Last week my Wife + her two sisters + I took the children to visit the Dupage Childrens Museum. We weren’t planning on buying a membership to the place, but after spending the day at the Naperville location… we were sold. I will let the photos speak for themselves. With this membership, we will have access to hundreds of other Children’s Museums across the US. Kaiden had such a blast, and I think it will be beneficial to have him explore this place from time to time.
I finally visited this Hot Dog stand located in West Chicago called Scoobys. We have been driving by this joint for years, and everytime we pass by it, I would say “I have to eat there some day”. Finally after what seems to be about 10 years, we stopped by the place. All the neon lights were amazing!
I’ve been so sick this past weekend. Hopefully I don’t have the H1N1 flu O.o but anyway, it was my children’s first time apple / pumpkin picking day, so I had to go. County Line Orchard is located in Indiana. My wife had to drive the van, since I was on drowsy cold medication. Her sister followed in another vehicle since we were not all able to fit in the van. This was a great way to start the month of October, and the season of Fall!
And now folks, it’s time for some more family photos! I’m so glad that both of my children are now done with baptisms and the like. Here are some highlights from the event:
This past weekend we brought the kids over to Cosley Zoo. Located in Wheaton, this Zoo offers a display of 35 different species on display.. and best of all, it’s free to get in! Notice how I didn’t take any photos of the animals. I couldn’t get a clear shot of the animals since most of them were either caged or sleeping under some sort of shelter. I wanted to capture the children in their curious ways.
Kian eating his mother's shoulder Maleyah and Kaiden taking a break
Kailyn sitting on her aunt Tena
Maleyah and Kaiden taking a break
I didn’t get any processing done last night. However, I did work on the process! I upgraded my Photoshop CS3 to CS4. It was such a daunting task since I had so many plugins that I did not want to lose. I also decided to incorporate using Adobe Lightroom 2. I used to always be against using the application, but since I have over 30,000 photos to keep track of… this would enable me to speed up my workflow and organize my images a little better. I’m very pleased with the outcome of using Lightroom 2 and editing in CS4. This should enable me to spend less time processing, and more time shooting!
As my wife and I were driving home from work a couple days ago, we pulled into the Willowbrook Wildlife Preserve. It was a beautiful day out, about 85 degrees warm and sunny. As I was snapping photos of the Butterfly Garden, I started thinking to myself that these are the last days of Summer. Where did it go really??? I didn’t even get a chance to sit at a beach, or ride my bike by the lake. I was a little upset, but now I’m really looking forward to some Autumn photos.
Willowbrook Wildlife Preserve is a great place to stop by at. It’s pretty much a rehabilitation center for animals that has experienced a life threatening event, and cannot survive on their own. I noticed that most of the animals displayed have been hit by some sort of car or another. They are displayed out to the public like a zoo setting, only all animals are being treated to recover. Once they recover, they are then released out in the wild at a discreet location in Dupage County. It’s really nice being able to see a Bald Eagle up close, or a Red Fox lounging around. Big credit to the Willowbrook Wildlife Preserve, I really hope they continue to rehab animals in the future.
I had plans to go out towards downtown Aurora earlier with a fellow photographer, but they fell through due to babysitting issues. We really felt it was a great night for some downtown night shooting. Anyhow, I spent the evening with my two children Kaiden and Kailyn, plus my sister in law’s daughter Maleyah. I had a blast! Kailyn turned 3 months about 5 days ago. She’s really starting to get the smiling thing down now, and is able to follow moving objects with her eyes. Perhaps we will do some night shooting some other day.
Kailyn staring at the wonderful lights her soothing swing makes.
Yesterday my family and I drove out to join the rest of the Fajardos at Basilica of Holy Hill, Wisconsin. It was about 2.5 hours away, but well worth the drive for a little family getaway. We missed the Mass that we planned to attend, but we were able to join with the extended family for a nice picnic. The weather outside was perfect.
Kaiden's first experience with the Ice Cream Truck
I’m not big on Nature Photography, but today’s photoshoot was a little getaway of mine. During a family party today, I grabbed my dog Luna and left for a little bit. The sun was about to set and I really wanted to catch the perfect sky out today. The clouds seemed like they didn’t move, and it just seemed like a great day to be walking alone with my dog. We first drove out west through some cornfields in North Aurora. These were neverending. It seemed every field had a “Private Property” sign up, and I didn’t feel like getting shot by a farmer today, so I started driving up north to see if there was anything worth capturing… and there it was… The Kane County Forest Preserve. When Luna and I first arrived, we immediately saw a what looked to be some sort of Lookout Tower.
Lookout Tower
There were no other cars in the parking lot as the park was about to close… and me, being myself, continued to venture out down this eerie path. I walked down this path not knowing how long I would go down, but had a feeling there would be something worth seeing.
Path 1
Path 2
We walked for about a half mile through this eerie path and stumbled upon a ledge overlooking a lake. The sun was just about to set so I tied up Luna to this post nearby. I began snapping away for about 10 minutes when Luna began to bark. The hairs on my neck began to stand as I remembered that there were no other cars in the parking lot. Then out of nowhere, this woman walked up and sat down about 5-10 feet from me. Out of everywhere else to see the sun set… she had to sit this close to me?? I thought that was really odd. The weird part was that when she walked up, my dog went silent. I tried making conversation with the woman; About how nice the sunset was, but she never really made eye contact with me. She replied with short answers and seemed really out of it. Just staring out to the sun. It began getting really dark out, so I packed my stuff up and started walking down the path again. As I was walking, I started thinking about my little encounter with the woman and had this uneasy feeling. What if she were a ghost? The hairs on my neck stood up again. I looked back down by where she was sitting, and it was almost completely dark out… but I could still see her sitting there. I was convinced she was a ghost. No woman in their right mind would be sitting in a dark forest preserve staring out into the sun like that. I hurried along and drove back to the party.
The Lake Sunset
I love grainy photos. My wife was looking all over for this kid… she was washing dishes while he was playing with his Nintendo DS on the sofa… then he went silent… and was nowhere to be found. I was downstairs processing photos… and this was where we found him. I wonder what he was dreaming about…
Dreaming