I’m still blown away that Illinois has something more than flat land to offer. I’ve been down to southern Illinois before, I’ve done a little climbing down there too, but I think it’s one thing to be up close to the towering rocks and wilderness and another to see it from the top of a peak and see just how incredible the scenery is. We started the session at Garden of the Gods, and we had a path that we were going to follow and we would stop at a few spots along the way. Typically I like to start sessions of in a simple spot and start with some close up pictures to kind of break the ice and get myself warmed up. With Daniel and Brianne, we started out big! On top of the rocks overlooking the landscape for miles, and I couldn’t be happier with the way the pictures turned out! Of course, from there we definitely got some simpler, closer up pictures to kind of balance the set, no need for an entire session that would require a magnifying glass to see yourselves in the pictures… although, I could probably do this because I love those types of pictures.
After about an hour at Garden of the Gods, we made our way to a tiny town right on the border of Illinois and Kentucky called Cave-in-Rock. This town looked like your typical small town movie set. It was old and really small, but it was pretty vibrant in terms of the decorations along the streets as well as the landscaping. It was a pretty cool place, and right along the river there was a cave where we set up for some more pictures. It wasn’t huge, but it was big enough that we lost most of the light from the outside. I decided I wanted to try something new. Not knowing if the pictures would turn out or not, I set up a few flashes so I could get a little lighting on the cave walls and also light up Daniel and Brianne, and holy cow, they turned out exactly like I pictured in my mind. With how dark it was in there, it was a bit of a challenge, but I fully believe if you don’t push your limits, you’ll never know what you’re capable of. After the cave, we wrapped up the session taking the ferry to and from Kentucky. Rather than a bridge, Rt. 1 on the border is crossed by ferry, and just as the sun was setting we were able to get some pretty amazing pictures with the night sky and water. Overall, this was definitely a fun experience, and one I would LOVE to do again!
