I just wanted to finally let everyone know that I have officially changed my business name from Rising Sun Photography to Ashley Vimont Photography!

It was a lot of fun shooting as Rising Sun and I regret nothing. But I am super excited to start a new journey with my new name! It feels perfect and it fits to what my style has morphed into. In the beginning, I felt as though having my photography name be my name was something too common that everyone did. What I've come to learn since then, is that it is not common, because it is my name and no one else has it! I want people to recognize my name and what I do and love! 

I have an amazing new logo, created by Molly Malec, and it is all that I imagined.

Thanks for all your support! In celebration of my new name I will be having a special soon for the second half of 2018! I'll keep you all up to date!

Thank you!!!!

The last few weeks have been great ones though! I experienced my first last minute wedding booking! I had the honor to be contacted 3 days before a wedding to do their photography! At first, they thought they may have not needed a photographer because of all the great technology that is out now, but had seconds thoughts at the last minute! I was so appreciative that they contacted me, especially in such late notice. I had 2 days to prepare for Lhizz and Erika's backyard wedding and BBQ and I have to say, it made things a little more exciting! I didn't have time to even think! But I think I proved to myself how quickly I can get into a mind set and get excited for something approaching so quickly! 

Not that I never aim to give my best work to any person, couple, family during my shoots, but I definitely had a goal here to make them love the memories that I captured for them, especially because it had (once) been an after thought. It was an amazing and fun wedding! Lhizz and Erika worked so willingly with me and let me guide them throughout the day as well as guidance from them for a very care-free, beautiful day with family and friends. I am so grateful for that phone call and to have met such a wonderful family, and also to have photographed one of my favorite couples thus far.

October was such an insanely busy month that I hadn't had the chance to post again about this awesome engagement shoot that I got to do. 

I'm really honored because I am matron of honor for my best friend, Melissa! I wouldn't have let her choose anyone else to take her pictures :-) We had gone shopping for dresses before the shoot with our friend Anna who is also in the wedding. She picked out/bought a few dresses so I got to be surprised to see which one she chose. She did awesome! Melissa was even able to find a shirt for Clinton that matched the color of her dress perfectly. I had suggested we go to the Morton Arboretum in Lisle because it was the middle of summer and all the flowers were bloomed and that was the look she wanted for her engagement pictures. I had remembered a special spot called the Hidden Garden or something like that so I suggested we go there! Well, it is definitely hidden just like the name says. We literally drove around for 30 minutes looking for the entrance to this garden and we were about to give up and I was bummed because it is so pretty there! But thankfully our last "try" we found it and picture taking was on!

I used to be super awkward with posing people because when I had started photography my main hobby was landscapes and nature so I had stuck to that for the most part. I would say 4 years ago I did my first "people" shoot for two of my friends and I seriously got hooked! That shoot wasn't too bad, I don't think haha...but I knew I had a lot to learn because you're now working with other people who may not know what you're going for or who may be embarrassed, nervous or just plain awkward in front of the camera. It's been years since then and Melissa was definitely the subject of some of my "experiments" since then but it's been awhile! I took advantage of this shoot being her and Clinton because I am a person that says "just one more!" but yet that means like 50 more... So I definitely took the chance to do this with them while I had them! I feel like the beginning of photo shoots always sort of start out awkward, especially if you don't know the person, but every time I find it easier and easier to get people out of their shells and find out what makes them laugh, what makes them the most comfortable and how they prefer to have fun or make jokes. I especially liked asking Melissa and Clinton to dance in the middle of the street because not only did they at first think it was strange...but because they thought it was strange, they then started to laugh and it just became so much more than that, to actually get genuine smiles out of people is what I want to keep doing! Everyone is different and sometimes a little joking around will help and even look the cutest rather than the posed pictures. 

I'm super happy with how these turned out and even more excited to see some of these on Melissa and Clinton's Save the Date magnets! I can't wait for the wedding!!

I've always wanted to keep up with this blog when I had made my first post but the craziness of college, graduation, looking for a job and working got in the way. The truth is, those things should have never gotten in the way because I now realize how important it is to write about my photography. What I do, how I do and any problems or achievements I've made along the way. I'm going to take it back a few months because I've actually been pretty busy this year while maintaining my 9-5 gig at a bank. 

In June I was honored to do some product shots for Windy City Espresso run by Carol Soyak. She runs a coffee truck business during those peak months where everyone needs their iced coffee, pumpkin lattes or their hot chocolate; depends on the season! She need me to do some summer drinks for her which I was excited about. I definitely am confident in myself to do product photos but it had been awhile so I had to travel back in time to some of my studio and lighting classes at Ai to grab some fun techniques and ideas! 

Since it was a summer shoot I definitely did not want it to feel like it was a studio shot even though it would be. I found a photo of my own that ended up blurry from the Chicago Botanic Gardens. What was perfect about this is that it was already blurry. I had not taken a second look at this photograph because of this and thought I couldn't use it for anything but kept it anyway. It was perfect! (Blog continues below photo)

I did a number of drinks and did a lot of takes on lighting to get the perfect "sunshine" and used some stained wood left over from our deck that my husband built last year at our house as a surface to get a picnic table look. Now, the fun part was getting that coconut open. Luckily, my husband and Carol's husband got handy and helped us crack that thing open. It wasn't exactly happening so they got out a drill and drilled it until it popped open. So glad we had that coconut as a prop because it looks great next to the drink!!

All in all, this was definitely a refresher for me. And like all my photo shoots, there is always something new to learn! Food photography is definitely no walk in the park and takes a lot of patience and knowledge as well on what will or won't work. I'm excited to do more and I hope I get the chance to! For sure the biggest challenge for me was the stuff that melts! When you've got lights right on real whipped cream and ice cubes it makes for a trying photo shoot haha! I've got to say, once we put that whipped cream on the photo below I did a series of burst shots before the cream fell! I'm so happy though because that may be my favorite one! 

Anyways, thanks everyone who looks at my website and hopefully you all will start reading my blog, I promise I will keep up with it because I'm just excited to share my experiences with everyone! 

Showing off to you guys my newest work that I have done! Very proud of the outcome on this one. As things progress I hope to post more in my blog!