When I arrived at the {D} family’s Palatine home today I was greeted by 3 gorgeous girls that began posing and smiling with twinkly blue eyes and their baby brother reaching his arms out to me (*melt*) to be held :)  One of the sweetest bunches of kids I’ve met, and we had so much fun it was hard to believe it was over when we were finished!  Between jumping on the bed, having princess dance parties and some good old fashioned silly faces the session time flew by!  It’s not hard to tell these 4 are all siblings with those big blue eyes they all share!

Thank you for inviting me into your home and trusting me to capture your beautiful family :)  I can’t wait for our summer session!

If you would like to schedule a family photography session in the Chicago area, please fill out a Chicago and North Shore family photography client profile

If you would like to schedule a baby photography session in Chicago, the North Shore, or the north and northwest Chicago suburbs, please fill out a Chicago baby photography client profile or contact me at amy@funfreshyou.com.

If you are ready to schedule your Chicago area newborn photography session, please fill out a newborn client profile

This article is from Marianne Drenthe of Marmalade Photography and really explains why a Chicago custom photographer may be the right choice for you :)

Custom photography is more of a luxury than your entry level cookie cutter chain experience.  Custom photography truly is not for everyone, it requires a level of commitment, investment in time  and money, forethought and planning on the part of the subject/client and requires a larger time commitment for the photographer as well.

Clients who enjoy taking a more active role in the creation of their families’ memories have the desire to have portrait art that is truly personalized.  These more discerning clients have been known to budget and allot time for a custom photography session.  Many clients opt for it to be a once a year special experience, some opt to have custom photography sessions done to record their child’s stages in life.  Having said this, it is clear that custom photography is not in everyone’s budget,  it is something that most families save for to splurge on from time to time to memorialize their children as they really are  (not posed and primped in the cookie cutter studio setting).

There is a great deal of time involved in creating high end custom photography sessions for a client.  The luxury of great service, better choices and a superb end product.  The result of all this are heirloom quality images.  The time invested at the session is only a small portion of time involved in this process.

Custom photography has been likened to purchasing a fine vehicle.  To get to point B from A let’s face it, even a bus ride would suffice.  If you want to luxuriate in a finely appointed vehicle, customizing your own experience by listening to smooth jazz while sitting in a climate controlled setting adjusted purely for your comfort in a body hugging leather interior, perhaps that Lexus you so desire is your cup of tea.  Custom photography is much the same cup of tea.  It is the Lexus of the photography world.  It is where the intangibles make the experience truly wonderful and the images themselves make the investment of money and time truly worthwhile.

Custom photography can be broken down into even more levels.  There are on location, studio, mixed studio/on location, specialty location and destination type photographers.  The beauty of custom photography is in the choices and in the luxury of thoses options.  The customized service level you are sure to experience will be amazing.  The knowledge that your final images are the result of someone caring about those moments so much that they take extra time ensuring that the artwork you receive is good enough to stand by with their name on it.  That level of quality and commitment  is all but lost in the age of “mass produced,” “mass marketed,” corporate “everyone is a number”.  Custom photography is based on being unique to you.  How great an experience would be,  to be able to sit back and allow a photographer to do this highly custom work for images that you will most likely cherish for a lifetime?

Keep in mind more than anything that the Lexus will never appreciate in value the way your portraits will.  The portrait art you become invested in from your custom photographer will no doubt increase in value and become more priceless as the years pass.

If you would like to schedule a baby photography session in Chicago, the North Shore, or the north and northwest Chicago suburbs, please fill out a Chicago baby photography client profile or contact me at amy@funfreshyou.com.

If you are ready to schedule your Chicago area newborn photography session, please fill out a newborn client profile

You can find out how to prepare and what to expect during your newborn session in my previous posts “Using a newborn photographer in Chicago?  How to prepare for your newborn session” and “Ready to see your Chicago newborn photographer?  What to expect at the session”

This little one had incredibly soulful eyes and such an intense gaze I couldn’t resist sharing this image!  At 8 months old but not quite crawling, she was the perfect age for a sitting up milestone session (part of my Chicago baby’s 1st year plan).  Once crawling is mastered, it’s difficult to keep a little one in place– and even tougher once they begin walking!  I have loved watching this little princess as she grows through her first year– her personality gets so much bigger every time I see her!  Next comes the first birthday cake smash– a favorite session for me (and usually the little one!)!  I love Chicago area cake smash photography sessions, because there are some seriously fantastic cakes to be found in the wonderful bakeries here!

