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

Can you imagine having the world’s fastest aperture lens??  F/0.95!  This baby costs a cheap $10,000.  I’m so glad I have this kind of money just lying around.  Let me add this to my wishlist.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?Ntt=LEICA%2050MM%20F/0.95&N=0

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 am mentally and physically tired today.  It’s hard keeping up with this obsession of capturing images.  From working full time, to taking care of two children and a dog, I’m finding out that the days are just way too short.  I just wish there was an extra hour each day so that I can spend more time processing these photos.  I still have catching up to do from the previous photoshoots for Christy+Ryan, Mohammed+Khadija, before I can process these little cute photos of Molly+John.  I am trying to process some of these before my next shoot this coming saturday.  Anyhow, here is a little sneak peak at little Molly and John that I met over the weekend…

I had a great time shooting these two.  My assistant Richard was with me shooting as well.  One of the highlights of the day was watching Molly dance to Alvin and the Chipmunks!  The children were doing great at the beginning of the shoot, but started to grow tired as the day progressed.  I knew it was going to be a long day because with children, you have to feed and change them, and take frequent breaks to keep them relaxed.  It was a challenge trying to get some shots with a backdrop.  One of my strobes malfunctioned and wouldn’t sync correctly when shooting, so I had to do with only a single lightsource, my softbox.  We literally had about 5 second intervals to shoot Molly with the backdrop because the area was a no-go zone for her.  It was so cute.  I hope some of those photos turned out!  Check out the two photos below, these two are the cutest little munchkins!

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.

Mohammed and Khadija are great friends of mine.  I haven’t known them for long, but Mo and I consider each other as long distance “cousins”.  They are due to get married soon, both of which are a pair due to my ability to shoot Cupid’s arrow on target.  Here are some photos of the two, including Mohammed’s daughter Almira.

I know.. the blue hand tint is tacky, but Khadija wanted a photo done like this... so here it is!

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