September 2019

I have a mixture of emotions about the past month. On one hand the positive is that I had a decent amount of work and had a decent amount of social events during this month. In fact, the second weekend of September definitely goes down as one of the more hectic ones that I’ve had during my time as a photographer. On Friday the 13th, I photographed the wedding of Billy and Ryan at Brighton Acres in Oshkosh, WI. The next day on Saturday, I did photography for Faith in Place’s Green Team Summit and VIP Reception at the Field Museum in Chicago. Once that was over I hurried back to Waukegan so I could do an hour of photography at birthday party as well.

It was a bit of a blessing that after that weekend, I had a couple weeks free to get caught up on editing photos from that weekend. Me and my folks decided to celebrate getting caught up on editing by going out to Quonset for some pizza and beer. It was also nice be able to get caught up on my editing in time for my final portrait session of the month as I photographed the Larsen family over at Roosevelt Park here in Waukegan.

I had a little bit more of a social life during September than I’ve had in some months recently. The first Saturday in September ended up being a busy, fun filled day where I caught up with quite a few people that I hadn’t seen in awhile. The first event of the day was attending the party in my backyard for my neighbor’s daughter 2nd birthday. Once the party was winding down, I went to hang out with my buddy, Carl, who I hadn’t seen in a few months. Then the final stop of the night was hanging out with another buddy, Raul, at his cousin’s birthday party.

Then, the Thursday before my busy weekend was a fun day as well. I won tickets compliments of the City of Waukegan Chamber of Commerce to see the screening of Napoleon Dynamite followed by a question and answer session with Jon Heder (Napoleon), Jon Gries (Uncle Rico), and Efren Ramirez (Pedro) at the Genesee Theatre. I ended up inviting my friends Celeste, Julio, and José to come along with the tickets I won. Also joining us were our friends, Rmneet and Taylor, who had bought tickets for this screening when it was initially announced months ago. We all even got to sit together since Julio used his connections from when he worked at the Genesee to get it so we got some good seats altogether.

Now the reason why I mention that September brought a mixture of emotions is because I lost a friend , Jennifer Schneider, to suicide. She was one of the kindest and sweetest people I’ve ever met so the news of her passing caught me off guard. It was just a few months earlier when I was surprised to find out that she was back in the area when I ran into her at a local environmental rally. Then a couple weeks after that we met up for coffee and discussed a wide range of topics. She seemed optimistic about the future and talked about having the opportunity to have a fresh start. I never would have thought that would be the last time I’d ever see her.

Becca & Michael | Wedding

I’ve known Becca and her family for quite some time since our sisters played on the same travel soccer team back in the day. So when Becca asked me to be photographer for her wedding, I did not need any time to think about whether I’d do it and was excited to capture the wedding day of someone that I knew. Plus, it’s nice to sometimes have a wedding that’s local and not having to do a ton of traveling.

Well, this wedding took place on a very hot Saturday in late July. The ceremony was outdoors so leading up to the ceremony people chose to wait on taking their seat and instead chose to utilize the shade from nearby trees while they waited. For awhile, I was unsure if people would want to go back outside once they spent a little time inside after the ceremony. Luckily for us, we got a cold front and some clouds that came through at that time made for better conditions for formal photos.

Addison | 6 Months

If you follow me much, you know that I don’t normally use props during sessions. However, when a client owns props that they would like to incorporate into their session, I’m more than happy to work with them to make that happen. So when Addison’s mother told me while we were planning the shoot that she had some props that she was interested in bringing, I was interested to see what she brought along. Clearly, she made good decision on props that gave us a variety of looks for this milestone session.

This session happened in early July and Addison was actually closer to 7 months old by the time this session happened rather than 6 months old. Then again you’d be none the wiser if I had not mentioned it. Originally this session was planned for mid June, but ended up getting reschedule since the weather on that day was looking to be on the cooler side with a chance of rain as well. Then, with both our schedules we didn’t have a time that worked for everyone until a few weeks later since there was a period where we traded off time out of town.

Miller Family

Back in the day, I would go to Maria semi regularly to get my haircut. These days I go elsewhere, but I keep up to date on what she’s up to thanks to the fact she cuts my mum hair still and also through Facebook. Prior to this portrait session, I had only heard stories about Maria’s family from her and had never met them. She was inspired to get schedule a portrait session since her daughter and granddaughter, who live in Hawaii, were in town.

This portrait session took place at the beginning of July at the home of Maria and her family in Winthrop Harbor. A couple aspects of this session did not quite go as planned. First there was my plan was mainly to have this session outdoors. However, after being outside for a few minutes, we realized the mosquitoes were worse than expected. So after getting a few different groupings in the yard, we decided it would probably be better to scurry inside for a reprieve from the mosquitoes and take most the remaining photos indoors. Also for this session, we were short one member of the Miller family as their son was unable to make it home from work in time. All in all, I’m happy with how the photos turned out from this session and thankful that Maria wanted me to photograph her family.

