Folk and Roots, A Retrospective

I haven't had a photo shoot in over a month. That's the first time this has happened this entire year. And while normally, I might be a little sad over that fact, truth is I'm not. It's summer. I have a new pup. Mike and I have been working on getting our home presentable so hopefully in a few months time we can move out to something a little bigger. My personal life has become a little too hectic for shoots.

The thing that actually worries me right now is that I have five people with whom I've corresponded regarding setting up a shoot - one that was scheduled for last Sunday and got cancelled last minute. I'm worried that they are all going to email me tomorrow and say this coming Saturday is the only day that works for them. Truth is, I'd love to not have another shoot until September. I've got the wedding at the end of this month and I'd love nothing more than to have it be the only thing I need to focus on for the time being.

The good thing about not having shoots to edit is that I've finally gotten around to some of the personal stuff I shot over the past month. The weekend of July 10, Mike's mom was in town. This also was the weekend of the Folk and Roots Festival - my favorite of all the Chicago festivals. We grabbed our lawn chairs, parked ourselves right in the middle of the lawn and settled in for the day. The music was fantastic as always, but that was the first weekend Chicago got really hot. And given there was no shade on the lawn, the most we could do was fan ourselves with the programs and pray for a passing cloud to stick around for a bit.

I only took my zoom lens to this event, and I didn't move around a whole lot. I challenged myself to really observe my surroundings from my seat and take photos of what I thought were representative of the day. I've really been trying to work on telling a story with my photos, and I think this collage below does just that.