Metropolitan Imageworks

Ariel spent a balmy August afternoon with the Souvenir family taking portraits. She captured large group, small groups, the ladies, the guys, the children, the grandkids and of course the folks who are responsible for this lovely bunch!

Despite the heat and humidity the entire family listened to direction very well and told Ariel that they had a lot of fun during the session.

Who says family portraits need to be boring?!

I love weddings. I love the visual appeal, the people, the emotions, the details, the sounds, the tears, the hugs and the laughter.  I love weddings because everyone is on their best behavior, wearing smiles, generally wearing their best clothes and they smell good!

Jenny and Isaac’s day just reaffirms the reasons I love weddings! Not only did they smell good but the warmth and love that emanated from all their family and friends just filled the farm with such a great aura. Each member of the large wedding party holds a special place in the hearts of Jenny and Isaac and you could just sense the closeness of their bonds while observing the interactions.

The location lent to the free-spirited flow of the day from the entrance of the grandmas on the horse and carriage, to a mostly barefoot bride, to sibling officiants, to horses joining in the formal pictures, to fresh Alaskan salmon caught by a cousin and cooked by an uncle, to heartfelt speeches, to a variety of pies and of course a jam-packed, rockin’ n’ rollin’ dance floor!

Ceremony & Reception: Huntington Farms, Viroqua, WI

Join me on October 10th, 23rd, 24th and 30th for the first set of Fall Photo Days.  I will be stationed at locations around the Chicagoland area and offering time slots throughout each day for location portrait sessions.  I’m available to photograph babies, children, families (both large and small group), seniors, head shots, pets, engagement sessions and anniversary sessions. Any type of outdoor portrait session, really! The session fee is $300 (or $500 for groups of 7+ subjects.)

Choose your date and location and send me an email to request a booking packet and contract.  Once I receive your booking fee your time is secured.  Simply meet me at the designated location and I’ll photograph your session.

Session includes:

Photoshoot
Online gallery for 90 days
One 8×10 professional print
Disc of edited images with personal usage rights

Dates, Times & Locations:

Sunday, October 10th

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Glenview Woods, Glenview, IL
2:00 pm – 6:00 pm – 12th Street Beach/Northerly Island, Chicago IL

Saturday, October 23

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Alfred Caldwell Lily Pond, Chicago IL
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Cantigny Gardens & Park, Wheaton IL

Sunday, October 24

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Riverwalk, Naperville IL
2:00 pm – 5:30 pm – Lake Katherine, Palos Heights

Saturday, October 30

8:00 am – 12:00 pm – Location TBD – Possibly NW suburbs
2:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Location TBD – Possibly NW Indiana

Your booking packet includes information about session attire, what to expect from the session and next steps.

Now is the time to get your portrait session done and have us help you with holiday prints, greeting cards and large wall prints. We also have lots of items appropriate for holiday gift giving!

In the event of inclement weather I will designate a back-up for indoor portraits or you can transfer your session to a weekday prior to November 1st.

Please share this with your friends and family! Give the gift of photos, you can gift a session to someone as well!

Contact me to book or with any questions! rachael@metimages.com

Diane brought her two vibrant daughters out to a park along the river for some family photos and we definitely had fun running through the raindrops, posing, jumping, spinning and cracking jokes. I also learned not all little girls like to climb up and pose on a 5 foot tall fence, I will not try that again because all their focus is on balancing and none on smiling! These girls have some of the brightest smiles I have ever had the pleasure of photographing!

Shooting in light rain is ok because sometimes you are rewarded at the end of the session!

Meet my newest little buddy, Boden.  I met up with his family for portraits at Confluence Park in Denver, Colorado.  Boden’s birthday is soon approaching, he will be a whole year old, and Mom & Dad thought portraits were in store to mark this exciting milestone.  We timed it perfectly before the usual late afternoon shower in Denver and had a good time exploring the park and getting Boden to show his true personality.  Seriously he only cried for a minute when he first met me and I don’t take it personally – my camera is scary!

Practicing walking!

In the wedding arena we have a term, Uncle Bob, which we lovingly apply to a guest at a wedding who has a camera and has transitioned from appropriate guest behavior to “I’m going to get pictures just like the hired pro by standing where they are standing, shooting over their shoulder, standing opposite from them on the dance floor or standing in the middle of the aisle during the ceremony, climbing on the altar/pew/table, etc” and other general behaviors that prevent them from enjoying the wedding and also make a challenging day for the hired professional photographer.  Some of the challenges we face:

1) Not breaking a bone or piece of equipment when backing up to frame a shot and tripping over the person behind them, who also doesn’t see them because of the camera in front of their face.

2) Hours of additional post production work to crop and edit images and remove the Uncle Bob from the shot.

3) Having a worried client contact them after the wedding, asking questions about the light during the ceremony/reception and the quality of the images because they were emailed some images from an excited Uncle Bob and the quality is disturbing.

