I have always said that cloud skies are the best for portrait sessions, because of the natural softbox it makes by diffusing the sun light. This is exactly what we had in Chicago for most of the session with Madison. It started out last week, I received a call from Madison’s mom explaining that their original photographer had to cancel. The only problem was, Madison and her family are not from Chicago, they were making a trip to the city from quite a ways away with intentions of having senior pictures there. Fortunately, we were available and it worked out perfectly with our schedule and we were able to make a little trip of it after such a crazy week. When we met up with Madison and her family at cloud gate (the bean) started our session there. Obviously we weren’t going to clear out the massive amount of people there, so instead we used them as a frame for her pictures. With all the commotion around her, it helped her pop in the pictures. We spent the next few hours walking around the city and I was further motivated to start a photographer’s boot camp workout program. Our gear bag weighs at least 40 pounds when fully loaded and walking from 8th street to the bean, back to Buckingham Fountain, across to Michigan Ave, up to Tribune Tower and back to 8th street, the weight of the bag was definitely felt. I mapped it out and we walked a total of 5 miles, which of course really isn’t that far when you think about it, but considering most sessions consist of me walking maybe .25 miles at most, it’s a big difference. Throughout the shoot, as I mentioned before, we had nothing but cloudy skies and it was absolutely perfect. Each location had just the right amount of light, and the light was evenly spread because of the clouds.
However, there was a slight problem. Madison wanted to end the session with the sunset and skyline in the background. Cloudy skies were really going to mess with the sunset, but I figured even that would be fine because I could plug in my own sunset sky… but let’s be real, a real sunset with the skyline would have been perfect. As we made the 30 minute walk back to our car at 8th street from Tribune Tower, we noticed the clouds started to break up. By the time we arrived at our location to do pictures of the skyline, the sky had literally cleared almost completely with only a few clouds in sight. It was absolutely perfect. The timing of everything… it was unbelievable. So we were able to capture some images with the sunset and skyline in the background. Of course, this has only been about the weather and locations, working with Madison was beyond fantastic! She was a blast to work with, and having the opportunity to talk with her and her family and get to know them, we felt like we had known each other for years by the time the session was over. This is one reason I LOVE destination shoots, because rather than getting in, taking pictures and heading out, destination shoots tend to take a lot more time, in Madison’s case about 4.5 hours, so we have this time to build a relationship. Madison was so outgoing and fun and I think this personality really shows in her pictures and we are so excited to show off a little teaser of the session!
So this next picture was the moment when these girls wanted to photograph Madison, and after a few pictures, they asked if they could have a picture with her too. As I said, it was definitely a first for me during a senior session. We all got a pretty good laugh out of it too. 
