JonathanRobsonPhotography on Flickr

Some of you may have clicked the flickr link to the right of this post in the past. If you have you know I post a lot of personal work to flickr. Some of that personal work is made available as FineArt prints. So it was pleasing to see that one of my photos made it to the front page of flickr! For those interested in FineArt you'll be pleased to know the photo is available as a print at my FineArt site. Also thanks to those people who helped get the photo onto the front page with all of the kind comments and tagging the photo as a favorite! Enjoy and happy flickr'ing, click the photo to see a larger view.

Busy Busy Busy

I hope everyone has had a great Thanksgiving! Thanksgiving is always a busy time for photography, people getting their Christmas card photos ready. As a result I've been processing client photos like a mad scientist to make sure they're in good shape to send out their photos with their Christmas card list. Below is a couple of shots from one of my most recent new clients, Mark & Sara. We lucked out on a fantastic day at the Arboretum, full of color, slightly overcast skies, which contrary to popular belief is actually the preferred type of weather for photography, anyway enough babbling, enjoy the photos!

FineArt Print Website is now live

I often get asked by people if they could purchase prints of some of my work, to which I always have to answer 'sorry I don't offer prints for sale currently'. Well I have finally fixed that and put together a website to allow people to order prints. Prices start at $6 and sizes range from 4x6 all the way up to 24x36 mounted canvas prints, with a range of sizes in between to fit any blank wall.

I'll be adding new photos to the site all the time, so please stop by, hopefully something will catch your eye enough to put on your wall and brighten your day from then on!

FineArt Prints

Enjoy!
Jonathan

Fun at the Park

This weekend I had the pleasure of partaking an a family portrait of the Girup's. The cold is bearing down on us now, so I was a little concerned at the temperatures when I was checking the location the day before the portrait session, but as luck would have it, Sunday turned out to be great weather for this time of year and had a really nice Fall feel to it. We had plenty of fun and I learn what great props Pumpkins can be for the children, so from now on, I'll be the photographer with the camera bag and a couple of pumpkins hanging off of it!

Made the front cover

Well, maybe not the front cover, but its always nice to wake up to see some of my work featured on a popular photography blog, for the second time I have some photos included in the DIY Photography blog's latest post 'Pool Portraits - A Splash Of People', enjoy!

Perfect Afternoon

Yesterday afternoon was a perfect day in Naperville for a senior photo shoot and luckily thats what Karen, Sarah and myself were up to, the weather was just perfect, the light was excellent also, throw in a couple of nice walls to add some character and off you go. We also provided entertainment on the covered bridge for 10-15 people wondering what the heck we needed umbrellas for when the weather was so perfect, where are my business cards when I need them!

Big Personalities at BigRock

It was a fair drive out to BigRock IL, but well worth it. A couple of weekends ago I had the pleasure of photographing Evan & Eric at their family farm. We had great fun in a wonderful location, made photographing the little fellas so easy, that and their great personalities!

Family Portraits at Knock Knolls park

Its been a while since I updated my blog, I figured I should start posting a little bit about some of the recent photo sessions. Yesterday I think I spent half of the day at Knock Knolls park, first taking photos of my own boys as can be seen on my flickr stream, and then later with the Corbett family.

We had some great fun and got a few good photos while we at it, as well as me getting two bee stings, note to self dont stand on a beehive to get the shot!

Civil War Days

Today was 'Civil War Days' at the Naper settlement, I have a lot of shots to process from this over the next few days, this is one of my favourites though.

Many of the people photographed asked where they could find the photos I took. I directed them to my professional site - jonathanrobsonphotography.com and told them to go to my blog (here) where I'd post a link to the photos, here is link... http://www.flickr.com/photos/robsonj/tags/civilwardays/, if you are featured in one of the photos and would like a complimentary 8x10 print, drop me an email or leave a comment on this post to receive the print.

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

I am pleased to announce that jonathanrobsonphotography.com is now affiliated with the wonderful non-profit organization - NILMDTS (Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep), a little bit about NILMDTS for those who are not familiar:

"Pregnancy and birth are miraculous journeys. This amazing time of life is full of mystery, anticipation, joy, hope, and wonder. Feeling the powerful energy of birth and new life, watching as a new family is born unto each other. These things humble and amaze. These are the things that we celebrate when a baby is born.