4) Keeping the length of time needed for group photos tolerable even though Uncle Bob wants to take a photo of each group, AFTER the pro has lined everyone up to perfection and keeps saying, “Wait!” while we all wait for the camera to fire.

5) Capturing meaningful images during certain traditions, such as the cake cutting, when Uncle Bob is standing next to you and firing off his flash at the same time you are shooting.

6) Having a guest scold them for taking too many photos, when it reality it was Uncle Bob who had previously snapped a photo of said guest.

I discuss with my clients during pre-wedding consultations that I am not mean and I don’t prevent guests from taking photos during a wedding, after all I am sure 50% of the guests have a camera phone, point and shoot or some other camera at the wedding. I’m positive the clients might get some additional fun photos and instant gratification when tagged on Facebook the very next day.  It’s safe to assume the clients have hired me based on my portfolio, my shooting style and personality. They have a vision in their head of the wedding photos and they trust me to capture those moments and preserve those memories. All I ask is that I am not impeded on the wedding day by an Uncle Bob (who doesn’t remember that they are invited to the wedding first and foremost as a guest to enjoy the celebration with the bride and groom) moving around, competing for space, getting in the way as I try to capture moments, or even asking me questions about gear/shooting during toasts.

My personal thoughts aside – I just read a blog post from the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers, www.ispwp.com, about the some of the differences between using a professional wedding photographer or Uncle Bob (someone who might be an enthusiastic photo buff and offer to shoot your wedding day and save you money!)

Uncle Bob vs. A Professional Wedding Photographer

I promise that as a professional wedding photographer I will not show up at Uncle Bob the CPAs dayjob and sit on his ledgers while he tabulates or pop up over the shoulder of Uncle Bob the surgeon and ask why he chose that particular scalpel or try to share the cubicle of Uncle Bob the office worker and attempt to use her computer at the same time. Fair is fair, right?

Elizabeth spent some time with little Miss Luca Jane a couple weeks ago. Here’s Elizabeth’s take on the session.

Luca was born December 29, so she’s 19 months. She says quite a lot of words; I think she said the word ‘fly’ for the first time during the photo shoot. She calls all kids Avery, after a friend of hers. She laughs when others laugh. She has an array of faces including duck face, “geek face,” mad face, and ‘o’ face. It’s hilarious and I captured it all. She’s getting her canines, so she was teething quite a bit and putting her fingers in her mouth, but Mom administered Ibuprofen an hour before the shoot and it kicked in after a little while. Luca wore a barrette for the first time today and she even left it in for a few pictures!

Lani and Michael’s first wedding ceremony and celebration was in Washington D.C. in May – here’s a reminder.

Part Duex took place in Chicago the last weekend of July. Saturday’s celebration at Opera was a kickoff to the weekend of events and friends and family came together to mingle, toast, nibble and dance with the wedding couple. Starting off a wedding weekend with a cocktail reception is a fantastic idea, as it gives everyone a time to relax and enjoy themselves and any venue that allows for another chance to dance gets high ratings in my book!

On Sunday, everyone regrouped at Temple Sholom for a lovely, traditional ceremony. Michael’s family has a rich history with Temple Sholom and it seemed very fitting that this is where Lani and Michael should have the final element of their wedding, led by a rabbi who has known Michael since his teenage years.

In the months leading up to the weekend’s ceremony and celebrations, Lani and Michael spent many hours planning the dessert reception to follow the ceremony. The goal was cake and punch x 1,000! From three types of sparkling beverages – Perrier, Champagne and Sparkling Cider – to cake, cookies, cupcakes, flavored popcorn, licorice, mounds of strawberries, brownies (with mint frosting and my personal favorite), chocolate covered pretzels and candy-coated almonds they really their achieved goal.

It was indeed a sweet celebration!

Wedding Coordinator: Beth Bernstein, SQN Events, Chicago, IL

Cocktail Reception: Opera, Chicago, IL

Ceremony: Temple Sholom, Chicago, IL

Florist: Dilly Lily, Chicago, IL

Cake, Cupcakes, Cookies: Sensational Bites, Chicago, IL

Candy and popcorn: Illinois Nut, Skokie, IL

Talk about fitting it  all in!  I was up in Madison for an engagement session and also scheduled Sasha’s 2-year portraits, some family portraits, another maternity shoot with Sasha’s parents, and some time with Sasha’s grandparents too! Whew! Kind of like a marathon portrait session!

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Jayme and Rob are getting married in Madison, WI next May and Jayme learned of me from a few different people, one a former bride and the other a former groomsman from a completely different wedding in a completely different geographic location. I love it when that happens!  I met up with Jayme and Rob one Sunday in July and we tooled around Madison taking pictures, dancing and talking about their wedding day.  The moody clouds kept a close cover, which is a photographer’s dream because it acts like one giant diffuser, and fortunately the rain stayed away the entire time we were outside.  Thanks for a wonderful afternoon and see you guys in the Spring!