Bethany Rea to Compete in Illinois State Pageant

Bethany Rea, a resident of Lincoln, Illinois, won the Logan County Fair Queen pageant this past August and will be competing at the state pageant this weekend.  She is a delightful young lady and will represent our county well.  I wish her the best in the competition this weekend.

Bethany Rea - Springfield, Illinois, pageant headshot photography by Michael Gowin

Bethany Rea - Springfield, Illinois, pageant headshot photography by Michael Gowin

Bethany Rea - Springfield, Illinois, pageant headshot photography by Michael Gowin

Bethany Rea - Springfield, Illinois, pageant headshot photography by Michael Gowin

Bethany, 2010 Logan County Fair Queen - Illinois Portrait Photographer

Congratulations to Bethany Rea, 2010 Logan County Fair Queen. Bethany, a resident of Lincoln, participated in this year's pageant with seven other lovely and talented young ladies, making the judges' decision very difficult. In January, Bethany will take her place among the other county fair winners at the state pageant. We wish her the best and hope that she enjoys her year of service in Logan County and beyond.

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Shannon, Lifestyle 2010 - Illinois Lifestyle Photographer

My friend Shannon recently came into the studio to help me with some lighting tests. Shannon is a natural in front of the camera and we had a lot of fun making these pictures. As we got started, she mentioned that she'd never had senior portraits done so we joked that this was like her senior session. But that set me to thinking: even if you had senior portraits done in the 80's (like I did) or 90's, they're probably looking pretty dated by now--especially if you had your picture made with the "big numbers" that showed the year of your graduation (you know what I'm talking about). Why not treat yourself to some new photographs? We'll do them in the studio and/or location and have a great time while we're at it. Think of it as senior portraits for grownups. Get some new prints to display around your home and a new profile photo for facebook. If you're interested, contact me and we'll get your session scheduled.

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Four Seasons Health Club - Illinois Commercial Photographer

A few months ago, the Four Seasons Association, a private health club in Bloomington, Illinois, contacted me about providing photography for an updated website that they were developing. I spent a couple days in June on-site to showcase their facilities and amenities for their growing membership. The new site just went live this week, and you can see it at http://www.4seasons-club.com/. Many of the images displayed on the site were made during those two days in June; a few are stock photographs and images from the previous site. The new site also contains "virtual tours" of the facilities which feature the photographs made on the June dates. Below are a few of my favorite images. If you need photographs to help promote your organization or business, whether head shots or images of your facilities, please contact me--I'd be happy to discuss ways that I can help meet your needs.

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Kerry Rolewicz, Artist

Kerry Rolewicz is a wonderful artist and person who lives here in Lincoln. She's been creating interesting characters in her work with pastels, pencil, and other media for years. I've been working with Kerry in the last few weeks to photograph her pieces both for archival purposes as well as to prepare images for reproduction. This will enable her to continue to sell her unique original pieces as well as smaller format prints. Below is an image I made from one of Kerry's pieces as well as some detail shots from her studio. If you're in Lincoln, you can find the studio in the Arcade Building on the south side of the square. Kerry also has a new web site, kerryrolewicz.com, from which she'll soon make prints for sale and have news on her upcoming shows.

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