Tony & Valerie

Haha! Yes...engagement sessions are all the rage right now! And still one more after this to go...JUST for this week! Whew!
Tony and Valerie are so sweet! This was the first time I had met them..at the shoot, yet I felt like I already knew them for years! They are some of the most personable people and so great to just talk to too!! But...their fashion sense definitely beats all!! They were decked out and so stylish...looking like they had just walked out of a magazine! I'm so excited for their wedding coming up which is going to be in an art gallery with a whole Asian theme!! How cool is that! I'm so excited!! ! It rained most of the day and my camera isn't quite weather suited so we headed into Navy Pier for some fun shots then outside once the weather died down! Check out their slideshow here!!

Mind blowing...

Last night we had our Young Womens meeting that we have twice a month...this time though we headed out to a concert! The concert was by Hillsong United, a youth group band from Australia that write all their own music and are just so INCREDIBLE! They were already one of my all time favorite worship bands but last night I didn't want it to end! The place that it was at held about 4000 people and it was over sold out!! There were people everywhere and all gathered there just to worship it was like one big party! So amazing! If you haven't checked out their music stop everything you're doing and check it out!! It will change your life;) haha!!
Here's what the concert was like:) I think after going last night my brothers and sister and I are going to start a youth band...haha!! We'll see how that turns out!...
PS...The picture above of some of our group(yeah the girls that we brought are hiding or something!) was taken by my friend Kenny Kim an AWESOME photographer who was hired to shoot the concert last night!! Check out his **BLOG** for some killer shots of the show!

Lindsey & Josh!!

I REALLY love to do engagement sessions...I pretty much swear by them now...just because of how fun they are, plus it makes the wedding day flow so much better when we all already know each other and the couple is used to being in front of the camera:) This shoot was definitely no exception! Lindsey and Josh are SOOO cute!! They could totally be models! They are just so fun too! Lindsey wanted to do something really fun for their shoot so we headed out to play catch then to Oberweis for some amazing ice cream:)

When I had the client meeting with Lindsey and Josh we seriously had dinner for about 2 hours and just talked and talked! I love when your clients can become your friends too!! It's the best and what makes me love my job all the more!

The Crawford Family

Yay!! I'm finally getting caught up from last week! This has been one of the busiest months EVER, we're getting so much done but it's coming in as fast as it's going out! lol!

I usually don't do family shoots very much and don't advertise that I do them...but I always make exceptions for my friends who want them:) Our friends the Crawfords wanted some fun family pictures so last Saturday morning we headed out early to get some super fun pics!! They are seriously one of the cutest families and we're so super easy to shoot! They almost made me want to start doing families more! :) Here's their slideshow!

3 more slideshows to come from last week!! Yeah!

Paulius & Vilija

A couple months ago I got a phone call from Paulius a groom out in Michigan whose wedding was coming up. They were very interested in booking except they had a very crazy story of how they found me!...They had asked one of their close friends who is a highschool photography teacher in Detroit if he could recommend any of his previous students. He did and one of them was named Sarah Anne, so they did a search for her but came up with my site. Thinking it was her they got really excited and wanted to book me then started doing a little research and found out that I'm actually from Chicago and am not the same Sarah Anne...by that time they decided that they wanted to book me anyways and I'm SOO glad that I was able to shoot their wedding! It was one of the most coolest wedding experiences!
Paulius and Vilija are Lithuanian, they had their wedding and reception at a gorgeous Lithuanian camp, in Michigan, that they would always go to as kids! So what a perfect place to have it! The whole wedding was so relaxed and laid back yet a party the whole time! And let me tell you Lithuanians LOVE to sing! It was one of the coolest things I've heard they would just sing and sing during the reception! I wish I could have recorded it!! I seriously loved taking pictures of Paulius and Vilija because they are just so in love and I didn't have to pose them at all! Well here is the slideshow!! Enjoy!!!

Brilliant!

My uncle Andrew is so brilliant! He was recently the Creative Pastor at his church down in Texas and they come up with all these absolutely hilarious videos to show on Sunday! I think videos is really were it's at now! We've been making little mini videos like this for our church now too and there is SUCH a great response to them!!! Check out how funny this is! Church can be cool after all!:) haha!