LaToya & Kernan | Engagement

Third time was truly a charm with this engagement session. This couple had to reschedule their session a couple times since on a couple occasions the Navy didn’t grant Kernan his freedom on a weekend when LaToya was planning on visiting. After initially being contacted about having this portrait session back in late April, our schedules all worked out and we had this session the first Saturday since it was the weekend of Kernan’s Navy graduation ceremony.

The day of the session I was keeping a close eye on the weather because during part of the day I was participating in Dandelion Wine Fine Arts Festival and then the plan was to have LaToya and Kernan’s engagement session at a park. The weather wasn’t looking very good for later in the day so I was unsure if this session just wasn’t meant to be. I was very excited when I received a message from LaToya that they had received permission from the front desk that they could have their session at the hotel they were staying at, the Inn at Market Square in Zion. The hotel made for a great backdrop and most of all I liked having the opportunity to practice using off camera flash

August 2019

My photography work for the month of August came over the first couple weekends of the month. And maybe even by the end of the month of September I’ll be caught up on posting and give a more in depth story of my August photography gigs. For now I’ll tell you that the first Saturday of the month, I traveled to Indiana to photograph a wedding. Then, I felt blessed that the second weekend of August because I did not have to travel far from home for my photography gigs that were both in Waukegan. First, on that Saturday I photographed a birthday part for a three year old’s birthday. Then on Sunday, I photographed a wedding over at Bowen Park.

My social life was rather quiet during the month of August. Lately, I’ve been opting for staying in and working on my business rather than going out. These days growing my business is my top priority so it’s probably going to be mostly the same for my social life in September. The only social event that’s on the agenda for this month is birthday party for my downstairs neighbors’ daughter, Ely. Other than that during a game night this past weekend, there was talk of having another game night later in the month.

I’m happy to say that my schedule for photography in September is a bit more busy than my personal life. I have one weekend that is very busy in the middle of the month. On Friday the 13th, I will be heading up to Osh Kosh, WI, to photograph a wedding. Then the next day I have two events on my schedule with most my day spent in Chicago at the Field Museum photographing Faith in Place’s Green Team Summit and VIP reception. Once that’s finished, I’ll have to see how quickly I can make my way back to Waukegan to take photos at a birthday party. Other than that busy weekend, I may have a couple family sessions the last weekend of the month.

Eliza and Niko | Prom

At one point I was thinking about doing mini sessions for prom at Bowen Park, but I ended up dragging my feet and it didn’t end up happening. Maybe if I don’t have any sessions scheduled for the day of prom, I’ll do it this coming year. Luckily for Eliza and Niko, they were only couple that I was doing prom portraits for this year because they ended up running a late in getting to the park. Also, we were fortunate that the rain held off and we were able to get their session in before it hit.

Dennis and Dareth | Wedding

Taking a step back a little ways today as I post photos from Dennis and Dareth’s wedding back in March. This was my the first wedding I shot this year and definitely up there in terms of the most fun I’ve had photographing a wedding. It was very rewarding looking back at these images to make this post. Before I choose the photos, I was expecting that I’d post 30 images, but I eventually found out that wasn’t going to be possible. Definitely was glad that I got to capture the beauty and fun of Dennis and Dareth’s special day.

July 2019

The month of July was certainly more of a month of work than play. There were a few times where my photography took me took familiar territory. With the first gig of this month it was the fact that I was photographing my former hairdresser, Maria, and her family. The next two gigs the familiarity sprung from the fact that they took place at a location, Bowen Park, that I’ve been to on numerous occasions. Granted, they could not have been two more different jobs. The first was a 6-month milestone portrait session that had originally been planned for June, but ended up getting pushed back due to the weather. To contrast with that, the other work I did at Bowen was capturing a wedding ceremony.

The end of the month ended up being a little busy for me as I had three different photo jobs in the last week. Last Friday I had motivation to get my studio space back in order as I had someone stop by to get some basic photos for a modeling portfolio. Then on Saturday, I traveled up to the Menomonee Falls, WI area to photograph a wedding. To close out the month, I had a portrait session for a pet turtle of all things at Bevier Park. I’m trying to get back more into blogging and tell you at least about some of this different shoots that I had in July.

As previously stated, my social life was certainly more low key during this month especially when compared to last month. The most noteworthy social time was the second weekend of July. The weekend started a little early for me as I took Friday off since it was the day a bench at the Waukegan Public Library was getting dedicated to my maternal grandparents. The next day, I checked out Scoop the Loop with some friends since it was happening in downtown Waukegan. Finally, I closed out that weekend on Sunday by getting together for game night. Other than one busy weekend I didn’t have too much going on in my social life.

Currently I don’t have much planned for the month of August. The only things on my schedule are photography gigs the next two weekends. First, there’s a wedding that I’m photographing tomorrow in Crown Point, IN. Then, I have a party that I’m doing photography for the following weekend. Meanwhile, I don’t have any definitive plans as far as social engagements. I’m debating whether to catch a concert or two, but there is nothing definitive at the moment. Well, until next time. hope all is well.