Well hot damn, i'm excited you're here. I'm Emily - you can call me em.
welcome to the blog!
I love taking adventures all over the world, photographing weddings. seniors, boudoir, and helping other photographers perfect their craft. When I have my shit together, I blog about them using way too many exclamation points. What can I say, I love my job! Grab a coffee and stay a while!
June 27, 2018
Montego Bay, Jamaica By now, I’m sure you’ve already read Part One of Chelsey + Ian’s destination Jamaican wedding, where I covered everything from the morning of the ceremony up to bridal portraits on the beach! What you may have caught on to is the fact that all of those photos were captured before about […]
June 24, 2018
Meadowbrook Park, Urbana, IL Last summer I met up with 2018 graduate Laura for her senior photos. She’s such a sweet girl, we enjoyed walking around Meadowbrook Park and catching up. She’s got such great style, too! Thanks to Sage for making her makeup as flawless as she is! I hope you love these photos […]
June 20, 2018
A Rustic Summer Wedding at the Conference Center, Decatur, Illinois – June 16th, 2018 – Another Wednesday, another wedding! One I couldn’t have been more excited for. A dear childhood friend from my hometown, Hillary, and her perfect love, Brian, got married Saturday. In the week leading up, I (and I think I speak on […]
June 13, 2018
Shelbyville Event Center, Shelbyville, IL Last fall, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet with Hannah of Hannah Leigh Photography to help assist in photographing Monica + Adam’s wedding day! It was my first time ever visiting the Shelbyville Event Center, and though it’s clearly a gym, it dresses up quite nicely! We started the […]
June 10, 2018
Downtown Paxton, Illinois Jayden’s senior session was one for the books. After makeup with Sage, we ventured out to downtown Paxton. Jayden’s a natural in front of the camera, and we had a blast! Right before sunset, we visited one of my favorite spots with tall grass and a view of the western sky for […]
June 10, 2018
Tuesday Tips I truly believe I’m in a love-hate relationship with emailing, and I know I’m not the only one, because I’m often asked about tips for being more efficient in the office, specifically regarding email. Now, before I share my “secrets”, please note – I’m not perfect. These “secrets” keep me on the struggle buss […]
June 7, 2018
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, Universal Studios, Orlando, FL Since Brandon + I’s honeymoon to Cancun, Mexico in 2013, we started a bucket list of travels we wanted to take. The very first thing on our list was to visit Universal Studios (more specifically Harry Potter World) as soon as we could afford it. […]
June 6, 2018
A Classic Romantic Wedding at the Walton Centre | Fairbury, Illinois – June 2nd, 2018 – Happy wedding Wednesday friends! Today I get the distinct honor of sharing Dayna and Shawn’s wedding day with you. We started the morning in Roberts at the Inspired By You Salon, which brought back many good memories since that’s […]
June 3, 2018
The Sheraton Indianapolis City Centre, Indy, IN Where to even begin! I headed out on Friday night, the first weekend in April, in anticipation of the weekend ahead. The event is hosted by some dear friends of mine, Kellie and Rebekah, and the fifth year of The Reset Conference was just hours away. I hadn’t […]
May 30, 2018
A Simple Military Ballroom Wedding | Champaign, IL – May 26th, 2018 – This was a day long in the making. Hilary and Matt met many years ago and have been dating long distance almost ever since. Planning their Illinois wedding from the state of Washington couldn’t have been easy, but it was beautiful! Matt, […]
May 25, 2018
Green Acres Sportsman’s Club, Roberts, IL When Lily told me she wanted a location that allowed for pets, had a nature-feel, and maybe had horses, I knew just the place! By now you know that one of my favorite shooting spots is Green Acres, and it never disappoints. In addition to many awesome shooting locations, […]
May 6, 2018
Downtown Champaign, IL Lindsey’s first senior session was such a blast, I knew her spring mini would be the same. We met up near the downtown Champaign, but in an effort to find new locations, we went walking to find some new urban spots! We ended up over by Boneyard Creek, and found an incredible […]
April 8, 2018
Rural Paxton + PBL High School Gym, Paxton, IL Every time I see Cassidi (CJ), she’s always bright, bubbly, happy, and always wears a smile. Her personality shines and she’s been a perfect addition to the Mager Image Spokesmodel Team for 2018. She’s a beautiful girl, inside and out, and we were excitedly planning her […]
April 3, 2018
U of I Arboretum + Japanese Gardens, Champaign, IL Summer seems like a perfect time to try new things, so I reached out to local videographer Tori Beach about making a handful of promo videos for me as a photographer, and she was on board! Shortly after putting out a model call on Facebook, Bailey and […]
March 29, 2018
