I am a bit behind on things, but you will have to forgive me….it’s been quite a couple of weeks!  I will start with two weeks ago. The last week of June was pretty chaotic between getting ready to leave for New York to work at the International Center of Photography, packing up my house so that I can move the day I get home from NY, AND doing some freelance work!…. Oh, and I had to get my new turtles acclimated to their home!

I started my week in Indy to see my parents before I left as well as to shoot a few things. For my entire life, my dad has owned a modern furniture store calledHouseworks. My dad likes to give me a hard time because, although I grew up there, I still tend to show preference to more intricate/vintage looking furniture and housewares. I like to think I have a taste for both… a sophisticated fusion so to speak. ha. Anyway, I have been wanting to shoot at the store for a while and decided that I would try to squeeze it in! I didn’t do as much as I wanted because they were just cleaning up from a weekend long tent sale, however, it was really fun to be able do what I love in my dad’s store.

After a quick run through at Houseworks, I headed over to the new Design Center in Carmel, IN to shoot Michelle’s graphic design installation. Michelle has been doing graphic design for Houseworks for the past few years and designed some really great panels for the gallery area in the Design Center. Before shooting, Michelle took my dad and I around for a quick tour. I was amazed at how beautiful everything was and even more impressed with how much talent was held in one building.  It wasn’t the easiest shoot I have ever done. Turns out shooting glass panels in small hallways with poor lighting and no tripod isn’t so ideal…

After a tiring day of running around Indy, I headed back to Bloomington to continue packing. The next day, I went out for a few hours with the Debikey family to photograph the kids and the rest of the fam together. I have been really fortunate during my time in Bloomington and have gotten to meet some wonderful people. The Debikey’s are definitely high on that list. I met Dave when he became my “Community Partner”/ Co-Supervisor for my job as an Advocate for Community Engagement (ACE) with Indiana University. I got lucky enough to be placed as the ACE for Fair Trade Bloomington and Global Gifts, two really fantastic organizations with even better people running them. Dave is the manager for Global Gifts, a non-profit retail store selling and advocating for fair trade in Bloomington, IN. He and his wife Kelli are two amazing individuals who also happened to produce the cutest kid in the world. Kelli’s sister and two children have also been staying with them so the whole fam-damily came out for a few hours of shooting. It was a long hot day….and not everyone was so happy about getting their picture taken… but Debikey time is always fun!

Finally, the next day, I went over to my friend’s aunt’s house to do my last shoot of the week. Hannah and I have known each other all throughout college and got to travel to the Dominican Republic together during our Freshman year with the Timmy Foundation. Hannah is and probably will always remain one of my favorite people! Hannah’s aunt, Jean, had had some not so fortunate “professional pictures” taken of her for her company’s website and was feeling some need for that to change. We started out taking her headshot and then just kept going with a portrait of she and her husband as well as Jean and Hannah with their favorite pups. Two beautiful and incredible women, plus two cute pups… couldn’t ask for better models!