Shanae is a multi-passionate dancer and fitness instructor based in Chicago. She performs a variety of movement styles and loves musical theatre and jazz dance. She teaches dance fitness and Zumba classes around Chicago (check out her booty barre class at dear friends of Lumosco’s studio The Rooted Space!)

Shanae has an electric personality that shines through her instruction, performance, and especially through these photos. She loves a good matching two piece athletic wear set to teach in, which I loved that she incorporated for her session. I felt that her choice to wear bright colors and matching patterns emphasized her personality and upbeat teaching in these shots.

Shanae’s vision was to have an upbeat, yet relaxed experience to showcase her personality while including bright colors. Her intention for this set of photos is to utilize for promoting her dance and fitness classes on social media and to have for her website in the future!

In her vision of the shoot, Shanae really liked the idea of capturing the lake as the background to pull the eye more toward her shapes and her colorful clothing. She also wanted to have a graffiti wall or mural as a backdrop as well. In Chicago, it really is no problem whatsoever to find a colorful mural around the city.

As usual, I scouted out the location a few days prior to our shoot together to ensure that we would be able to walk from the lake to the graffiti wall we selected for the photos. I took pictures of the wall and sent them to Shanae. All looked good on that front. Our session was only 3 days later, mind you…

In between those 3 days, construction workers tore down the graffiti wall that we planned to shoot at. We were walking up to the location and the closer we got, the more my heart started to race. I saw the construction workers. I saw the machinery. I started to wonder… and in my gut I just knew.

The part of the wall that we had planned to shoot at was being torn down in real time.

We almost gave up. We almost wrapped the shoot right there. We almost dropped everything to get just a few mediocre shots right there at the construction site, but it just didn’t feel right (or necessarily safe) to do so.

We didn’t give up. I extended the shoot a bit longer to get the shots that she wanted in front of a different colorful graffiti wall not too far away. It was something my client wanted and it was what we planned. I wasn’t going to settle for less.

The thing I have to remind myself and my clients for on-location sessions is that not everything is going to go as planned, even when you plan it out meticulously. There are many factors that are simply out of our control. I prepare my clients who book me for on-location work that I will do everything in my control to make sure the session runs smoothly, but with outdoor forces (inclement weather, unintended construction, etc), we sometimes just have to roll with the punches.

But the lovely thing about this is that together we get to embrace the obstacle and step up to the challenge. Together we will take a deep breath and feel empowered by doing so. At the end of the day, you will have photos that show the glow of your face knowing that you overcame an obstacle that day, in real time. You’ll see the glimmer in your eye that you felt more empowered because you embraced the challenge. And that’s where the magic happens.

Check out the gallery from Shanae’s dance fitness photography session below and see the new colorful mural wall that we went to for the second portion of her shoot! (hint: it’s even better than the original)