Full swing!

Oh, MAN you guys this is the greatest sneak peek post in the history of the world. I have FOUR things coming at you, and they're all from the past ten days or so, and I combined them into one great superpost! (Superpost, totally a word.) I know you can't handle any more suspense and I don't want to be cruel, so here we go!

First up, Kyle and Ashley! Kyle and his family are long time family friends of ours, so prepare for stories from childhood as well as a picture of my dad and brother, who were in attendance (my mom was sick, which made her sad), and Ashley is the cutest in the world, so we had all kinds of fun, and she encouraged fun picture taking, which I love. :)

Next up ... Kyle and Ashley! Yeah, that's right. :) Since they're in Indianapolis, we didn't get a chance to get together for engagement pictures, so instead we went out the next morning for the after party. Kyle still had his tux, which was good, but they were leaving for their honeymoon in the afternoon, which was hectic, so we did the entire shoot in an hour. It was AMAZINGLY quick, but we got so much good stuff and I can't wait to show it.

This is the incomparably beautiful Janina, who googled around until she found me for her senior pictures. I can't BELIEVE how gorgeous the pictures are, and I can't wait to get them all done and share them. They're really incredible, some of my proudest work yet. You're going to love them.

And then Phil and Mary Ann, who you remember from their stunning engagement photos around Chicago (and trust me, it was ALL in the subject matter!), got hitched at the Chicago Mariott over the weekend, which just blew my mind with how beautiful it was. This was a great wedding, and I am in love with and future facebook friends with their entire wedding party. :) Also, I got a new favorite ring shot at this one, and it's amazing, and I mean AH. MAZE. ZING. I wasn't even tempted to share it with you, because it's so incredible that I need to just tell you about it first (tease you, if you will) and then have you come back for more when I do the full blog post. :)

I'm going to be taking pictures of a one-year-old tomorrow evening in preparation for his birthday party, so if you like the kid pics, that's coming too!

You guys, I am loving August. I've been SO busy, and it's so hot, and it finally feels like summer. I took a week off at the day job and traveled the land (seriously, it felt like it--I am so sick of the inside of my car and it is a PIT right now), mostly taking pictures but also having major fun, which I also took pictures of! It'll probably be awhile till we see those, though, since I have work to do. :)

Speaking of, my photographer friends will be SO proud to learn that I'm finally attempting Lightroom. I really felt last year that I was too busy to take the time to figure it out and learn it, but I think it's just going to be necessary to accomplish anything in a timely way. I went out and bought a Lightroom For Dummies book last night (because that's me if I've ever heard it), and then went home and promptly bought the wrong version of Lightroom to go with it. I should have that part at least figured out by tonight, but I did get a good amount of reading done and I'm anxious to get started. What this should mean for clients is that they get pictures FASTER! Woo! Who doesn't love faster? So I'm really optimistic that this is going to be an awesome thing to learn and use, and good for all of us! :)

On a happy, exciting note, my day job is transferring me into the city (at my request). I'm SO excited. Billy is getting ready to start his internship at the VA hospital and we're apartment hunting in Oak Park this weekend, and we're really excited about it. We'll be closer to the city, have shorter commutes, be on a CTA line, etc. etc. etc. Really, we're very much urbanites at heart and we've missed a lot of the conveniences of city living, so this is a really welcome change, and it's going to be GREAT.

September is going to be a busy month--I've already got a lot scheduled, and we'll be getting packed and moved. I do have some time open in my schedule though, so if anyone is wanting to schedule a session (I know September is a great month for senior pictures especially!), please let me know as soon as you can!

Alright, I think that's about it on the combined sneak peek/housekeeping post for today. If you've made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. :) Things are going well here, and there's plenty of good stuff coming up, so be sure to come back for more!