Joy

This morning, I met up with an old friend of mine - Joy. Joy and I just saw each other for the first time in 10 years last night! We were gymnasts together, and then headed our separate ways, although it seems that she took the path of life that I decided to steer away from. Joy became an actress - well, she's trying to become an actress. She's already been in several productions, and is well on her way to many more :)

I offered to update Joy's headshots for her this morning, and so I picked her up from her parents' house (Joy now lives in Oklahoma) and proceeded to go to one of my favorite photo locations. Unfortunately, I embarrassed the heck out of myself and forgot exactly how to get to this place, but in the end, I managed to find the way.

I kind of made Joy sneak into a Japanese garden - it's only open three days a week for about three hours at a time or something rediculous. But Joy was a trooper! :) We only took a few pictures there, and then walked around in on the grounds surrounding the garden for the remainder of the shots.

It ended up being a gorgeous day - the sun and the weather were extremely cooperative. Joy's cheerful and beautiful personality was extremely easy to work with, and her pictures reflected that beauty.

I've only begun the post production process, but here are a few of the early edits...

Monaca & Ariel

This morning at 9:30 A.M., I met Ariel (Arie for short) and Monaca at their home to shoot their engagement pictures. We ended up going to Warrenville Grove Forest Preserve for the shoot. We only intended on spending an hour on pictures, but ended up taking about 2 and a half!

We started the session off by taking pictures by the waterfall Arie proposed to Monaca at. They also had their first date there, so it was a location that meant a lot to the two of them. I ended up climbing a small set of "stairs" made of rocks. It wasn't until after Arie and Monaca came back from the middle of the water fall that Arie pointed out that there was a snake off to the side of the path that I had taken. He told me that it was a water moccasin - I didn't even know we got those things up here (thought they were only found farther south)! We went to a different spot, and then I saw a great opportunity for a neat shot, so I asked them to go back to the water fall. By that time, the snake had migrated to where they were going to walk, so they decided not to chance things, and we moved on.

Arie and Monaca were extremely photogenic, fun to work with and very easy-going, which made my job a lot easier and very enjoyable. I cannot wait until their wedding on December 28th!!! :)

So to Arie and Monaca, congrats again, enjoy your pictures, and happy wedding planning!

~amy

Chicago: Hidden Phalusies (and other photos)

I went with Christoph on a photo shoot on Tuesday. We ended up wondering around Chicago to work on our respective projects - he on the homeless in Chicago, and I on an experiment in making Chicago look sexual.

We ended up having a great time - I cannot tell you how much we laughed! Oh, and I ended up with a really nasty sunburn :( Silly me forgot the sunscreen. Ah well... Enjoy :)

(Some from the 'sensual' collection):

(other non-related photographs)





[Christoph took this one while I took the above photo]


(above taken by Christoph Olesch)