Mark & Cheri

My aunt Cheri asked me back in, I dunno, December, if I would do photos of her and my uncle Mark. Um, of course! They decided to use the Naperville Riverwalk as the backdrop of their portraits. I'm certainly glad they did because it's a great spot and I'm going to remember it for future sessions!

They were great subjects to photograph: definitely not camera-shy and fell into natural poses easily. It was fun!

As always, a few favorites:

















Happy Spring!

Bobby Van's

Sorry it's been awhile since I posted! I was in New York for a week and then life was a little crazy. But here I am!

I didn't get many opportunities at all to photograph New York. In fact, the only time I was able to pull out my camera and take photos for non-work related purposes was when we had dinner at Bobby Van's. Bobby Van's is pretty cool. Part of the restaurant is inside an old bank vault - the original vault of JP Morgan, to be exact. Therefore the atmosphere is quite unique. And very dark. I snapped some shots of the details of the vault with what little light there was.


Detail of the numbers on the individual safes




Some of the safes were removed and the space used as shelves for various decorations, mainly bottles of wine.


I wonder if the bottles are worth anything?


Sculpture at the entrance to the vault.


Detail of the vault's door.


More of the door.

Well, I'm hoping to have more projects to share with you in April, especially now that the weather is getting so nice!

Kelli & Joe's Engagement Session

Kelli's family is close with my family. Her sister, Melissa, is my best friend. My grew up a block away from one another, and I've known her family for 20 years! So, it was exciting to be asked to do Kelli's engagement photos. I've never done an engagement session, at least on my own and not when working at the Picture People.

We hoped to take photos outside, however it was rainy and dreary so the photos were taken at Kelli's parents' house instead. The lighting, as usual, was tricky. I used my flash on some and natural light on others. Both have their positives.

Adding to the Collection!

Meet the newest member of my camera bag:



This is a Canon EF 75-300mm f/4-5.6 III USM lens. I bought it refurbished from Adorama, but am confident that it will work wonderfully. I'm hoping it will be delivered by the end of this week. I'm bringing it with me on my trip to New York next week! I've been given a fantastic opportunity to photograph some of the speakers at the meeting we are organizing. Unfortunately I imagine I will not be able to publicly share any of those pictures, but I'm excited nonetheless. Perhaps I'll have a couple of free moments where I can photograph the city.

Contest at Epiphanie

Do you like winning things? For any photography fans out there, Epiphanie is having a great giveaway contest. Check it out here. They are giving away your choice of either a Canon 5D Mark II or a $2500 Southwest Airlines gift certificate! I think we know which I'd choose ;). Earn points for the contest by blogging about it (ahem), tweeting about it, posting it on Facebook, and several other ways. Each point equals an entry into the contest!

I'd never heard of Epiphanie, but I checked out their site and they sell some very cute camera bags! They looks like purses, which I love.

Keeping my fingers crossed that I win!

Luke on the Bed

Sometimes when I don't have a "project" I start to feel frantic. I love taking photos of Luke, of course, but it does get rather repetitive. There's only so much I can do. Last weekend I was dying for a project of some sorts, so decided to do photos of Luke on our bed. I used it as an opportunity to get in some practice with my new flash! I didn't quite get what I was looking for, so I may try again on some future weekend. I wanted more action shots, and Luke was only interested in trying to climb off the bed. But here are my favorites:






Daddy brought the Alligator from New Orleans, as a gift for Luke. He loves it!




He loves talking on the phone...

Sophie's Cookie Decorating Party

This session was different than any of the sessions I've done yet. I liked it! My colleague Jen, who I did photos for back in November, asked if I would be interested in taking photos at her daughter's cookie decorating party over the weekend. Of course I was interested!

Sophie had 6 of her friends over, and they gathered around the kitchen table to cover cookies in bright colored frosting, sprinkles, and candies. Such a cute idea! I am happy to say I got a lot of cute shots, and had a difficult time picking out the few to share here. Oh, and my watermark is different because I don't have the file I normally use on me right now. I just threw something else together in the meantime.




Sophie, the hostess.






The best part of decorating cookies is eating the cookies, of course!







After the fun with the cookies, the girls bobbed for apples and then played dress up!






They took dress-up time quite seriously.


A princess parade!

In other camera-related news, I purchased an external flash, the Speedlite 430EX II. I was super intimidated by it at first, but now that I've had some practice I can say I LOVE it. I've been experimenting with bounce flash, and am surprised that it is easier than I expected. Who knew you could use a flash and have photos that look like you DIDN'T use a flash?