My Passion!

Ahh what a day...and week! It all started last week when I sat down with one of my great friends Beth. After catching up on each others lives she told me her story of what is going on with her job...basically she figured out that it is just not her passion!! She went on to tell me that she's LOVED photography for years and years and really wants to start pursuing it and asked if she could possibly intern with me this year! To of course I replied YES!!!! It was a complete answer to prayer!

I have a zillion people that I'm sort of training up but I wanted to really have two girls intern with me this year, since I've never trained up any girls! Beth is an amazing photographer not only that but has an excellent personality and is highly organized! She planned my best friend Joy's complete wedding last year, while also being a bridesmaid:)

On Sunday she came with me to an engagement session to help out and had some super creative ideas and everything! I LOVE her style! Tonight she just came over and we had a mini workshop(with another budding photographer Bryant, whose blog we're still working on)I helped her set up her blog and taught her everything from color correcting to creating a slideshow! This type of thing is SOOO much fun!! I seriously get the most fulfillment out of training others up in what I'm so passionate about!! :) Check out her **BLOG HERE** she has a slideshow of all the images she shot at the engagement shoot on Sunday so send her some love:)

The Schott Family

Wow...What a weekend! I did 3 amazing photoshoots that I'll post about in the next couple days! Still getting caught up from last month with the slideshow of the Schott family! This is another couple from the Dominican Republic and so adorable with their brand new daughter!! Here is their slideshow!

The Friesens!

I shot two family shoots when I was down in the Dominican Republic. Both turned out sooo great!! I usually don't do alot of family shoots because I don't like doing anything "fomal" but with these families they were so great just interacting with each other! Here is the first slideshow from the DR of this adorable family and their daughter Hazel:)

Freedom Finally!

Yeah! My friend Sarah Chellappa is back in town for the summer! Last summer Sarah was my studio manager and did an excellent job! Then she left for college and I've REALLY missed her ever since! haha! Not just because she works so well but also cause she's one of my best friends:) I don't really like doing alot of my administrative work, so to have her do that so I can focus on shooting and relationships, it's absolutely amazing! Yesterday was her second day this year and my office and business in general is so much more in order and I can actually breathe! haha!
It's the perfect time for her to start up because I have a ton of photoshoots coming up and I'll be posting ALOT of pics soon! Just finished my first of 3 photoshoots of the weekend! YAY! Have a beautiful day!

Model?

My sister Natalie and I were at a shoot today and while we were waiting for the people to finish getting ready I did a couple lighting test shots with Natalie. All of a sudden after shooting her awhile I came to the realization that she has to be a model! lol! I've done a ton of photoshoots of her in the past and just saw her as my younger sister who I would shoot for fun...but today I looked at the back of my camera and was like...Um..Natalie you really should pursue modeling! When I was younger a modeling scout came up to me wanting me to be part of their agency and after doing some investigation I realized that I never really could be one...because my stunted growth at 5'1"...HAHA! But Natalie is tall and thin...and of course gorgeous! So who thinks she should become a model??? Voting starts now! hehe!

Click on pic to view larger:)

My dad:)

Ok Ok....Well I guess posting pics from my dad's birthday didn't happen Sunday...lol!
Better late than never!!
Anyways, my dad is amazing! He is one of my best friends and has been my biggest mentor over the years. He's the one who really encouraged me to pursue photography because he saw it somewhere in me when I definitely didn't. He is always challenging me too, which keeps me on my toes alot! If it wasn't for him I would for sure be a couch potato and not be doing much with my life! It's awesome because I can go to him whenever and just talk to him about anything and he always gives me the best advice and usually it is for me to decide or to pray about it, which is the best and keeps me from staying a baby! lol!
His 45th birthday was this past Friday. We celebrated by having some friends over and playing games! It was great and low key which is always so great(especially after a crazy week!)
Sooo....Happy belated birthday dad!! I love you so much! :)
PS...all the pics are from his little party!

Unwinding...

