Wednesday, June 15, 2011

THE interns ::: May 2011


A few weeks ago I hosted an internship in Chicago during Sarah & John's wedding. During the wedding internships I have just two interns only cause bringing more than that to a wedding would be pure insanity! ha! It's also fun being able to really focus then and get a lot more done in a shorter amount of time... plus the girls getting a wedding to ad to their portfolio! This time I already had incredible past intern Megs Colleen scheduled to shoot alongside me for this wedding and it was perfect to have her join in on some of the intern days around it...like a little reunion! The new intern Stephanie was incredible. She got the first day all to her self which always makes things nice and personal & we were able to work on her blog and brand and pinpointing really who she is. Always my favorite day of the internship! After shooting the wedding the next day we did a little engagement shoot for Hillary & Jorge... and the girls got to watch me under pressure at a shoot and a difficult location because of the weather. Quite the learning experience which wasn't part of the plan but worked out great! So happy how this time turned out and ended up with and awesome new friend and being able to reconnect with an old one! Love my job.
Stephanie Dougher:
LOVE HER. Steph blew me away in how she picked things up so quickly... during one part of the internships I literally thought I was going to have to ad more to the curriculum cause we were finishing things so quickly... and I usually cover that stuff in 6 days! Crazy! She jumped right into my family life right when she got in and we even had a crazy dance party one night with my sisters friends and she busted out her dance moves... which is a big time requirement of an intern. She had already "passed" the program in my eyes from that moment;) She has such a fun spirit and I love her sense of humor. We would just be in regular convo and then she would say something totally random and keep going with the conversation which then laughing would follow like a minute later. Always the best. She has such a servants heart as well helping wherever she could at the house and even in conversation is filled with such wisdom. All that and her photography is amazinggg too! So I know that this next season of biz is going to be soo great for her! Can't wait to see where she goes!!
Megs Colleen: So glad she was able to join in for the wedding and hop on the bio shoot too! She has SUCH a beautiful heart that is so sensitive to peoples needs. I love her so much and am so blessed to call her a friend and graduated intern;)

Monday, June 13, 2011

Hillary & Jorge ::: Wedding

Last weekend before I headed back to Nashville I shot Hillary & Jorge’s incredible wedding in Oak Park at St. Giles! I grew up next door neighbors to Hillary so it was so much fun to catch up after all these years...and to shoot in my old romping grounds! There were forecasted to be bad storms all day but thankfully it only poured during the ceremony and then was the most beautiful lighting the whole rest of the day! Incredible! The reception was then at The Lodge in Oak Brook which is attached to the McDonalds headquarters which even though the place is super classy it has little mcd’s surprises here and there including passing out cheeseburgers at the end of the reception! So hilarious! The day flowed so perfect and to see the two of them catch the sweetest glimpses at each other or make each other laugh so hard made my heart melt. Also seeing how much the families were involved in the day was so beautiful and showed where the priorities were! Loved it! Here are some of my favorites from the day below and the **SLIDESHOW HERE**




















Saturday, June 11, 2011

The Lookbook!


Back in December my beautiful friend Sierra and I sat down for coffee to catch up and to also talk biz... she was getting ready to put together the second edition of her Nashville fashion magazine The Lookbook... an online and in print magazine feature all the local and international designers and stores with incredible editorial stories throughout. It's genious! I've seen her build this from the ground up, from a simple idea one day last year to now her second publication and SUCH a successful release party as well! We decided to team up during that meeting and I started doing little videos for the lookbook featuring the looks that were IT now as well as being able to advertise in the latest magazine! I was so happily surprised that the ad made the second page too! This was my first advertisement ever so I was prettty excited, especially cause it featured one of my favorite weddings...Kevin & Karen!
So proud of Sierra and all that she has accomplished! Check out her site **HERE** and be inspired!

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

The interns ::: April 2010


Back in April I once again headed to Chicago...I know I know...pretty much every post here lately is heading to Chicago...but I still work a lot up there as well;) Plus it's nice to be able to spend time with my family while there as well!
I have been doing wedding internships which is the same internship that I have been teaching for the past several years but minimized into 4 days and based around shooting a wedding. So many of the past interns had come out again after the longer internships to shoot weddings with me so I figured why not combine it and make it more personal just having two girls at a time? It has worked so well that way! Even though it is a JAM packed couple of days it is so much fun and as always getting to know these girls on a much more personal level makes it that much more exciting! We shot Esther and Dave's wedding which I posted back a few posts ago then spent the rest of the time developing their brands, photography skills, and biz savvy. So great! Plus we had the internship at my family's house so of course my fam of 9 adopted these two as there own and didn't want them to leave!
Even when I went back last week my little sisters were asking about these girls! I love them!

Amanda Megan Miller
Amanda has such a passion to learn and grow that I loved to see. Originally having an art major and not really wanting to get into "this" type of photography as it was usually looked down upon in the art world she realized she had such a passion to capture people and real emotion rather than bare landscapes. I think she chose so well as she is so gifted with people already and has such a beautiful heart that drawing out people's real sides I'm sure will be no hard task! Plus she just released an incredible new brand and site so check it out at the link above!!

Sarah Pence
Ahh Sarah...I actually met her several months before the internship at her dad's chiropractors office. I had heard all about her through her dad and then to finally get to meet her and talk photography was a treat! She is so so precious and has one of the sweetest spirits I know. I love that really every little thing she has learned she has taken and run with it. Even once she got to the internship she had applied the few things we had talked about at our first meeting. I love it. She has quite the eye as well and surprised me at her skill especially justtt starting out! She is going to go far I know...and I can't wait to see how she thrives in this art!

Monday, June 06, 2011

Sarah & John ::: Wedding

Last weekend I headed to Chicago to shoot Sarah & John's wedding! The day turned out so beautiful, despite the rain we were able to find some great places to shoot! Probably the best part of the day was when they told me that the church that the wedding was being held at was the same place that Sarah's grandparents were married years ago...they had booked the church not even knowing that! What a perfect coincidence!
Sarah and I grew up together, so being able to be a part of her wedding day was so special and the fact that she found such an awesome guy who compliments her so perfectly couldn't make me happier!! It was absolutely beautiful to see the family and friends all come together even all the way from Italy to celebrate the day! Here is a slideshow of the day ***CLICK HERE*** and some of the favorites below.













Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Hillary & Jorge ::: Engagement

This past Sunday my two interns, who were in town, and I headed to gorgeous River Forest and my old neighborhood to shoot Hillary & Jorge and hang before their wedding this weekend! They are so so much fun...I literally almost couldn't shoot a few times because I was laughing so hard! Sadly the rain put a little damper on the day as it got almost as dark as night at one point but we got a few great shots in between the rain bursts! Can't wait for the wedding this weekend! If it's anything like this shoot we will have hurting sides and smiles by the end of the day;) Check out the **SLIDESHOW HERE**