Love That Shot - Worldwide Photo Walk Submission

Tony, Jen, & Emerson

Hi there! Here are a few photos for a little shoot I did for Jen's family (of Cricket's Eye View) on Easter. Such a pretty little girl, that Emerson. My boys are in trouble! 

 

Manteno State Hospital

Manteno State Hospital was a psychiatric hospital located in Manteno, Illinois - about a 1.5-2 hour drive from my home. Several weeks ago my photography buddy Jen and I, as well as another friend, Stephanie, took a trip to explore what's left of the institution. We had a great time, and the place is creepy like nothing else.

Here are some of my photos (more can be found at Blonde Exposure), but if you're terribly interested in the hospital's history, you can read more at this website.

Ben & Alexis

I've been pretty quiet as of late, I'm sorry...winter doesn't inspire my photographer side too much!

Here are a few shots from my first shoot of the year: Ben, who will be 1 in just over a week, and his big sister Alexis, who I've photographed several times in the past.

Jen and Tony's Maternity Session

After having my little guy, Blake, at the beginning of June, it'd been awhile since I had a photography session. It felt good to be back behind a camera! My neighbor, friend, and fellow photographer Jen was kind enough to do maternity photos for me back in May. They turned out great! She is expecting her first child very soon, and so I was happy to return the favor and do some maternity photos for her!

I'm starting to love using Hudson Crossing park for sessions...it's going to look mightly familiar after awhile!










Yes, I did some selective coloring. But, I thought it looked kinda nice for this photo. So sue me.



In other news, I'm dying for some new equipment. Gaaaah. Have I said this before? I think so.

Audrey's Prom Portraits

It's 10:00 on a Monday morning and I can barely keep my eyes open, so I will keep the commentary to a minimum! I photographed these 4 lovely ladies last weekend before they headed off to their senior prom. You will, of course, recognize Audrey from the senior portraits I posted last week.

Oh, and I must give a shout-out and huge thank you to my colleague fabulous Jennifer H., who is good friends with Audrey's family and helped me out a TON on this shoot, getting the ladies posed and helping my pregnant belly up and down the table I stood on to take a lot of these photos :).

Audrey's Senior Portraits

This past weekened I had the chance to take some senior portraits. Audrey and her mom met me at one of my favorite parks, Knoch Knolls in Naperville, and we had a great session. I was thrilled to see a large patch of purple flowers, the perfect spot for photos! I think the shots taken there are my favorite :).

City Methodist Church

First, thanks to my swell neighbor, Jen (blog here) for inviting me to join her on a photography adventure to Gary, Indiana. I know, you're wondering what the heck we would want to photograph in Gary. Turns out it's home to a beautiful abandoned Methodist church that I think may have been placed on Earth purely for the enjoyment of photographers and filmmakers. A photography group that Jen is a member of arranged an outing on Thursday morning. It was incredible, and I'm so glad I went. If it weren't so cold I would have explored the building for hours.

The building is completely derelict, with most of the windows broken and all of nature making its way in. The floor's integrity is questionable in some areas, so we avoided deviating from the main routes.

One of the first rooms we checked out had a decaying sofa and a beautiful fireplace. It may have been my favorite room:










Someone artfully placed a rose on the arm of the sofa. Little "props" like this could be found throughout the building.

Next we explored the main sanctuary, which was completely breathtaking. I attempted an HDR image, but wasn't happy with what I got after running it through the software, so come good ol' fashioned exposures will have to do :)









Next we headed to the second and third floors, where there were plenty of other props and little "scenes" just begging to be photographed:




This is HDR. I wish the ones I did in the sanctuary had turned out as opposed to this one, but its kinda cool.






We didn't go any further down this hallway. We were certain either a) the floor would give way or b) a man with a chainsaw would jump out at us.

I couldn't feel my fingers at this point, so it was a good spot to call it a day :). Overall a fun adventure, and I've enjoyed seeing photos shared by others in the group. I'll have to get over my shyness and post a few of my own.

And hopefully we can see what Jen did too! That is one of the coolest parts of this group - seeing how others photograph and "see" the same location.

Hopefully there will be more projects like this to come!