Being a photographer in Joliet (Chicago-land area) means one thing: indoor portraits. It gets really cold out outside and there is no way to pose a kid outdoors when it’s super chilly. These are a few recent indoor portraits that I took of Jason and Isabella. I wanted some dramatic images of the kids, so I used a couple of different angles and kept the lighting simple. The light is all natural with a little fill to camera right. I like using natural light with kids because I can focus more on my interaction with them instead of with lights.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this shoot:

Set-Up

By The Way: I don’t typically shoot a lot. But I changed that up a bit here since I was shooting at a really shallow depth of field. Most of the photos I took were at f/2.0. I may have shot a few at f/2.8. So in order to get enough in-focus photographs of the children I will shoot a ton.

Family portraits are really cool. Why you might ask? Well, I enjoy meeting new people and I also enjoy spending time with families. Seeing them interact with one another is a fun and there is always something to learn from the people I photograph. My family never got together for portraits, so it means a lot when families contact me and want to take portraits. My hope is that they will remember that photo shoot and that the photos I take will help them remember who they are as a family.

So fast-forward to a few weeks back and to the Covington family portraits. They found me via a Google search and contacted me right away – gotta’ love Google! We were able to schedule the shoot fairly quickly and ended up meeting at Kennedy Park on the cities south side. It was a really beautiful day, a bit on the hot side, but no one seemed to mind the heat and morning sun. It was fun for me to spend an hour or so with them. I just think that it’s the coolest for a family to get together and make the portraits happen. So my many thanks to the Covington family!

Here are a handful of my favorite photos:

Set-Up

By The Way – Pretty much any location will work for a family portrait session. This session was in the morning and the sun was starting to get really bright and hot. There was also a good amount of construction going on all around the park, so finding the perfect location was a bit of a challenge. Trust your photographers intuition and shoot away!

I really do love these kids. The first two lil’ ones I have known since they were newborns and the last is my daughter. These are milestone photos, as the older ones are turning 3 and the little Hatted Cuttie is 6 months old. It has been so cool seeing these kiddos grow up and being there taking their portraits along the way. More pics to come.

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The Park District of Forest Park

By The Way: Patience is indeed a virtue. Photographing kids is a challenge, but the return on that energy/patience investment is amazing.

Graduation season is upon us. It’s easy to take this season for granted if you don’t know anyone that is graduating. But if you have a family member or friend that is graduating, then it is a big deal. It’s such an honor to be graduating, to be done with school, to have completed your studies. And what a perfect time to not only document this time, but to do so with a beautiful portrait!

I am so privileged/honored to have spent time with these outstanding graduates and to have taken their portraits. What is even cooler is that they will forever have these photos of themselves on the day they graduated from college. They will be able to show these to their children, and for now can share them on Facebook and show their family and friends, with pride, that they have graduated.

My many thanks to the graduates: Mickey, Edwardo, Maureen, and Dana! Here are a few of my favorite graduation photos:

By The Way: Shooting in different environments is so much fun. Mickey’s portraits were on location at Northeastern University. Edwardo’s portraits were in my home-studio. Maureen and Dana’s graduation portraits were taken in Forest Park. Different locations bring with them challenging lighting situations and we must be quick on our feet.

I received 2 separate emails a few weeks back, on the same day, asking if I was available to do family portraits. Cool. Not a problem. Both emails were asking for the same type of portraits and then were asking if I was available for the same date. That was a little odd. I thought “hey, two family portrait sessions on the same day works for me.” I come to find, a few days later, that it is the same family inquiring. Pretty funny stuff indeed.

So that is how I met the Shannon family, a beautiful and warm family from Chicago. They were looking for both family portraits and graduation portraits, as both daughters were graduating from college. I was really excited about this shoot as it would take place outdoors and in Oak Park – 2 places I am fond of. The shoot ended up taking place in Forest Park, the park on Harlem Ave. and Lake St. But I digress.

I was finally able to meet Maureen and her family – what a great group of people, and they all looked amazing! This shoot was truly a family event as my wife and daughter hung out with us as we photographed the Shannon family. This had to be one of the most relaxed and fun shoots in a while, and all thanks to the Shannon’s. They were just cool, laid back, and fun to be around.

I had my friend, the very talented Nick Wrzesinski, shoot with and assist me on this family session. It was awesome having Nick there to help with lighting and second shooting. He captured some amazing portraits!

