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.