Whew!! Well this just might be the longest time that I've neglected this blog!! haha!
This week was amazing but flew by super fast! We woke up every morning at about 6 and usually didn't go to sleep until 1am sooo I've pretty much slept all day today, that's how crazy it was!
We had Pictage's PartnerCon at the beginning of the week which is always so great! Every time I meet so many wonderful people and get to build awesome relationships with them! Although one of the sad parts is that alot of my closest friends live ALLL over the country now!
After PartnerCon my friend DJ came and stayed over at our house...although, he comes so often that we caught him calling it his house;) haha! We all went to this wonderful conference yesterday called Maximum Impact, with big leaders teaching like: John Maxwell, Tim Sanders, Terry Bradshaw, etc. It was amazing and I'm so pumped to get moving on some things! Yesterday, was my dad's birthday and I'll post some pics tomorrow from that!! Now off to go midnight shopping for my dad's belated birthday present and a mother's day gift!! ahh!! haha!! Have an awesome weekend!
PS. The first picture(taken by Carol Foret) is my friend Jessica Claire, my brother Andrew and I. Second(Taken by DJ) is our pajama party with my friend Amy and sister Natalie. The last one I stole off my friend JT's blog who also came to the Maximum Impact conference:)

Adrenaline...

I definitely feel like I'm running on that right now!! The past day has been amazing!!
Yesterday we headed downtown Chicago for my friend Amy's birthday! It was both Amy and my friend Shyla's first time down there so it was so great being able to show them around for the first time! We stopped constantly throughout the whole trip to do little photoshoots and "bandshoots" lol! It was great and Shyla posted all about it on her blog and the slideshow is **here**
After walking around for awhile we headed to a really hip place called Big Bowl which is a Chinese - Thai place! I HIGHLY recommend it! :)
Then this morning Amy, my sister Natalie and I went running for 2 hours! Well some of that time was spent at Starbucks;) But we walked home to walk that off too!! hahah!! I hadn't run more than a 1/2 mile since I broke my ankle and today we probably went about 4! So now I feel so amazing and refreshed it's awesome how great you can feel after just working out a little!!
I love you all! Hope you have amazing days!
PS...try working out today and seeing how you feel after!! ahhh......:)
PSS...I'm at the Apple store posting this right now waiting for my friends to shop!! LOL! I'm such a dork!

The sweetest times!

My friends Amy and Shyla are in town right now and we've had such an awesome time already and they only just got in last night! They are both amazing photographers from California and are out here for a conference we are all going to together:) They are some of the sweetest people I know and I can never have enough time hanging with them! We just got back from church and now we're about to head downtown Chicago for Amy's birthday!! So fun!!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMY!!! :)

No more procrastinating!! :)

After 3 months of not posting I finally had some time and thoughts to post on the Dear Natalie blog!! So it's revived now!! Go check it out **HERE** and read about what time I wake up now!! Yikes!! lol
Love you all!

My mom's birthday!

Today was my mom's **th birthday!! Haha!! Actually she doesn't mind how old she is(45)...lol:) We went downtown for the day! It was a beautiful and crisp day! We had a picnic together, went to the zoo, walked around the city, and went to one of my mom's favorite restaurant's, Chicago Pizza and Oven Grinders. It's a great little hole in the wall place and I guess is right around one of Al Capone's old mob hang outs!! lol!

My mom is amazing!! She's is raising 7 kids wonderfully, helping my dad out, being a pastor's wife, homeschooling, ect. ect. ect.!!! I don't know how she does it all but she does it great and I love her so much! She has taught me so many wonderful things and has been a awesome model in so many ways! I love you mom!!
Here is the slideshow from today:) **CLICK HERE**

back to the 50's!!

I love spur of the moment things! My friend Jenny called me yesterday afternoon because she had been in a car accident that morning and just got out of the ER! After talking for a little while making sure everything was ok...we came up with a master plan! I would come over to our friend's house, that she is house sitting for, to be her "nurse" for the night!! LOL! The best part about it is that our friends turned their whole basement into a 50's style diner!! It's a-m-a-z-i-n-g!! Complete with a jukebox and everything! Check out the slideshow of the place! How sweet would it be to have this in your basement?!!?? :)

PS...yes...I know..the music is from the 70's but it's all I could find in my library! lol!