Sandals Royal Caribbean, Montego Bay, Jamaica Wow. That’s really the only word I have to describe Chelsey and Ian’s Jamaican wedding ceremony. When Chelsey first brought the idea of their destination wedding up to me, I was all in. Who wouldn’t be?! Twenty-eight of the couples’ closest friends and family members traveled to Sandals Royal […]
March 24, 2018
Farm Home, Donovan, IL Oh Donovan. It had been a long time since last being in Donovan, the hometown where I grew up most of my life. Since first moving there in second grade, I knew Amanda. She was this shy, sweet, quiet girl who never had anything bad to say about anyone, and always […]
March 19, 2018
Happy birthday, Brandon! Another year down, but each year gets better and better with you. Sure, we have our ups and downs, but this past year has been simply amazing. From buying our first home together, to celebrating our little girl time and time again, you continue to amaze me. You’re a constant giver, giving […]
March 15, 2018
Each year, I try and step my wedding day game up in many different ways. This past, oh, 18 months, I’ve really been concentrating on the bling! I’m going to get a bit “techy”, but before then all I had to photograph the rings was my Canon 24-70mm 2.8L series lens, and it just wasn’t […]
March 9, 2018
Downtown + Football Field, Hoopeston, IL Sam had recently moved from Paxton to Hoopeston right before his senior year. For his senior session, I asked where he wanted to have them done and we decided on the streets of Hoopeston, which aside from driving through once or twice, I’d never been. As with most new […]
March 4, 2018
Dogtown, Paxton, IL It’s not possible. He cannot be a senior! Time flies, but it was just yesterday that Cole’s sister and I were playing around in the yard while Cole was barely old enough to walk! I consider Cole to be “an honorary cousin” as his dad has always been known to me as […]
February 28, 2018
Allerton Park, Monticello, IL I’ve known dear Kortnie for years. Our families have been close from the moment they’ve met (which is easy being that they live two doors down from my father’s home) and when Kortnie found her forever love, it was so exciting! I hadn’t gotten many chances to meet Joe before their […]
February 24, 2018
Fairbury American Legion Speedway + Downtown, Fairbury, IL Fairbury isn’t a town I frequent very often. In fact, if it wasn’t for their annual garage sale seasons or Dave’s Meat Sale I probably wouldn’t have really ever been. However, this past fall we scheduled Paige + Ryan’s engagement session, and since they’re frequent visitors of […]
February 20, 2018
Lake of the Woods, Mahomet, IL Ever since I’ve known Hillary, she’s loved softball. We grew up together, our parents being close, and attended elementary and high school up until I moved away and from an early age softball was a big part of who she was. On to college, and of course, there was […]
February 16, 2018
U of I Campus, Champaign, Illinois This past fall was a busy one for me. So busy in fact that I’m still playing catch up on the blog (aren’t I always??) Regardless, these two get married in just a few months so I wanted to make sure their session made it to the front lines […]
February 12, 2018
Concord Room at Pear Tree Estate, Champaign, IL Last spring, I had the distinct honor of working once again with Shaina and Annie for an event very close to their hearts. Their dear friend was expecting a little girl, and they were hosting the baby shower! In true Pear Tree fashion, it was go big […]
February 8, 2018
Dogtown, Paxton, IL Stunning. That’s the first word that comes to mind when I look back at Sage’s senior session. If you follow me at all, you know Sage. She’s been a family friend for years, and when we had Bexley was the first person we called to come nanny for us. So we spend […]
January 27, 2018
Timber Creek Bed + Breakfast, Paxton, IL Second shooting for me often means having to travel a bit. Paxton is a town FULL of churches, but skimpy on reception venues! However, last September I had the wonderful opportunity to second shoot alongside Kara Evans, a photographer based out of St. Anne, IL, and she was […]
January 23, 2018
Family Farm, Roberts, IL This has been the year for senior guys! I’ve still had many girls on my editing block, but this year definitely more guys for sure. I try and make senior sessions for guys short, sweet, and to the point, and Drew’s session was every bit of sweet. We started with his […]
January 19, 2018
Ten Mile Grove, Paxton, IL So, I’m going to jump out of order here for a minute, because in true blogger style (ok, maybe it’s just me) I procrastinated, and haven’t been able to blog Kalista’s first session we did over the summer. BUT. I’m going to jump forward a bit and skip the summer […]
January 17, 2018
Ten Mile Grove, Paxton, IL Snowfall is a hard thing to catch for photographers. It’s unpredictable, meaning if we want to catch it falling, we have to be “on call” and keep our fingers crossed our clients are available. This year especially, I wasn’t honestly sure if we were going to see snow at all. […]
