Playing in Andy Warhol’s Silver Clouds // Grace Turns 4

08.13.2010 Posted in Portraits

Silver Balloons Make Me Happy

A good time for me involves a few things: cool balloons, a beautiful afternoon, good food, and taking portraits of a 4 year old full of energy. Thus, this shoot was a good time indeed.

The portraits took place in Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology – I love the IIT campus! It’s a great place to take portraits – it’s peaceful and full of locations and amazing backgrounds. The coolest part of Crown Hall was Andy Worhol’s “Silver Clouds” exhibit, as well as the Lego City exhibit. This made for an amazing and interesting photo shoot. Running through and around the silver balloons was a blast, and almost surreal. I could feel my imagination running at warp speed.

The portrait session ended at Pompei on Taylor street. I hadn’t intended on shooting there, but the location and lighting was perfect for some candid and posed portraits of Grace. Here are a few of my favorite pictures of the day:

Check out more of Crown Hall and the IIT campus.

Set-Up

  • Nikon D700 – shooting in RAW
  • Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8
  • Nikon 50mm f/1.4
  • Tamron 12-24mm f/4.0
  • Nikon SB-800
  • Nikon CLS for OCF
  • 30″ Umbrella
  • Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing

    • Portfolio Contact Otto Facebook Twitter

    By The Way: Be a kid in order to take some fun photos of kids. I had a blast running though the balloons, and I am sure that Grace noticed my willingness to be a kid.

    by Otto

    5 comments

    add some comment love
    link to this post
    email your buddy
    August 14, 2010 - 8:33 am

    OG - Hey Otto! These are great, man! Nice work! I’ve heard how hard it can be to photograph kids, but it seems like you handled it quite well. The little girl seems like she had fun, too! I really like the triptych you posted, plus I favored the B+W photos more than the color when with the balloons. However the photo of her in the distance with all the balloons in the frame is really cool! Keep it up, man!

    August 15, 2010 - 10:57 am

    Albert - OTTO!!!! these are fantastic!! great locations!

    August 17, 2010 - 11:32 am

    Jaclyn Simpson - Holy Cow, Otto!! These are freaking incredible!! LOVE LOVE LOVE them!!!

    August 17, 2010 - 11:32 am

    Jaclyn Simpson - Holy%20Cow%2C%20Otto!!%20These%20are%20freaking%20incredible!!%20LOVE%20LOVE%20LOVE%20them!!!

    August 31, 2010 - 11:30 pm

    Maricel - So freaking cute! Ok…all great photos but my fave is the series of 3 with her funny faces :) Awesome job!

    Henry Turns 3 // Hanging Out in Oak Park

    08.12.2010 Posted in Portraits

    Just Hanging Around

    Henry’s 3 year photo shoot was a cool and chilled out session – just check out his Superman shirt and Keens! We, my family and his, met up at the Caribou Coffee on Lake St. and Oak Park Ave. We ordered some drinks and I started taking photographs, all while chatting and hanging out. I guess this could have been considered my first ever lifestyle session.

    After the coffee stop (no, the kids didn’t drink coffee) we walked around the quaint Oak Park downtown area, where we found a few cool places to shoot. We then walked over to Scoville Park and finished the shoot there. The last three photos are from the park.

    It was pretty much the perfect afternoon: hung out with friends, beautiful weather, ate good pizza, and took some cool photos. Here are a few of my favorite photos from our portrait session:

    Set-Up

  • Nikon D700 – shooting in RAW
  • Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8
  • Nikon SB-800
  • Pocket Wizards (2)
  • 30″ Reflector
  • Lastolite EzyBox Softbox
  • Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing

    • The Park District of Forest Park

    Portfolio Contact Otto Facebook Twitter

    By The Way: Shoot wherever the light looks best. There was beautiful reflective light inside the Caribou Coffee shop. I hadn’t planned on shooting inside, but the light and location made for a great starting point to our session. Rock on!

    by Otto

    1 comment

    add some comment love
    link to this post
    email your buddy
    August 12, 2010 - 5:08 pm

    Joan~Five Grain Events - This kid is an old soul…what a cutie pie!

    My Pride & Joy Turns 3 // And Her Myriad Expressions

    08.11.2010 Posted in Portraits

    Time Really Does Fly By

    My daughter just turned 3 and I still cannot make sense of how fast that happened. I still remember my wife being pregnant with our daughter, and how special that time was. I remember how we would try to image our daughters face, or how her laugh would sound.

    But now she’s here, loud and clear! I love her laughter and I gaze at her beauty everyday. I cannot imagine my life without her, nor can I imagine what I used to do without her in my life. What did I do with all of that free time :)

    Here are a few of my favorite photos from our shoot. We shot these in the beautiful Sunken Gardens on Homan and Polk St.

