Ahhh…we have reached the last of the Chicago sessions.  I had SO much fun on this trip.  Didn’t want it to end!!  (Okay, the dent that the car company claims was on my rental is a bit of a downer but the rest of the trip was awesome.)  My last session was with the utterly gorgeous Gretchen (another photo board girl) and her family up at Northwestern University.  Now I clearly don’t have a good grasp of what some schools look like.  When I pictured Northwestern, I pictured it similar to Northeastern which sits pretty much smack dab in the middle of Boston.  Instead, I found myself driving through beautiful Evanston, IL with tall trees, huge yards, gorgeous properties and all of it situated on Lake Michigan.  The campus was so beautiful and while we only made use of a small part of it (which was good considering the almost-unbearable humidity and mosquitoes) it was still fabulous.  Gretchen and her family were gorgeous, the surroundings were gorgeous, can’t really go wrong!

Saturday night I got to meet one of my fans!  That sounds so…something…but really, she is a fan on FB!  Bernice had contacted me earlier in the week when I had a spot open up for a Chicago session.  She is a photographer herself (you can see her work HERE) which always makes me nervous!!  Don’t get me wrong.  I love other photographers, but photographing one is a world of nervousness – even for me.  (And my entire weekend was filled with photographer sessions!  Eeek!)  Anways, Bernice being a photographer, is never in front of the camera herself with her family.  Like so many of us we have plenty of evidence that our kids exist.  But we have no visual photographic proof that WE exist with them!!  So she set up a family session with me while I was in town.  We met in the adorable little town of Naperville outside of Chicago and did a fun family session in the downtown area.  We used alleys, walls, stairs, everything fun that photographers like to do.  (That is one nice part, you can tell another photographer “yes, really, go stand in that alleyway” and they are going to do it because they get it!)  Then we ended at an ice cream shop (as all photo sessions should).  I got some awesome shots of all of them together and of course by themselves.  That’s easy to do when your family is as beautiful as this though.  It was so great meeting you guys, enjoy!

The beautiful Okema and her family were the first of my Chicago shoots this past weekend.  I have “known” Okema for three years now on a photography forum we are both on and I feel as though I have watched her gorgeous daughter grow up on there.  Well on Saturday I finally got to meet them in person for the first time!  We had a great session in Oak Park just down from the Frank Lloyd Wright historical district (many many houses I could live in there!!)  We started out at a small tucked-away park and when the mosquitoes got to be too much headed for a more urban look.  Not only did we have a fantastic time, I absolutely LOVE what we came away with 🙂  She has already seen these but for everyone else, enjoy!

I did one family session while I was down in North Carolina and it was for a fellow photographer.  It makes me nervous to photograph other photographers!  Really, it does.  This is something I need to get past however, especially considering I might be doing five photographer families when I am in Chicago in a few weeks ::faint::.

Anyways, back to my point.  I met up with gorgeous Amy and her family for some photos in the Arboretum in Greensboro.  My husband tried to tell me that we had been there before when we lived there but I completely forgot about it until I drove by on location scouting with my friend.  It was so beautiful and Amy dressed her family perfectly and the lighting was gorgeous.  It’s such a shame I have to work in such horrible conditions.  😉  By the way, if you have been following me for a while, you might recall that Amy was the lucky duck that a whole bunch of us photographed last fall when we were in the Outer Banks for our get together.  You can see that post HERE (still one of my all time favorites).  Well, she came back for more this time!  She has already seen these, and more, but I wanted to share here as well.

We are really lucky in our lives to have friends.  Truly great friends – even luckier still.  Every once in a while people meet and really hit it off and become the best kinds of friends.  That is the story with A. and T.  They are very good friends, but to add a special twist, their little ones, only two months apart are also very best buddies.  Unfortunately, T and her husband are set to start a new part of their life a few states away.  But before they moved, these friends wanted to do a photo shoot with each other and their kids so that they could have photographs to remember the time by.  I had previously photographed little M. when he was only eight months old to it was such fun to shoot him older and with his best friend- and definitely something different for me.  We met on the East Side and started with a very cool location and then worked our way up and down the hilly streets.  I got some moments that I am sure the moms will treasure and the kids will get to look back on and smile. 🙂  T. I hope you love your new city and enjoy your brand new chapter!!!