Here's a sneak peek at Kelly and Mat's Chicago Session Engagement. We had a bright sunny day to contend with along with some winds and, oh yeah - a heavily secured NATO conference!! Fortunately, this soon to be married couple ARE NOT wanted criminals and the shoot went off without a hitch. :)

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If you have followed the Northwest Indiana wedding journal for a while, you know I'm a big fan of these Chicago Engagement packages. You will also know that this Chicago Sessions package consist of color images transferred to black and white after the shoot and made to look like old film. It's romantic and cinematic - think 1960's street photography.

I'm currently editing Kelly and Mat's images to give them all these looks. The color versions will be available to them as well as the black and white images. The photo book that comes with the package (great for display at the reception) consist of all the black and white images made into one beautiful story of the day.

We may take in the garden at Millennium Park (see above) or go with the street photography look of the couple perched up high with the tall buildings as a backdrop...

The windy city brings many different looks, sometimes all within a single block. It's a teasure trove of photo opportunities for engagement photos.

Stay tuned for more Kelly and Mat engagement pictures as I ready them for viewing. I will be taking Memorial Day off to rest up after a terrific wedding in Portage yesterday. Have a great weekend!!

Today we have a sneak peek look at Aimee and Tim's Chicago Session engagement photos. As is tradition with the Chicago Sessions package, my assistant and I met the couple at the East Chicago train station in Northwest Indiana for a romantic photo of the train arriving. The commuters going to the city were kind enough to step out of the way so we could get an "alone" shot of Aimee and Tim on the platform embraced in a kiss.

Soon enough we were on the train, heading for downtown Chicago as I took candid shots on the moving train.

For this highly stylized engagement package, I shoot in color and then turn the images into black and white after the fact. This enables me to offer both color and black and white versions. The idea is to have vintage black and whites that look like old film and slides from classic street photography of the 1960's 1970's. However, sometimes it's difficult to decide on some images. The next shot with the State Street bridge in the background may be a better chopice in color to print large and hang on the soon to be married couple's wall. I will let them decide...

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The city of Chicago has so many scenes for photograp[hy and one of favorites is to capture that street feel like this kiss with the Chicago Theater in the background...

We typically start at Randolph street and head toward the Chicago River and eventually make our way back to Millennium Park where we catch the train back. A few minutes before we had to be back on our way to Northwest Indiana, just enough time for a piggy back ride beneath the fountains...

The Chicago cityscape always makes for a great backdrop. Once again, color or black and white? Mmmm....

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Many more images from Aimee and Tim's trek around Chicago for their engagement pictures. Just a sneak peek for now. Let's finish up with this close up shot on Michigan Avenue.