I’m what you might call a workaholic. Justin’s been out of town the past few days, and while I’ve been missing him like crazy (it’s usually me who is out of town, so I’m not used to being the one left behind!), I promptly put together my checklist of things to do. I love checklists. I love the satisfaction of marking things off things as I do them – gives me such a charge each time I check an item off. Bills - check. Post client photos - check. Stop by the office – check. BTW laundry is on that list. At the very bottom. I will get to it. Really.

Anyway I’ve spent my entire morning and afternoon working pictures and ran across a few gems. Gah – Logan is just so precious in this one! Don’t you agree?

And then there’s my gorgeous friend Emily, whose ivory skin is so unbelieveably perfect:

It’s always a nice feeling to look at my list of things to do shrinking. Still several items left but I’ll give myself until tomorrow to finish them all… Figure out a few things in Photoshop and Lightroom, hit the gym, vaccuum, head to a friends house tonight for a get together.

Well internet people, you’ve distracted me from way too much already today But I blogged, so I can check this off the list.

I’ve been meaning to post a few cool pics from our trip to Vegas earlier this month. Being in Vegas for 4 days you’d think we would have had some time to gamble, but with all the fun things Justin had planned for us there really wasn’t much time at all! We watched a David Copperfield show, then a Kevin James’ standup show, and finally Mystere… between all that and hanging out with our friends our days were filled from morning till night!

One of the things I’ve had on my “To Do in my lifetime” list was to learn how to shoot a gun.  We organized a little field trip for ourselves and a few friends while we were out there to do just that. Now I’ll be honest, as soon as it was my turn to shoot, I kind of panicked, looking at Justin to tell me what to do. I had this sinking feeling that I’d get it all wrong and shoot my own fingers off!  But as soon as one of the supervisors at the range gave me a quick review of what I need to do and I took my first shot, I was hooked. My first shot went straight through the middle of the target (i.e. if you know what’s good for you, do not mess with me!).  By the end, I was loading my own bullets and asking Justin if I could shoot a few more

Here’s me at the range, practicing my new found skills!

Here’s Justin wishing he was as good a shooter as me! I joke! (sort of!).

I don’t know why I am so delighted with this next pic, but I just thought it was adorable that our friends Marie and Fernald (a ridiculously cute couple) had matching shoes.

The following night, Justin and I walked around the Bellagio before meeting some of our friends at a lounge for some drinks. Here’s my favorite shot of the evening:

I had a great shoot this afternoon for a company called BabbaCo, a company that creates baby products that are simple, functional, and super cute! We had today’s session at a magnificent home in Evanston – it was one of those homes you drive by and wish someone would invite you into. Well, today I was that lucky person.

Now about the shoot itself, I am not at liberty to discuss what that baby product is (well I could tell you, but then I’d have to, well never mind then…), so you’ll have to check out the BabbaCo site yourself for the next few weeks! These products really are different and innovative, and I know Jessica will take this very far!

It’s been a fun run dipping my toe into commercial photography. It has truly been a great learning experience for me, helping me realize who I am at my core, and what my fundamental goals are as a photograher. So, while commercial/product photography really isn’t my cup of tea, I guess I’ll never say never (as Christine so wisely put it). For now, I’m continuing to focus on what I love: real families and real moments. Lifestyle photography and photojournalism are the reason I decided to pursue photography to begin with so I’m staying as true to it as I possibly can.

And on that note, and since no post is any fun without a photo, here’s one of little Guillen, who is almost a year old. He came to help out his mommy Christine during the shoot today.

This shoot was very near and dear to my heart. I took these pictures while we were in Las Vegas earlier this month. Logan is 3 years old and has the strongest, most resilient mother on Earth, Sarah. It makes me tear up thinking about the circumstances under which we met that day but it will suffice to say that Logan’s daddy John is now resting in heaven watching over these two.

Despite everything, Logan is a gorgeous, rambunctious, and sweet little boy who I could barely keep up with! I had so much fun watching him laugh and run through the park as Justin tried to catch him!

My love to you both Sarah and Logan!

the sky is so much more gorgeous in Vegas… The open road and the blue sky made it easy to drift away and enjoy our mini road trip… Truth be told, we were driving the WRONG way to our friend’s house for about 30-40 minutes when Justin realized we were heading to Arizona Well, at least we got to enjoy the beautiful scenery!

     I always thought being in my thirties would mean I was old. Well, not in a bad way, but in the sense that I would have my life completely in order, like I would achieve some sense of worldly maturity that came with the territory of being this full of life experience.  It was something that was so far off in the distance that I didn’t realize time was creeping up on me.

     Well, folks, in exactly two hours I will be 30 years old.

      Do I feel as mature as I thought I would? In some ways, maybe. Most times I still feel like a kid trying to figure myself out. Full of self doubt and wondering if I am doing the right thing… wondering if I’ll ever be ‘good enough’. I keep reminding myself that I only have to be good enough to be satisfied with myself. But if you know me like Justin, or most of my friends do, ‘good enough’ is a pretty tall order in my eyes and I’m pretty critical in judging my accomplishments. My goal for this decade is to cut myself a little slack and just accept that I’m good enough as is.

     So what have I accomplished in my twenties? Besides finding the best, most patient man on the planet to marry (believe me, he must have super powers that enable him to put up with my insane schedule and consequently, my lackluster ability to play homemaker) one thing that I can honestly say I’m proud of is the fact that I’ve found photography as an outlet. My heart literally sings knowing that I’ve finally found a passion to consume me and satisfy that creative side of me that was dormant for so long! Well… on that note… I’ll leave you with a little eye candy from a photo workshop I attended last month…

     Goodbye twenties… Looking forward to the next exciting decade of my life!

Using studio lights isn’t something I commonly do, but it was definitely worth practicing and learning about. Our model was fabulous!

One final favorite from the day…

Ok one more… (or two!)…. Here’s my friend Juan taking his turn posing our model…

And last but not least…much props go out to William Benson who blessed us with his knowledge and is just one cool cat to learn from!

Had a great first day in Vegas on my birthday trip!! Justin got us tickets to the Cubs v Sox game… Another White Sox winner!!! We’re off to dinner then a David Copperfield show tonight.

Here we are enjoying the game. Even if we are surrounded by Cubs fans

Took a few test shots of my niece Valentina the other day… She looked so lovely in her pink hat! Such a doll

I’ve been working on this a couple months now and am SO excited to share my new blog this month! You can still see my old blog at www.photoblog.com/vfrosch. This March I celebrate the big 3-0 birthday and something I promised myself this year is that I would create my own personalized blog that represents my style and things I love… You’ll notice that one of those things is the color PURPLE Yes, I am obsessed! And speaking of things I love… here’s a pic I just took of my cutie pie Rolo. Happy March everyone!