But there is another aspect of pregnancy and birth. There is an unexpected place in this journey where some families may find themselves. When a baby dies, a world is turned upside down. There is confusion, sadness, fear, and uncertainty that cannot be explained. There is sorrow where there should have been joy. During this time, it might be impossible for families to know what they might need in order to heal in the future.

This is the place where the Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation gently provides a helping hand and a healing heart. For families overcome by grief and pain, the idea of photographing their baby may not immediately occur to them. Offering gentle and beautiful photography services in a compassionate and sensitive manner is the heart of this organization. The soft, gentle heirloom photographs of these beautiful babies are an important part of the healing process. They allow families to honor and cherish their babies, and share the spirits of their lives.

The Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep Foundation (NILMDTS) administers a network of nearly 3,000 volunteer professional photographers in the United States and eight International countries. At a family's request, a NILMDTS Affiliated Photographer will come to your hospital or hospice location and conduct a sensitive and private portrait session. The portraits are then professionally retouched and presented to the families on an archival DVD or CD that can be used to print portraits of their cherished baby.

Our entire network of affiliated professional photographers graciously donate their time and talents to our families and we are proud to be able to offer our services at no cost.Your Donations are greatly needed and greatly appreciated."

For more information please click on the image below, feel free to donate what you can to this organization:

Baby face

A few from todays photo session...

The sun is out

I think we spent the whole day playing outside today, then by 7pm when it was time to get ready for Cole's bedtime, the tears flowed, I kinda felt sorry for Cole, having being cooped up all winter, he didn't want the first day of sunshine and warm temperatures to end, he didn't understand that tomorrow is supposed to be nice also, and there is spare sand for the sandpit, the slide and trikes will remain right were he left them.

Icicles

More icicles!
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

It was a cold morning, and I had to stand in the stream to get this shot. Hope you enjoy these icicles, they're probably long gone now as the weather is warming up.

The Rookery

The Rookery #1
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

With the seasonal portrait rush now over, I've been able to spend some more time on more personal work and fine art material. If you are native to or live in Chicago, you'll no doubt be aware of the Rookery building, it was once the tallest building in the world - 11 stories tall, it is steeped in history and shady Chicago dealings.

You can find this shot in the fine art gallery at jonathanrobsonphotography.com, please enquire via the contact for for available sizes, finishes an pricing.

Destination Hollywood?

Destination Hollywood 
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

Now the winter has set in in Illinois, I've been doing a lot more indoor work and making use of the basement studio more. Today I had the pleasure of working with a potential TV star - amazing what I find in the basement! We had a lot of fun shooting a few shots for some upcoming auditions. If you're reading this, you can say you saw her here first!

I don't like to reveal names of clients in my blog for privacy reasons, but good luck with the auditions Miss... !

Amazed

Amazed
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

Trying a few experiments in photoshop to get some new looks. My son is often the unwitting guinea pig for my photoshop adventures. But if you see any effects that you would like applying to photos from your session, let me know.

Chillin'

Chillin'
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

During an informal shoot for the neighbor, Cole decided he'd demonstrate his posing skills. Funny thing is, whenever I want him to sit on the old school chair for photos - he won't! Typical hey.

Smokin' !

Smokin' !
Originally uploaded by Jonathan Robson

Off to a good start this year, I gave zooming while exposing a go yesterday, today we move onto all things smoke. I've never tried this before, so it was trial and error. I setup some incense sticks on a chair in the basement, propped a black cloth behind, and placed a 580exII below and at either side of the stick pointing up at it, and behind it. I then took 200 shots of the incense stick, occasionally utilizing a small reflector to waft the smoke a little.

I think you can only try something like this once you're older than 21 years old, any younger and you'd be taken away in a van with square wheels! I got some strange looks from my wife on this one.

I stopped when I could stand the smell no more. This is the first one I've processed. While waiting on the images to import into Lightroom, I came across a great blog on this subject, it looks like I did everything as described in the blog... without even reading it (remember the square wheels!). Some great tips on there though for post processing smoke, here is the link:

lightingmods.blogspot.com/2007/07/diy-smoke-made-easy.html