Coming Along

Some projects that I've been working on planning are finally starting to take shape! I've been working with a good friend of mine, Christoph Olesch, on several photography projects. Christoph has got to be one of the most talented photographers that I have come to know. I owe him a great deal of gratitude for everything that he has done for me, as he's mentored me over the past several months.

Anyway, Christoph and I will be shooting a portrait session in a few weeks. I've made arrangements with the help of my friend, Scott, to borrow a costume for our model, my grandmother :) Unfortunately, I'm going to have to omit a few of the details from my blog until the project is complete.

We are toying with using this furniture as part of the scenery:


Christoph will also be working with me on another portrait session, only this time, I will be the model. Hmm... Not so sure if I like that idea. I placed myself behind the camera for a pretty good reason ;) Anyway, I was invited to a very high end wedding this fall (my sister in law's brother's wedding), and Christoph will be shooting me wearing the gown that I bought for the event. I still have to do a little bit of altering to the dress, but only to the embellishments, as they are slightly imperfect.

Please forgive the messy background... yay for basements!


For now, that's all I have to share. I promise to be much more timely in updating this thing. Thanks for reading!

Catching up to do

Well, it's been a while, again... The chopper job's been taking up most of my time, though I have had a few photography projects here and there. I suppose the best way to go about sharing some of these photo experiences will be to write a little background on them and
then posting a few pictures... enjoy!

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I went on a mini road trip out to Loredo Taft in Oregon, IL with Liam, my boyfriend, to spend some time taking photos and getting him acquainted with my d200. We ended up having a great time, took a few decent shots, and got a great workout walking up and down crazy flights of stairs and climbing steep hillsides.






A few months ago, my friend Nate played bass for Jim Mullins at the House of Blues in Chicago. Nate asked me to come watch, and also invited me to the after party. It was definitely an experience that I couldn't pass up. I knew it'd be a good time, and that I'd have plenty of future ammunition for teasing since he was given a pair of skin tight black velvet pants for attire.

While I was in the VIP area after the show, I met the sound engineer, James Teitelbaum. He and I talked for quite a while about many things, but especially music and photography. He also told me about a few writing projects that he had been working on. James and I scheduled a photography session a few weeks later, and finally were able to find a time to go through with it this past week since our schedules were so busy.


The session was initially for James' friend's restuarant, the Tiki Terrace, located in Prospect Heights, IL. The owner wanted some pictures of the clothing line, and asked James to be the model. Once we got going in shooting, we tacked on a publicity photo session for James to use on his book tour.

Oh, and by the way, James is going to be launching a book of his called Tiki Road Trip 2.


James became fascinated with Tiki bars around the country, visited a great deal of them, and produced an amazing book describing an element to our culture that so few people are even aware of. I highly recommend that you check it out. Anyway, here are some pictures from the "tiki session." :)

I had a meeting today with my friend, Jason Kaczorowski. We met with a client that he booked a wedding shoot for and asked me to second shoot with him for. She seems like an absolute sweetheart. I've no doubt she'll make a beautiful bride on her big day.

After the meeting, we scoped out the church where the wedding will be held in Lemont, IL. Both of us agreed that we'll get some beautiful shots at this church, both inside and out.

New Photo Projects

Hi, everyone. It's definitely been a while since I've last written, but I've been really working hard on several different projects.

The first major thing that has happened is I landed a full time job as a helicopter camera (video) operator for U.S. Helicopters. This company then subcontracts me to work for ABC 7 Chicago. My work can be seen on tv and the internet.

The next thing that has happened is I had to buy a replacement for my Nikon D200 that I'd only had for about 6 months. I noticed that I had some dead pixels, so I sent it in to Nikon for repair. They had to completely replace the sensor. In further investigating the issue later on, I found that the dead pixels had been an issue from the moment I took the camera out of the box.
I then discovered another issue with the D200 - it did not have a sharp focus. I performed several in depth tests to determine if it was indeed the camera or the lens. I discovered that it was definitely the camera. I then contacted Nikon, and after about two months of debating the issue, they finally agreed to replace the camera (rather than repair it again). I should be receiving my replacement sometime this week.

When Nikon and I came to an agreement that it was definitely the camera body causing this problem, I realized I now had another problem - I had a wedding to shoot the following day, but only a faulty camera to shoot it with. My solution? I decided to buy a brand new Nikon D200.

I have to admit, I was extremely hesitant to buy the new camera based on my fear of it performing in such a disappointing manner as the first one I purchased. Since I already had invested in other Nikon gear, I didn't have a choice... I decided to buy the camera from Best Buy because it was cheaper, and they have this amazing damage warranty plan you can buy separately (it covers damage - dropping, water, etc. - for 4 years after the purchase date; no questions asked).

After reviewing my images from the wedding, I was thrilled! Never had my previous D200 produced such gorgeous results. It completely restored my feeling about Nikon. I've continued to have nothing but pleasing results.

I also picked up some other equipment. I decided to buy a new lighting kit. After several months of research, I had narrowed my choice down to two or three brands, but decided to go with a completely different brand in the end. I chose White Lightning, a brand of lights created by Paul Buff, the creator of Alien Bees. I haven't gotten to experiment with the kit too much, but I have to say that so far, the colors and amount of control these lights give to me are just out of this world. When you add the price tag to the factor, it's unbelievable!!! I'd already dealt with the amazing customer service through Alien Bees, and when I found out that it's the same company, it was a no-brainer.

So one last thing to touch on are my upcoming projects. I plan on venturing out and doing a few experiments this summer... Of course, I'm not going to talk about them until the projects are complete, but I'm definitely excited about it.