This was shoot 2 of my trip to Chicago, and I knew from the beginning that I did not want to start or shoot a lot of the same locations I shot the day before during Ashley’s senior session. Ashley and her family may not know this, but I was scoping out locations for the engagement shoot while we were picking out spots for Ashley. Troy and Lindsay did not care where we shot, they just wanted Chicago, and like I said in my previous blog with Ashley, I knew from the beginning that I did not want a lot of the typical Chicago locations because I do not want the pictures to look touristy. Does that mean I avoid the touristy spots? Not at all. Our shoot started at Wrigley field, and while this is a typical location, let’s be real here… it’s Chicago, we are from 3.5 hours south of the city so it’s not something you see everyday. We also go the skyline in the pictures, again, this isn’t something we see everyday, so even though they are typical locations, they are unique in the sense of our location and how few engagement sessions around here take place up there. Other than that, though, we were all over the place. Walking with one another just scoping out some pretty cool spots, and again, the thing I love about cities is you do have to go far to find an amazing location. Around here, a lot of photographers will take their clients to the same old locations they’ve gone to for many years because it’s easy. To them I ask, why would you want to do photography if it was always “easy”? The fun part of photography is pushing your limitations, and trying something new, and working in a city definitely does just that.
I mentioned in my last post that it takes a special person to have pictures taken in a large city because you have a huge audience watching you, I did not think about the fact that it takes a photographer who has the same personality because everyone is watching you too. And I absolutely love this and hate this at the same time. I hate that many eyes on me, but at the same time we live in this world where everyone who owns a digital camera thinks they can start a photography business, so that pressure pushes me to trying something new. I mean, if I were one of those photographers that took a picture standing up the entire time, how boring would those pictures be? As a photographer, you better believe I’m checking out other photographers when they work. I like to see how they do things and if there’s anything they are doing that I could try. So here we are in Chicago at our first location in front of Wrigley field. I’m wanting to get a low angle shot… really low angle, and kneeling down isn’t cutting it. So I lay down looking like I’m setting up my place to sleep for the night to capture the angle I want. It’s funny though because when I’m behind that camera, I’m in the zone, and hundreds of people standing/walking around that area aren’t even there to me. It’s all about capturing the picture. 🙂
And of course, like I said, it takes a special couple and Troy and Lindsay were definitely a great couple to photograph in Chicago. They were so much fun and willing to do whatever for an amazing pictures. Even if that meant lying in a grassy area that looked like it had recently been watered, but the grass was so green. I don’t know if anyone knows this, but we are in sort of a drought right now and if you can find green grass in this area, you have to wonder how much water they place is using to keep their grass green. But you head up north and at least in Chicago, it was as green as could be and we were actually able to get some landscape pictures (without any buildings) that actually had live plants in it. In middle of Chicago of all places. I love destination shoots so much, and it’s a great time to spend with my wedding couples because they typically last longer so we have much more time to talk and hang out and when the wedding comes, it’ll be like we have been friends for quite a while and Troy and Lindsay will have no problem acting natural in front of the camera. Plus the wedding is on new years eve, so that’s always exciting!! What a fun way to enter into the new year!
