Zoe Keating rocks!

This is such a crazy busy time of year! Between Christmas shoots, cards and orders, shopping and parties, it was so easy to let my birthday fly under the radar. Greg was so sweet to make sure that I got an extra special present this year. He took me downtown Chicago to a trendy venue called the Metro to hear Zoe Keating play. She is an amazing cellist. She plays plugged into a laptop and some foot pedals and she uses live sampling to create the most beautiful melodies. I often listen to her music especially when I'm feeling overwhelmed with my workload. It's powerful and soothing at the same time. We arrived with only minutes to spare before she went on (Chicago traffic stinks!) She started and it brought tears to my eyes. Thank you to my hubby who knew just the perfect gift for me! I definitely recommend checking out her music and site, there are videos of her playing - you really should see her in action:
Zoe Keating

Halloween Charity Event Winner

The voting for the DRAKEphoto's CASA Halloween Charity Event has officially been closed and we have a winner. Congratulations goes out to "The Great Pumpkin" who is was the cutest pumpkin we have ever seen. We had a lot of fun with this event and we definately will be doing it again. Thank you for all that participated and helped support CASA. Check back with us - you never know what we may be doing next!

Halloween Charity Event Pictures

This Halloween DRAKEphoto put on our first charity event. We teamed up with CASA this year and we had a great turn out. We met and exceeded our goal, raised cash for CASA and had a blast doing it. We captured so many great images that it was hard to pick our favorites. However after much deliberation and discussion we have the images ready that we would like to show off. Make sure to vote on your favorite, the winner will receive a wall portrait!

VOTE

Water Street Dance

Greg and I were excited to photograph the competitive dancers from Water Street Dance Co a few weeks ago. Dancing has always been a passion of mine and the owner and choreographer for Water Street was a role model to me growing up. She and her students are very talented and I strongly believe this environment can be great for girls and their self-esteem. If your girls are serious about dance then I strongly suggest checking out Water Street!

It's so hard to choose just a few favorites from the day, here are a few, and feel free to check out their site to see more:
Water Street Dance Images

Halloween Charity Event

Halloween is right around the corner. I am looking forward to taking Breeza trick or treating this year. We just need to come up with a costume in a hurry! I am also excited because this year DRAKEphoto is going to team up with a local charity for our first Halloween Charity Event. CASA is an organization that offers hope and assistance to children who are victims of child abuse. The mission of CASA of Peoria County is to advocate for abused and neglected children in Peoria County through the services of specially trained community volunteers.
As of June 30, 2008 there are 1,197 pending abuse and neglect cases in the Peoria County Juvenile Court. Many of those cases represent more than one child. I was shocked and saddended when I heard that statistic. We are happy to work with such a selfless and much needed group of people who are working to make a difference in the lives of these children. We would like you to get your little ones all dressed up in their Halloween best and bring them by the studio for a quick photo shoot. We will be running this event all day on Oct 31st. Call the studio to book your time slot because they will fill up fast. The cost is $30, which covers the session fee and 16 wallet size prints. A major portion of this cost will go to directly to CASA. We will also be running a costume contest for those that had a photo session and who would like to enter. The contest will be a chance to win a free wall portrait from DRAKEphoto. So please take advantage of this opportunity to get some great Halloween images, while supporting a local organization that is making a big impact on some young lives. For more information or to find other ways to support CASA, the website is http://www.casapeoria.org/

Weddings

This time of year is crazy for a lot of photographers and we are excited to have our calendar filling up. Fall is my favorite time of year, and it makes for great images. We had our first and second experience at shooting a wedding together as a team in September. They happened to fall on the weekend of our anniversary. It was fun to capture the very beginning of a couple's journey together on a day that represents our sixth year together and the beginning of a new chapter for us - photographing weddings. We are having a blast working together and feel like it is a great blessing on our marriage as well. Here are some of our favorite images from each of the weddings.

DRAKEphoto's first blog!

Well neither one of us has ever been much of a blogger. I never really thought I had anything to say that would draw anyone other than my mother, but there is a lot going on with DRAKEphoto these days! There are several of you that consistently ask about the business. So here it is - the first blog, well over a hundred sessions, and one incredible year! It does sound so cliche to say, but I will say it anyway. Time flies when you are having fun! Both of us love this job! Already we have had the opportunity to meet and work with some terrific people and families. Thank you to each and every one of you that have helped DRAKEphoto have a successful first year. So many of you have helped by passing our name along to a friend, who in turn passed it on to another. It is so exciting to us to see the business growing, and even better yet are the relationships that we have gained so far through this journey. We have been so blessed to do something that brings us so much joy and that inspires in new ways every time we get behind the camera. We also love this job because it allows us to work so closely together and we believe it has strengthened our relationship. When the business first started we were really unsure of how much or of what kind of role I would have in the business. As it went on we found that each of us bring something unique and valuable to the shoot. Although most times Kelli brings the eye needed for beautiful images, and I just bring dumb jokes. 

We have been staying busy with plenty of great shoots and we just photographed two beautiful weddings with some gorgeous images. (We'll show them off next blog!) 

Many of you have asked us why we do not put many pictures of our beautiful daughter Breeza on the website. Believe me, it is not from a lack of images! We both feel that most people can take good images of their own kids, but we like to show that we can capture beautiful images of your kids. However we are never shy when it comes to showing off pictures of our girl. The last few days had been non-stop rain; I was going to start building an arc, but then we decided to take Breezy into the rain and hit some puddles. I hope you enjoy them like I do.     -Greg Drake