival. Of course, that plan changed once I finally got confirmation on the wedding Friday evening. 

Brandi | Maternity

I can't believe that this maternity session happened 3 weeks ago now. I remember being persistent about keeping an eye on the weather in hopes of having a beautiful sunset photo session on the beach. While the weather itself was a little on the cool side, we were blessed with some gorgeous late in the day light for this session.

May 2017

May was a month where I'm tried to take steps to help me to achieve my goals. One such step was creating a routine for weekdays. My ideal weekday begins with a run to the harbor and back as the sun is rising. Then, I spend my time wandering and exploring to get a photo for the day. The remaining time is spent getting ready for starting my workday at 9 a.m. This could really be anything from catching up on the late night shows to eating breakfast to showering to going through the photos from this morning. After a long weekend away for Summer Camp Music Festival, I'm trying to get back into this routine once again. 

I got a few photo gigs during May but I haven't gotten around to posting about them yet. One of the gigs was a maternity shoot at Waukegan beach. Also, I travelled down to Chicago and took some pictures for the an organization called Spread the Hug. Then this week, I got my studio back into shape and opened it up for cap and gown photo sessions. The only person I got to take photos of was my sister, but it was still nice to finally clean up my studio. Also, maybe I'll manage to get some high school seniors yet or even manage to draw in some 8th graders from down their promotion at the Genesee Theatre on Wednesday.

Now what can you expect from me this month? Well, this Saturday I'm signed up for a booth at the Dandelion Wine Fine Arts Festival. Unfortunately, with it looking like the weather calling for rain and thunderstorms , I'm leaning towards to participating. Later in the month, I am seriously considering participating in ArtWauk once again. Hopefully, this time we can actually get listed on the map and draw people down a little further north on Genesee. Finally, later in the month I'm looking forward to going to the first weekend of Electric Forest. 

Deidre & Benjamin

This will be the last of my long overdue posts and hopefully the last time that I delay posting photos for so long after a session on here. As I had said in a previous post, there was a time when my schedule was very busy with non-photography work and as a result I never got around to posting these on here. These days, my schedule is less busy and I'm trying to catch up on past work as well as trying to get new business.

Similarly to now, my schedule was pretty open when this photo session. Obviously, one of the few perks of having an open schedule is being able to take last minute bookings. That was the case with this session as I was contacted only a couple days ahead of time. It was really great getting to photograph Deidre, Benjamin, and their daughter. You really see the love of this family in their photos.