WIND…it was a big factor during our photo shoot a month ago at Olive Park.

If you live in Chicago or plan to visit the city, you MUST visit this park. It’s located along Lake Michigan. The view of the skyline is phenomenal…I mean breathtaking, not only during the day but in the evening! It’s very close to Navy Pier and in fact, you can see the Ferris wheel, which makes for cool pictures.

We had such a great time with Maggie Russo last year at Eleawa Farm so we wanted her to do our family portrait session this year. We picked a date in mid September to do the shoot. We figured the weather would still be decent…but it wasn’t. Fall in Chicago this year has been cold and unpredictable to say the least. The weather in the morning was great but then there were some rain and clouds in the afternoon. Maggie and I texted each other during the day to see if we should continue with the photo shoot. Because the rain stopped, we decided to go ahead with it. So I headed to Jewel and got our dozen balloons because I’m currently OBSESSED with balloons in photos lately. I think they make pictures look so whimsical.

When we got there, we felt that wind. I mean it wasn’t a normal breeze, it felt like a tornado was coming (I’m exaggerating). We decided to go along with the shoot anyway and just “see” what happens. Here is what happened in my head: Luke didn’t want to take pictures, he just wanted to run around the circular things by the grassy area. My dress was waaaay too short and the wind just blew up…I think at one point everyone on Lakeshore Drive could see my underwear. My hair was blowing around as if I was Medusa. I forgot to bring a hair band so I couldn’t put it up (argh!). It was cold. Charlie was concerned that Luke was cold and made sure his jacket stayed on. But I wanted the jacket off because I wanted to have pictures with is suspenders. And….the balloons…oh my gosh, they were blowing  in every direction. Thank goodness Charlie found a way to control them.  Oh, did I mention my short dress? What was I thinking? We didn’t stay for the whole hour of our session. We had to cut it short because the wind WOULD.NOT.STOP! When we left, Maggie said she thought we may have some good shots But, I told Charlie that I didn’t think any of the pictures would turn out good. We should have rescheduled for another day.

Well……Maggie just sent me the pictures yesterday and she posted the session on her blog, too! And…all I have to say is Oh My Goodness!!  I just fell in love with the pictures!  The wind was a factor that day and you can tell by the pictures. BUT….now I’m glad we had the wind. These pictures just evoked the Chicago wind…they tell you how it feels like, what it looks like to be in the Windy City. I don’t know how else to describe it but I almost think that we needed the wind that day. Maggie did a fantastic job braving the elements with us. Here a just a few photos from the shoot. Please go to Maggie’s blog for more pictures.

What we wore…I wanted the color red to be the common color on all of us. I had on a red belt, Luke a bowtie, and Charlie a red shirt. My second color was khaki, although my dress was more blush.

And just to show how windy it really was…look at my hair in this outtake.