    Please indulge a proud dad and check out a few of these with me:

    Set-Up

  • Nikon D700 – shooting in RAW
  • Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8
  • Nikon 50mm f/1.4
  • Alien Bee 400
  • Pocket Wizards (2)
  • 30″ Reflector
  • Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing


    • Portfolio Contact Otto Facebook Twitter

    By The Way: Kids never seem to stop moving. So I generally move with them. But stick to your guns and get the shot that you envisioned. I plopped my Alien Bee and battery pack and shot away until I got what I wanted.

    by Otto

    4 comments

    add some comment love
    link to this post
    email your buddy
    August 11, 2010 - 12:14 pm

    mary - beyond CUTE!

    August 12, 2010 - 12:09 am

    Kelli - Wow, totally adorable. I love how sassy your daughter is. Beautiful photos of her, keep up the great work!

    August 12, 2010 - 3:57 pm

    Stacy - Not only cute cute cute, but such a sweet girl, too. Congrats to all of you!

    August 17, 2010 - 11:40 am

    Jaclyn Simpson - I don’t think Jocelyn could be any cuter!! seriously adorable!!

    Almost Too Cute // Chicago Fun Kids Portraits

    08.10.2010 Posted in Portraits

    The “Hat” Photoshoot

    Hattie is seriously a little cutie. This shoot was a lot different from her 3 month shoot, but a ton of fun nonetheless. She was just so easy to work with, and those hats were amazing!

    The idea for this shoot was to do something a little different and to create some colorful images. The lighting set-up was simple: one light with a beauty dish modifier and colorful background. Here are a few of my favorites:

    Set-Up

  • Nikon D700 – shooting in RAW
  • Nikon 80-200mm f/2.8
  • Alien Bee 400
  • Pocket Wizards (2)
  • 22″ Beauty Dish
  • Adobe Lightroom 3 for editing

    • Portfolio Contact Otto Facebook Twitter

    By The Way: Sometimes a very simple light set-up is all that is needed to create some fun photographs. Total time for this set-up was about 4 minutes, and total shooting time was abut 12 minutes or so. Rock on!

    by Otto

    2 comments

    add some comment love
    link to this post
    email your buddy
    August 10, 2010 - 2:05 pm

    Gary Middendorf - Fun shots!

    August 10, 2010 - 4:50 pm

    Erin Wood-Hagedorn - Hey, I know that kid! Awesome!

    Chicago Wedding Vendors Unite // Thanks Tweet-Up!

    08.03.2010 Posted in Events

    I had the honor of being the official photographer at the Wedding Industry Cocktail Hour Tweet-Up hosted by the amazing Five Grain Events and bon moment! – Joan and Maureen, you gals are amazing!

    Amazing Chicago Wedding Vendors

    The event was held at Elate Restaurant in the Hotel Felix Chicago. It was the perfect setting for the event. The location and style of the restaurant was really inspiring. Thanks Elate!

    Other sponsored wedding vendors were the talented Keiko of Keiko Studio. Her floral arrangements were amazing and very unique. I had never seen floral arrangements with pieces of lime before. Awesome stuff indeed.

    Candice of cacao sweets & treats provided the delicious treats that we all enjoyed. I loved seeing her work, and tasting it too!

    My many thanks to Joan and Maureen for making this event happen. I had a great time meeting with so many Chicago wedding vendors. I was also able to catch up with a few old friends. I look forward to the next meeting. Rock on!

    Elate At The Hotel Felix Chicago
    111 West Huron Street
    Chicago, IL 60654-8706
    (312) 202-9900

    Portfolio Contact Otto Facebook Twitter

    by Otto

    2 comments

    add some comment love
    link to this post
    email your buddy
    August 6, 2010 - 2:22 pm

    Joan~Five Grain Events - Otto, I can’t thank you enough for taking such fabulous photos of our event. It was a BLAST and we’re so glad we had someone there to capture it…you’re the best!!

    August 10, 2010 - 12:01 pm

    Jenn Gaudreau - Otto, these are fantastic!! I love the details- you did such a phenomenal job capturing them.

    Tabitha + Joseph // A Family Celebration – Pt. 1

    07.31.2010 Posted in Weddings

    We Go Way Back

    Tabitha and my wife, Christina, are best friends and have known each other forever. I met Tabitha when I was 16 years old, so we go way back as well. In fact, Tabitha was there the night that I asked Christina to be my girlfriend, and was also there on our first date. She means a ton to us, so it was an amazing experience being her wedding photographer. What a treat!

    A Few Quick Pics

    I am so excited about how well Tabitha + Joe’s wedding went. It was supposed to rain the entire day, but we were able to somehow dodge the rain. In fact, the sun came out the moment she started walking down the aisle – NO JOKE! It was awesome.

    Here are a few pics from her wedding that I am pumped to share. More to come for sure!


    Portfolio Contact Otto Facebook Twitter

    By The Way: Let’s keep a positive outlook when it comes to weather. The most important part of a wedding is that the couple wed – plain and simple. So we must keep that in mind when the rain is pouring or the humidity is at suffocating levels :)

    Related Posts with Thumbnails

    by Otto

    no comments

    add some comment love
    link to this post
    email your buddy

    « Older posts

    © 2010 Chicago Wedding Photography Family Portraits // Otto Rascon Photography | ProPhoto WordPress Blog by NetRivet, Inc