We are FAMILY! (take 2!!)

This is the second installment of this AWESOME Family!  :-)
This time I headed down to Springfield, IL on a fairly rainy Sunday (with crazy wind gusts too!) We ended up shooting inside of a local tropical garden run by the parks district.  While small, it had tropical birds and all sorts of nice greenery (and no rain!)
We took a more formal approach to this side of the family & got some GREAT shots of everyone!  ENJOY!!!!

the New Addition!

OK.  So I was probably WAY more EXCITED about this particular Newborn Session than I should have been.  But I have personal ties to the parents and it was just really awesome!
Before I became a full-time Photographer, I had a "real job" working for a non-profit here in the City of Chicago.  While it was a good/interesting few years working at the company and building my Photography business at the same time, it was nice to get out and NOT have a boss... although, when I did have a boss - it was this guy.  :-)
Aaron became a DAD! (and got a new job) basically all at once & I'm SO HAPPY for him and his wife!   They held out on finding out the baby's sex ahead of time, so it was a complete surprise (although apparently basically everyone guessed it was a boy...which it was!)
Baby Connor is just about the CUTEST little thing ever!  They nicknamed him "Nugget" while in the womb due to not knowing the sex and he sported his AWESOME "Nugget" onesie for our session.
Anyways...I'm rambling because I'm so in love with this little one.  Check out some PHOTOS:

We are FAMILY!

This is the first of TWO Family Sessions for this particular Family.  This session was done up in Beloit, WI - which happens to only be about an hour & a half from Chicago and just BEAUTIFUL in the Fall!  Amanda had scoped out a stunning park right along the river in downtown Beloit for the session and it turned out AWESOME!
We did do some posed, more formal combinations of various Family members, but we mostly just let the 4 little kids run around on the playground and I attempted to keep up! I just LOVE photographing kids in their natural playing environment - so many smiles and awesome candid moments:

Fall is in the air!

so I think I might need to move up to Wisconsin... I think about 60% of my jobs are up there!

This particular session was in Waukesha, WI - which is a BEAUTIFUL town directly west of Milwaukee.  The leaves were still a bit green, but then again, with the drought this past summer, how much color will we really end up seeing?  It was a bit chilly, but it's supposed to be!  It's FALL!!!

I started by taking photos of the ADORABLE 3 month old at the house and then we picked up his big brother from school and did some outdoor Family shots.  It was such a great time and watching little Jake play in the leaves made me long for the days of being a kid again... then I threw some leaves too!  :-)

a different time

ZONE!  As much as I ADORE photographing down near/in Indianapolis, IN - the government down there needs to seriously decide what time zone they are going to be in!  When I first went down there 4 years ago...they were in Central time, using daylight savings.  Now apparently they are on Eastern Time in the Summer and Central Time in the Winter - so they no longer use daylight savings time and just switch between the two timezones every year.  crazy.
Anyways, enough ranting about the timezone change... this Wedding was AH-MAZE-ING!  Everything was DIY, and the venue was just stunning: Delaware County Community Center ( http://www.delawaretownship.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=64 ) and it's UBER affordable, even if you don't live in the county!
Everything is very clean and newly painted.  And not drab colors either, light to medium grays with some greens, ect.  I mean seriously!  Everything that I could ask for as a photographer!  The formal photos were done inside, because it ended up being REALLY windy outside, and with the huge natural light windows and a sweet plain gray wall... the formals look like they were taken in a studio!
Everyone had TONS of fun and the dancing and singing continued late into the night!  Check out some of the BEST shots of the night!!!