If you would like to schedule a baby photography session in Chicago, the North Shore, or the north and northwest Chicago suburbs, please fill out a Chicago baby photography client profile or contact me at amy@funfreshyou.com.

If you are ready to schedule your Chicago area newborn photography session, please fill out a newborn client profile

You can find out how to prepare and what to expect during your newborn session in my previous posts “Using a newborn photographer in Chicago?  How to prepare for your newborn session” and “Ready to see your Chicago newborn photographer?  What to expect at the session”

Most of you know I have 4 wonderful kiddos– my youngest officially can’t be referred to as “the baby” any more *sniff* (that doesn’t mean I won’t slip and still call him “the baby”!).  He turned 2 yesterday, and like with all of my kids I marked the occasion by having a “session” with him.  He only gave me about 5 minutes to capture some images (he has grown up with a baby and child photographer, so his patience with me is quite limited!), and spent 2 of those 5 minutes rifling through my props to come back to the set with a hat and some glasses!

My littlest guy is probably the biggest personality in our house– he is so laid back and easy going, with a very solid future as the class clown.  He lives to entertain and get everyone around him laughing– quite a change from the little guy that struggled with reflux for the first few months of his life and wouldn’t smile for his daddy until nearly 5 months!  His favorite phrase is “I gotcha!” and every time he jumps he has to yell the word as he does the action :)  He is a total snuggle bug, burrowing into any shoulder he comes across and hugging every set of legs that walks through our door :)  It’s amazing to see how different the personalities are among our little ones– and how prominent those personalities are early on!

Happy birthday, little dude– you spread joy every day and we all love having you in our lives!

You can see how much this little guy has changed in just a few months in my post “Chicago family photographer | Take me out to the cubs game” or go farther back to “Chicago baby photographer | Happy 1/2 birthday”

And you can see how much he looks like his big brother (#2 in the lineup of 4) in my post “Chicago child photographer | One of my own”

If you would like to schedule a child photography session in Chicago, the North Shore, or the north and northwest Chicago suburbs, please fill out a Chicago child photography client profile or contact me at amy@funfreshyou.com.

This little one’s newborn photography session was so wonderful I couldn’t leave this image in my archives.  She came to my photography studio near Palatine for her newborn session from the North Shore area of Chicago for a rare evening newborn photography session.  Evenings are not optimal for newborn photography, only because the little ones tend to be cluster feeding and a bit more awake during the evening hours, but patience, cuddles and lots of feeding resulted in some gorgeous images of this sweet princess :)

If you would like to find more information about a Northwest Suburbs photography session in my studio, please email amy@funfreshyou.com or visit my Chicago area custom photography website

If you are ready to schedule your Chicago area newborn photography session, please fill out a newborn client profile

You can find out how to prepare and what to expect during your newborn session in my previous posts “Using a newborn photographer in Chicago?  How to prepare for your newborn session” and “Ready to see your Chicago newborn photographer?  What to expect at the session”

Happy Valentine’s day from my 2 school aged kiddos– they are so excited to hand them out in class today!

If you would like to schedule a session for child photography in the north shore chicago area please contact me at amy@funfreshyou.com or fill out a Chicago child photographer client profile