Here are a handful of my favorite photos:

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The Park District of Forest Park

I really enjoyed this years Easter Sunday gathering: my mom-in-laws ham was SO GOOD, the weather was beautiful, and we had a Lamb Cake – yes, a Lamb Cake. It’s not a REAL lamb, but it was a real good cake (there’s a pic down below). It actually looked more like a cat than a lamb. I’m just sayin’.

The family met up at my brother-in-laws house over in Flossmoor, IL. He and his wife recently purchased a really nice place over there. The house was packed and all of our kids made sure that there was not a silent moment all evening long. Seeing the kids dressed up in their Sunday’s best was so cool – the girls looked so beautiful in their dresses and the boys were so handsome in their dress pants and shirts. They were all so endearing.

Here are a few pics from the day. I love the portraits of the kids. I had been looking forward to taking these photos all week long:

Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_01 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_02 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_03 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_04 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_05 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_06 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_07 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_08 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_09 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_10 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_11 Flossmoor_Kids_Photos_12

My many thanks to my family for making Easter so much fun. It was kind of a quick evening, but it was a much needed one.

Kid Portraits Set-Up

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By The Way: I had pre-visualized where I would be taking the portraits of the kids. I had thought it through and knew what I wanted. But then came the rain. It forced me to rethink my plans and I had to make some quick decisions. I really liked the trees in the background and I figured they would make for a nice background.

My daughter is a part of every photo shoot that I do. She is a) either entertainment for the models, b) a testing “assistant” while I adjust my lights, or c) just a innocent bystander while I shoot. Whatever she is, I am glad that she is there to watch me work.

These portraits came after my model was done with her Dramatic Portraits. Jocelyn came in with her tutu ready to be photographed, and I am not to shy away from a portrait session opportunity. Plus, I love photographing children, especially when it is my kid.

Here are a few of my favorites from Jocelyn’s impromptu portrait session:

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By The Way: Be ready for impromptu shoots. I was getting ready to pack up my gear when Jocelyn came in dancing and wanting to be photographed. I was tired and ready to stop, but I could not pass up taking a few frames of what I knew would be a memorable portrait session with my daughter.

I love baby Sam for many reasons. One is that he is just so darn cute (his head makes a perfect circle)! Another reason is that he was such a pleasure to photograph (I love baby photos). He also has this very cool and calming attitude about him that makes him even more lovable. But the main reason I love him is that he is my nephew, my youngest baby nephew. I love photographing my family, even if it means traveling to Huntley, Orland Park, or Merrionette Park. I do my best and make sure that my nieces and nephews are photographed because they will never look the same. They grow up so darn fast.

Here are a few of my favorite Sam portraits:

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By The Way: Always be careful when shooting babies. I always have the parent sit right next to the child as I photograph them. The final image you see is a composite of 2 images. The one with the baby originally had the mother right next to him. Then I photographed the background without the baby and then combined them in Photoshop.

I LOVE it when families make the time to take portraits. I guess I feel that way because my family never made the time to do so. I cannot look back at a time when my family was together and when my siblings and I were younger. That’s kind of a bummer. As a parent I now understand how it can be difficult, and even frustrating, to make the time and get everyone ready to go out and take family pictures.

But family portraits are important to our lives, they are an important part in our histories. Think about this: never again will this couple (whose photos you are about to see) look the same, nor will their children. Their likeness have been captured in time. They can look at these photos later in their lives and reminisce about how young everyone was and how beautiful they all looked. That is pretty cool and almost magical.

Here are a few of my favorites from this session:

My HUGE thanks to the Espinoza family for coming in all the way from Rogers Park. They looked great and were so much fun to spend time with. Their little ones are SO cute! You guys rock!

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By The Way: Make sure that only one parent is communicating with the kids during the session, or even just your assistant. Having both parents talk and make noises can be too much, both for the kids and for the photographer :)

I was really pumped for this baby portrait session. You see, my wife and I are great friends with Hattie’s parents. I have photographed their little Henry before.

We were so excited to hear the news when they told us they were pregnant! My wife and I were both like “No way! Congrats! I hope you guys have a girl!” Well, I wanted them to have a baby girl. They already had a boy, so a girl would bring balance to their family :)

Here are a few of my favorite portraits of the new born shoot:

Set-Up

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By The Way: The power of the strobe was beginning to make little Hattie fidget, so I decided to only use the modeling lamp of the strobe to get a handful of images. I switched to my 50mm f/1.4 lens and went to town :)