Kevin. 2010.

This was taken on Valentine's day in Maui. Kevin and I were having a picnic up at Poli Poli, one of our favorite places on the island. When it is clear you can see out to both sides of the island.

Casey. 2012.

Casey. 2012.

This week was my spring break and I promised myself I would do at least one photo shoot. I have been so busy with school work that I have not had time for my photography. After a long week of catching up, homework and interviews I finally got a break and made it down to Champaign for the weekend to visit my best friend Casey. Casey also happens to be one of my regular models as well as a fellow photographer so I love working with her. This photo shoot was a lot of fun and this image is a sneak peak of what is to come. This photo only reveals part of the landscape we used and hides Casey wonderful outfit. Stay tuned for more from this shoot that we named "Black Swan in Wonderland".

Quinn. 2011.

Gussie. 2011.

This image was taken about a year ago up on my father's farm. It was towards the end of the day and I had Gussie put on my rain boots and walk through some swampy areas. It was all in good fun, but I actually came out with some nice images. Thanks again Gussie for being a trooper on this freezing cold April day!

Kylie. 2012.

This is another beautiful image of my friend Kylie from her wedding day. While we were getting ready, and before the wedding photographer arrived, I was able to capture some photographs of Kylie before the ceremony. Kylie has been and still is one of my favorite people to photograph.

Kylie. 2012.

My best friend Kylie recently got married and I had the honor to be a huge part of her wedding. Not only was I her maid of honor, but I also had the opportunity to capture some beautiful images of Kylie and her husband, Mike. This image is by far my favorite of her from the evening. As you can see Kylie is a beautiful person and this beauty radiates from the inside out.

Quinn. 2011.

Gussie. 2011.

Krystal. 2011.

Quinn. 2011

This image was taken in April when it was still pretty cold out. This was towards the end of our day of photographing and Quinn was adventurous enough to crawl out onto this part of the pier and brave the cold wind and water. Thankfully she did not fall in, but I think there were some close calls.

Elle. 2011.

I photographed our family friend's daughter, Elle, on her first birthday. I am not used to photographing toddlers and it was a very fun experience. We took Elle outside with balloons and then headed inside where we gave her a cupcake. I documented Elle as she sat on the floor in her diaper devouring her cupcake. She is such a beautiful baby and was so much fun to photograph.

Jay. 2011.

This photo is of tattoo artist Jay Purdy. We had a lot of fun photographing Jay and he did a great job revamping my Mimi tattoo! We started off photographing Jay in his tattoo shop in a pretty traditional style. Then we decided to mix it up a bit and photograph him with a bunch of red balloons. We then captured him popping the red balloons one by one. This is an image of him with the last standing red balloon.

Quinn. 2011

This photo was taken at Lake Michigan by Fullerton Ave in Chicago. Quinn agreed for the hundredth time to model for me and yes I was her hair and makeup artist as well. And like always she was a great sport. Even though this was photographed in April, don't be fooled, it was absolutely freezing outside. Despite the frigid weather we actually had a great time...right Quinn?! More photos to come from this cold but amazing day.

Gussie. 2011.

This photo was taken in April up on my dad's farm in Bristol, WI. Oddly enough, it was my first time up on the farm. My goal was to explore what the farm had to offer and use Gussie as my model wearing the pink dress. We ended up with some great shots because there was so much landscape to choose from. My dad's fish farm is currently in the process of being built on this property, so I definitely wanted to utilize the land before the construction started. Gussie was a great model and we had so much fun even though it was freezing! She was a great sport... Thanks Gussie!

Jay. 2011.

This is a portrait of a tattoo artist named Jay, who gave my "Mimi" tattoo a makeover in trade for photos for his new business cards. This image was taken in the stairwell at his house. All the light from this image came from the window at the top of the stairs. I knew immediately I wanted to shoot in the stairwell because of how this window was perfectly placed at the top. This is one of my favorite shots from the day. Thanks Jay for being an awesome subject and for making my tattoo look way better!

Hayley. 2011.

This is an image I have been wanting to take for awhile. The location is right outside my apartment and every night that I take Chloe out this walkway always catches my eye. I wanted to set up the model right under the light which is right in the center of this long narrow walkway between two buildings. This created great angles with the walls. I also wanted the model, who is my friend Hayley and future Art Therapy classmate, to wear a dress with a huge poofy skirt that made a statement. This dress was perfect for the shoot because of the style and the color. We had a lot of fun shooting this and I am sure I will use this location again in the future!

Amanda. 2010.

This was my first maternity shoot and to be honest I was a little bit nervouse to do it. This was my only chance to photograph Amanda because she was literally about to give birth to her son. I am really glad I did the shoot and Amanda was amazing to photograph because she was up for anything. This shot was taken in her house, but we eventually went to baby beach and did some shots in the water as well as on the shore reef. Amanda being almost 9 months pregnant was a beautiful site along with the gorgeous landscape of Maui.

Maui. 2010.

Church Series.

Maui is dotted with little churches all around the island. I am not a very religious person in the aspect of actually practicing a religion, but I do consider myself a spiritual person. There was something that intrigued me about all these little churches. They all had so much character and there were so many of them. I didn't think there were even enough people on the island to attend all of them. So I started out on a search of all the churches. Unfortunately I did not get as far as I would have wanted, because I ended up moving back to Chicago. This image is from one of the cemetaries found next to a church in Makawao. I spent a lot of time in the cemetary which contained very old headstones as well as new ones. Each headstone had a story to tell and were all very different. Some of them you could even start to get a picture of what the person was like from the items placed on their headstones.

Photo Of The Week!

Meagan and Matt. 2010.

This is a shoot I did for my two friends Meagan and Matt who were engaged at the time and are now happily married. We shot this above the lavender fields in Maui. Meagan and Matt were so fun to work with and we couldn't of done it without my photo sidekick Becca! This particular shot was photographed with my hasselblad.