I am guilty of the same offense so many photographers commit– I get so busy photographing newborns, children and families that sometimes I forget to document my own family.  The last time I really focused on photographing my kids doing what they do best was months ago, and this 10 on 10 project is going to help me preserve the little everyday things that I capture for my clients, but for myself. A couple of disclaimers before you get to the pictures: 1. My house is incredibly dark from lack of natural light and constantly cluttered thanks to the 8 small hands that constantly rifle through every room in search of a single block.  It’s real.  It is clean and orderly for approximately 8 hours a day… the 8 hours when all the kids are asleep.  Running around behind them cleaning up all day is like shoveling during a blizzard… I would rather enjoy them while they are little than be able to see every square inch of my floor 24/7.  The do clean up after themselves… sometimes.  Considering the baby is in the “I need to see every toy in the house strewn across the floor before I decide what to play with” stage, the bigger boys’ efforts really don’t have the impact they should.  The house can be put back together at bedtime…  it’s a fresh slate for destruction in the morning.  2. They are in pajamas until the very last second before we need to go somewhere.  If we don’t go anywhere, you will find me pulling pajamas off the kids at bedtime to put on a clean pair. Why?  Because 4 kids can create a ton of laundry.  If I do get them dressed, chances are before we need to go someone will manage to cause a ketchup explosion at lunch or get a little carried away with the toothpaste in the morning and need a new shirt/pants/etc before we need to leave anyway… may as well conserve where I can!

For my first 10 on 10– a morning in my life…  my every day (and it’s never boring with 4 kids 7 & under!)!

Everyone is up for the day. Breakfast has been eaten.  The dog has made sure nothing changed in the yard overnight.  Micky Mouse Clubhouse is playing on Disney Jr.  I’m checking my email and making sure I don’t have any client questions to answer.  My living room has already been destroyed.

You can find 3 of my 4 in the first image (assuming they aren’t completely camouflaged by their morning handiwork)– big sister has already left for school.  Yes, the baby (I know, he’s not really a baby any more when he’ll be 2 next week… but he’s still “the baby”) has safety goggles on his head… no, I can’t really answer why.   I can only hope it’s so he can be properly outfitted while buliding a high rise out of mega blocks (and not a construction project involving sharp objects and a trip to the E.R.)– one can never be too careful, ya know :)

If you have preschool-kindergarten aged kids, I can’t say enough great things about the game “Pigs Up”.  My grandma, the master of awesome gift finding, gave this game to my 5 year old for his birthday last year– even when they’re not actually playing the game, the little wooden piggies are loads of fun :)  Baby-man likes to pile them in a school bus… when he isn’t just transferring them between the box and the lid.

Littlest man also has some very strange favorite places– we affectionately refer to the TV console as his “office”.  Often we find him in there, sliding doors closed, holding a board meeting with a toy laptop and a zoo of animal executives.  And if a sippy cup has gone missing (especially one I know had milk in it!), the office is always the first place to check!

In an attempt to pause the destruction of the living room, we relocate to the basement (the room that is neglected in the end of the day pick up… it’s kid zone).  Somehow they have managed to leave just enough clear space for the gym mat we have for the oldest 2 to practice their tumbling (well, I guess #3 could practice his skills too… he doesn’t tend to get sent home from practice prepared to work on the moves at home yet!).  Big Sis has been hard at work for a few weeks now, trying to teach #2 how to do cartwheels and handstands (she feels like a master after finally getting the motions figured out– a little fine tuning still needs to happen with hers).  That kid is destined for teaching as a career I suspect, considering #2 can now hold a perfect handstand longer than his sis (to see the perfect one, visit my facebook page where I posted it yesterday)!  Of course if I photograph #2 doing cartwheels and handstands, #s 3 & 4 have to get in on it too… just with different skills :)

After a few hours of playing, some lunch (and getting dressed for the big one!), we lose one to the Kindy bus– after Christmas break it took littlest bit a few days to stop screaming like his big brother was kidnapped by the big yellow machine– bus time has once again been filled with screams of “bus! bus!” while jumping up and down with excitement :)

Just before nap, the little 2 get run through the bath/shower (for some reason this week, 4 year old #3 has decided he prefers to shower… I’m betting next week he’ll be back to splashing with little brother) and get dressed (since the big kids return and we run out to gymnastics for the 3 bigs right after nap)… and mommy finally gets to eat lunch without sharing every other bite :)

If you would like to schedule a “day in the life” session please fill out a Chicago family photography client profile.

To see some other 10 on 10 projects, please follow the circle starting with a fabulous St. Louis Photographer!

