These portrait sessions will be in the style of my boutique preschool portraits and are a great way to get updated portraits of your kids – parents love using them for wall art, holiday cards, holiday gift prints, etc.

Fine art studio portrait sessions are fast and fun, and the goal is always to capture genuine expressions from your child – whatever they may be! No forced smiles or cheesy backdrops. Portraits are shot against a clean and simple black backdrop. Siblings are photographed alone and together. Online gallery with 5 images per child (edited in both color and black and white) will be sent to you within 3 weeks of your session.

There are appointments for individual children and sets of up to 3 siblings. If you have more than 3 kids – contact me at jessica@jessicaremus.com to make arrangements. Babies must be able to sit up on their own (typically 7 months of age or so).

Where: My studio in La Grange

When: 10/15, 10/30 & 11/13

$75 Session fee retainer due upon booking to reserve your session date & time; session fee remainder due the day before your session.

Individual Child $175

Click here to book Individual Child Session 

Sibling Sets (up to 3 siblings) $295

Click here to book Sibling Session

Session fee includes session, post production, and digital files. Online gallery sent within 3 weeks of session, with 5 digital files per child (edited in both color and black and white) delivered via direct download. Professional prints and canvases can be purchased through your online gallery. Session fees are not refundable but are transferable.

Well big old Flurry could barely feel me up on his back and decided it would be a great time to roll over. He started going down to one side and my left foot was stuck in the stirrup until he almost hit the ground. He would have rolled right over me if I hadn’t been able to get my foot loose and jump out and away at the last second. After he rolled over, he proceeded to run around the ring like a complete maniac until the trainers could catch him and fix his girth, which he had busted during his freak out running spree. Looking back on that, I can only imagine my mom watching this go down. Her heart must have been in her throat. I’m sure she wanted to get me out of there and put a stop to my riding. However, I was so determined to ride and had waiting so long to do it, that I got right back up on Flurry. I wasn’t going to let him mess up my very first lesson and my dream of riding horses.

Also around that time, my grandmother “Nana” took me to see the Lippizzan stallions of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna for the first time. They were touring that year in the states and had a stop in Chicago. She and my grandfather were world travelers and had seen them perform in Europe and she knew I’d love them. She was right. Since then, I have seen Lippizzan stallions perform several times right here in Illinois because we are lucky enough to have Tempel Farms right here near Chicago. Tempel Farms houses and trains the largest privately owned herd of Lippizzans in the world. I went to go see them again this past August.

The shows always start with the youngest of the herd, the new crop of foals come into the show ring with their mothers. Lippizzans are born with dark coats that eventually turn white or grey as they mature. The foals run and leap around and you can see their natural jumping ability already, which gets harnessed later on in life during their extensive training which starts at age 4.

Then the stallions start coming into the ring to perform dressage which is sometimes referred to as “ballet on horseback”. Highly choreographed moves with single or multiple horses performing in unison.

There is also a demonstration of long rein work, where trainers walk beside the horse and give it signals from the ground.

The “airs above ground” are also demonstrated. These take years for a stallion to learn, and were originally moves used by war horses on the battleground.

A rare bay stallion was also performing some of the very advanced air above ground maneuvers:

Another advanced move is the levade. The horse rears up on its hind legs with or without a rider:

After the show you can tour the beautiful barn, seriously so nice and tastefully decorated I’d happily live in it Go check it out! I think it’s definitely something that even people who aren’t obsessed with horses could really enjoy and appreciate.

That’s where the 202020 Project comes in. My photographer friend and studio mate, Heidi Peters, was gifted 400 rolls of film from a local high school. Knowing she would never (anytime soon) be able to shoot all 400 rolls, she came up with a great idea: to distribute the film amongst 20 photographers to shoot 20 rolls each and share 20 images over the course of 2020. Perfect timing for me! I literally just dusted off my Canon EOS-3 for this. It’s an old (I have no idea how old, but old…) 35mm camera that I use with all of my Canon lenses. I have thousands invested in digital gear, and I do really love all of my cameras. But this 2nd, or 3rd, or maybe 4th?-hand old Canon that I bought off of a photography forum on the internet about 10 years ago for 300 bucks holds a special place in my heart. I’ve taken some of my favorite images with it. I love shooting expired/random rolls of film with it. You never know what you’re going to get and it’s never anywhere near perfect and that’s the very best part.

As you can see below, I usually shoot color film stocks. The reason for that is that I am really drawn to the punchy + bold colors of film, and the way that film retains highlights so well. For this project though, we are all shooting the same type of black and white film. We have no idea how it was stored, or what kind of shape that it’s in, so results could be “interesting” and unpredictable. That just adds to the fun. There are photographers from coast to coast and many levels of experience doing this project, from high school age to more seasoned photographers who learned how to shoot film first back in the “olden days”. I fall more into the “olden days” category especially according to my children who are under the impression I am centuries old.

You can follow the project on the website HERE and on Instagram HERE. It’ll be a minute before any of us post anything since it takes much more time to produce these images, but I can’t wait to see the diversity of what we all capture. Hope you follow along on our adventures in analog photography. #filmisnotdead

These adorable twin girlies are the daughters of dear friends of mine. And their first furry child is the cute and sassy Aussie mix, Ruby. The fun part is that I remember them getting Ruby, and then Ruby adjusting as so many dogs do to human kids joining the pack. Ruby is sweet and super playful but also keeps a watchful eye on her family. Such a great family dog!

For the project, I ask parents to describe their kids and dogs in 3 words. And then I just capture the fun in action and see how I can document their realtionship. Dogs want to been the middle of EVERYTHING and Miss Ruby is no exception to that rule!

Clare: playful, curious, loving

Lily: thoughtful, compassionate, loving

Ruby: playful, loving, protector

As you can see, little A had a blast and she got all the way into the lake – a little faster than we expected! It was so much fun, she was having so much fun and I love photographing kids being kids. Just pure joy, no forced expressions here! FYI – I shoot beach sessions in Chicago and in Southwestern Michigan. Come to the beach, you’ll be glad you did!