I was out one evening and was chatting with Kathy, one of the band members of The Diplomats of Solid Sound Featuring the Diplomettes, when she told me about a show they had coming up in Chicago. They were going to be performing at The Darkroom, where they had previously had a show that I was at to get photos. While I was looking forward to getting some shots of the band, the bar itself really is a pretty dark room! There wasn’t much to figure out in terms of the settings. Extreme conditions call for extreme settings. In fact out of the camera, most of the shots were much more underexposed than what you see because I could only go so high on the aperture and ISO and then had to have my shutter speeds no slower than 1/30th or 1/60th of a second otherwise everything would look blurry. In a room such as this, the flash would have been too disturbing to the band and audience so I decided to use the environment and lighting and just go for a darker and more grungy style of photos. So when you’re thrown into a certain lighting situation and you can’t modify it with your own lights and gear…adapt!

The Dimplomats gallery **HERE**

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Amy happens to do video work, much of it also in the wedding area where I do a lot of my work as well. She initially wanted to just get a few head shots for her website, but we managed to add a few more creative images as well. Since there was a bit of snow on the ground, I figured we could incorporate it into a few of the shots. I also took some time a few days prior to her coming by and wired up a small rig that would allow two fluorescent bulbs to be held by a model without the typical fixture that they’re plugged into. While Amy was initially hesitant about holding a couple bulbs with a bunch of exposed wires…she eventually opened up to the idea and we landed a few nice shots.

Click **HERE** for the rest of her photos!

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Back on Halloween, I met up with two families that have been friends for a number of years. They got together for their kids to be able to play and spend Halloween together. Admittedly, I’ll say that this was my first time photographing firefighters, bees, and dinosaurs…at the same time 🙂 The kids were great to work with and with them running around and energetic, it gave me a perfect opportunity to sit off on the side and take photos with my 70-200mm lens for a lot of candid shots. Once some of the energy was burned off, we focused on more family oriented shots out of costume.

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When I met up with Jose and Sary for the first time, I liked them already…having seen a motorcycle sticker on the back of their car, I always enjoy chatting about bikes. We met just outside of the Chicago Botanical Gardens and they were a little bit nervous at first, so I went into my usual cheesy jokes to help lighten the mood a bit. Granted the jokes are not intentionally cheesy, but end up that way. As we walked around, Jose and Sary got a lot more comfortable with the shoot and we got a number of great photos!

Their **GALLERY HERE**

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Their **GALLERY HERE**

Up in the northern suburbs of Chicago we have an area called Fort Sheridan which now mostly has residential housing but used to serve as a large military base. Currently there are still a few acres where military reservists still train, but for the most part its a nicely updated town which incorporates some of the remaining military architecture. Very cool to drive through and see what looks slightly like barracks, but on the inside is a luxurious home. Elina wanted to do a shoot for her daughter Emma’s first birthday in the area. The selection was pretty vast and she ended up choosing the nearby beach. So as they enjoyed a family stroll together, I mostly used my telephoto lens and captured a number of candid photos which is one of my favorite approaches with kids as you’re getting to know them. Overall we had a great time, had perfect weather and used up all of the available sunlight before it disappeared. It was important to have the shoot right on Emma’s first birthday and amazingly it went off without a hitch!

Click ***HERE*** for full gallery!!

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