Photographers are often asked to capture a sibling (or siblings!) with the newest member of the family… if the youngest “big” brother or sister is over the age of 3, this is typically fairly simple– as long as an adult is within reach, a sibling can carefully cradle the baby for the image.  When my newborn photography session is for a baby with a 1 or 2 year old sibling, things can get interesting!  I wouldn’t ask a 1 year old to hold their new baby brother or sister, based on my own kids at that age I know that it will rarely (if ever) end well, even with an adult just out of the frame :) It is still possible to get a sibling shot out of your session– with a few little tricks!

When a sweet bitty girl came for a newborn session last weekend with her big brother, I set up one way for them to be photographed together.  Big brother wasn’t interested (he was 14 months old), so we moved on to one where we could have a bit more control over his position.  The chair and trunk we placed next to each other, with the little one swaddled on the trunk (with blankets rolled behind her to keep her from rolling backwards, a blanket curb in front of her and a grown up hand barely out of the image just in case she wiggled).  After a couple of images with big brother, he became a little less tolerant of having baby sister so close (totally normal for that age!)– for her safety we removed him from the set and took a few images of her alone next to the chair.  After we had an image of {A}, we handed her to her grandma waiting in the wings (always ready to snuggle her newest grandbaby), and played a few games with {C} to get him in the chair.  He was happy to climb up and show us how big he was– flashing me some great faces along the way!

After the session, I uploaded all the files onto my computer.  Through a few little tricks merging the images of each alone on the set in photoshop, a final image that the parents and I loved came through!  It isn’t always easy or seamless to merge the 2 images– I had moved from my shooting position, so the perspective was a bit different; and the chair shifted a bit with each of {C}’s dismounts leaving a bit more work to blend the images seamlessly, but we got the image in the end!  I only wish I had known a bit more about how to composite images when my older kids were little– maybe then I would have an image like this of my own :)

The final result:

If you would like to schedule a newborn photography session in the Chicago area, please visit my website or go ahead and fill out a Chicago newborn photography client profile.  You can find out how to prepare and what to expect during your newborn session in my previous posts “Using a newborn photographer in Chicago?  How to prepare for your newborn session” and “Ready to see your Chicago newborn photographer?  What to expect at the session”

I loved having the opportunity to use some of my bolder backdrop colors for this sweet little one– this pink is one of my favorites for newborn girls :)  I do have a variety of pastels and neutrals available for your newborn session, but the bright colors are so gorgeous with newborn skin that I get giddy to use them every now and then!  I adored this little bitty’s back wrinkles (if you know me, you know I’m a sucker for back wrinkles on newborns… I love them more than double-stuffed oreos!) and chubby little cheeks :)

If you would like to schedule a newborn photography session in the Chicago area, please visit my website or go ahead and fill out a Chicago newborn photography client profile.  You can find out how to prepare and what to expect during your newborn session in my previous posts “Using a newborn photographer in Chicago?  How to prepare for your newborn session” and “Ready to see your Chicago newborn photographer?  What to expect at the session”

Last night this gorgeous little girlie came to see me for a newborn session, and she brought along her entire entourage including mom, dad, 14 month old big brother and some of the proudest grandparents I’ve ever seen!  The entire family was incredibly sweet and a pleasure to get to know better, and no one could get big brother to grin like his Grandpa (he had the coolest app on his phone that changed his voice to a cat voice– he had us all cracking up with that one!).  Grandma and Grandpa took big brother home for bed after we finished the sibling photographs, and it was probably a good thing they did since we didn’t wrap up until pretty late!  {A} was probably the most alert little newborn I’ve seen in a while– wide eyed, calmly taking it all in. Even though it was tough to get the sleepy poses I didn’t mind cuddling her a little extra to try to help her doze off– the feisty ones give me a chance to get some extra snuggles in :)  Newborn photography sessions are so unpredictable–  everything is up to the littlest one in the room!  Once she conked out everything was smooth sailing– we ended the session with some gorgeous photographs (although they couldn’t be anything but with such a beautiful little subject)!

If you would like to schedule a newborn photography session in the Chicago area, please visit my website or go ahead and fill out a Chicago newborn photography client profile.  You can find out how to prepare and what to expect during your newborn session in my previous posts “Using a newborn photographer in Chicago?  How to prepare for your newborn session” and “Ready to see your Chicago newborn photographer?  What to expect at the session”