My second photo session of 2018 was my nephew, Je'kori, coming into the studio a little over a week ago. My sister had been trying to bring him in for a personal photo session, but we had a tough time getting it together during the holiday season. I was happy that he finally got to have a portrait session with me and I'm also happy that so far I'm staying on track for having at least one portrait session per week.
On the first Saturday of 2018, I had my first photo session of the new year as Bhargavi and her husband visited my studio. I'm hoping that this is first of many portrait sessions that I have this year. In fact, one of my resolutions for this year is to have at least one portrait session per week. I haven't quite settled on who I will be photographing this week, but I surely have some ideas for people to contact.
Good thing one of my resolutions for the new year wasn't to make my blog posts in a more timely manner. Especially since here we are almost a third of the way into the month of January and I'm just now posting an update on how December went for for me. The month of December provided very little in the way of rest. The first week of the month kept me busy with photography. On the first Sunday of December, I had a morning family portrait session in Lake Bluff and in the evening I had wedding up in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, that I photographed. Then on Wednesday that week, I did event photography for the Climate Action for Lake County and Puerto Rico. Also during this month, I did a couple headshots with one client being a former classmate of mine and the other being one of a current friend. December marked my second month of displaying my work during ArtWauk at Undercroft Gallery, which is located in the basement of Christ Episcopal Church.
Meanwhile, there were plenty other events that kept me busy as well during the month of December. I went to a variety of different shows in the area including acts such as Tchami, Illenium, Midnight Tyrannosaurus b2b Figure, and even went to see the Impractical Jokers. The end of year has the tendency to have plenty of get togethers and I ended up going to parties held by Clean Power Lake County, Schuler Scholar Program and my former job, Six Flags. Even with all that, my favorite part of the month was following Pretty Light Live on their end of year tour stops. Me and my friends saw them play two nights in Detroit and the New Year's Eve show in Philadelphia. It was a ton of fun doing that and I don't think I could have asked for a better way to celebrate my 30th birthday.
I'm doing my best to start this year strong and trying to grow my business. I had my first portrait session this last weekend in my studio. This aligns nicely with my goal of having at least one portrait session per week. I'm hoping to keep the momentum going and getting my nephew, Je'kori into the studio of Friday. Once again, ArtWauk is sneaking up on me with it less than two weeks away already. Another step I'm taking to increase my visibility is becoming a member of both the City of Waukegan Chamber of Commerce and the Lake County Art League.
On the first Sunday in December, I had a busy day with a couple photo gigs. These photos are from the afternoon when I had the privilege of photographing the wedding of Tiffany and John. Going in I wasn't very sure what to expect since I had only communicated with the bride via a few e-mail and messages beforehand. I was very happy with how smoothly everything went and to have the opportunity to capture a lovely wedding in the process.
Sunday was busy for me since I had two photo gigs. In the morning, I had this photo session with the Deininger family. Everything came together nicely for this photo shoot with beautiful weather, a nice location, and a lovely family.
November was a hectic month and I'm expecting the month of December to even top that hecticness. While I may not have had much in the way of photo gigs, I had plenty of other work to do that related to my photography. The last two Saturdays of November, I had events showing off my work. The second to last Saturday, I participated in ArtWauk with my show, Glimpse Surround, that is currently at Undercroft Gallery. Then the last Saturday of the month, I set up at the Parlor and participated in Small Business Saturday. My only photo shoot of the month took place at Old School Forest Preserve on the surprisingly warm Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Now in regards to my personal life, it was decent month. Early in the month, I had a ton of fun getting to see ODESZA perform. Also, game night crew has continued to get together and have some very fun game nights. The main change of late has been the fact that they are now hosted at Taylor's new apartment and that they now happen of Saturdays instead of Sundays. Final personal event of note was Thanksgiving. For me, it was much of the usual in that I celebrated at my parents' home. We had a relatively small group made up of my parents, 2 sisters in college, my grandma, and myself. We managed to make it through the holiday without annoying each other too much and even had some fun.
The month of December is definitely shaping up to be a busy, but fun month. I have quite a few shows that I'm looking forward to going to this month. Over the next few weeks, I will be going to see Tchami, Impractical Jokers, and Figure. I'm most looking forward to my plans for the end of the year. This week, I booked an Airbnb in Detroit and bought tickets for Pretty Lights Live at the Fillmore. Also, I'm planning on following Pretty Lights Live to Philadelphia for the New Year's Eve show. This month I will continue to run my exhibit, Glimpse Surround, at Undercroft Gallery so please stop by during ArtWauk/Holiday Wauk.
My photo session with Steven and Yvonne came together very quickly last week. Steven contacted with me just before Thanksgiving to see if I was available to shoot over the weekend while the weather was nice. Luckily for both parties, we managed to find time on Sunday to take advantage of the beautiful weather and have a portrait session.
A few Saturdays ago, I photographed a courthouse wedding. Since I had previously done a wedding at the courthouse, I thought I knew what to expect. However, I soon found out that there is a difference between how marriages are conducted on Saturdays versus the weekdays. Due to the sheer number of people that opt get married on Saturdays, marriage ceremony is pretty brief. A few couples are brought into courtroom at a time to be married. In total the couples spend no more than 10 minutes in the courtroom. Ultimately, much more time is spent waiting around than is spent on the ceremony.
When Jarrett contact me in need of a new headshot, I was in the midst of getting my studio ready for the September ArtWauk. As a result, at that time I couldn't used my studio space and instead opted for shooting in downtown Waukegan. I think these photos were helped by the fact that there was a little bit of an incline at a couple locations. This help me to make up for the height difference without having to stand on my tippy toes.
At the end of September, I photographed the wedding of Lisa and Steny. It was a beautiful autumn day for their ceremony which blended together Christian and Indian traditions.
