Photography by Emily Cummings

Photography by Emily Cummings Newborn, Family, Children Photographer and commercial studio and on-location photographer in Chicago
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Located in the heart of Chicago's Lakeview/Lincoln Park neighborhood and in Naperville, IL. This portrait studio provides fine art photography, including maternity, newborns, babies, children, and families. Featured in Lakeshore Lifestyle Magazine, and Me Ra Koh's Your Family in Pictures. Emily Cummings is also listed one of the top Chicago Family photographers on the popular blog The Chicago Chic. Ten Little Bluebird's upscale Chicago photography studio uses a modern minimalist style to capture authentic connections and real moments both in the studio and on-location throughout the Chicagoland area.

My first trip into the city. Same girl, new window. The whole story is on the blog, link in bio.
09/10/2026

My first trip into the city.



Same girl, new window.

The whole story is on the blog, link in bio.

Gone are the days of matching khaki pants and white shirts on the beach. You know exactly what I’m talking about.That’s ...
09/09/2026

Gone are the days of matching khaki pants and white shirts on the beach. You know exactly what I’m talking about.

That’s me and my sisters in slide one, Olan Mills, 1988. Four matching sets of bangs and one pair of OshKosh overalls. So I really can’t judge the khaki-pants beach families. Okay, maybe a little.

Nobody dresses like that in real life. Unless it’s the 80s. Then it was cool... I think.

But look at the outfits, because my mom was spot on. Chambray, denim, white, spread across four kids, nobody in the same thing. That is “coordinate, don’t match” thirty-some years before I started saying it in planning sessions.

Slide two maybe a little too matching - 2 combos, four kids, matched in pairs, and every one of us in white high-tops with the socks pulled up. This look was NOT for a photo shoot - this was just how we dressed... again it was cool.

I say it in almost every planning session and it always gets a laugh, but I mean it. Your family photos should look like your family, not a catalog from 2003.

So here is how I actually do it:

Mom picks her outfit first. Find the thing you feel amazing in, and everybody else follows. Dad will wear whatever gets laid out on the bed. The kids could wear a burlap sack and still look cute. You are the one who needs to feel incredible in these pictures, so you go first.

Coordinate, don’t match. Two or three colors that work together, spread across the family. Different textures, same palette.

Outdoors in fall color, I lean jewel tones. Deep greens, burgundy, mustard, navy. In the studio it flips. Both studios are light and bright, so soft neutrals win there. Creams, warm grays, soft earth tones.

And before any of that, I ask where the photos are going. Wall or album changes everything.

Full guide is on the blog. Fall sessions are booking now in Naperville and Chicago.

The studio dog, Totoro, has approved the view. Studio 25 Chicago.
09/08/2026

The studio dog, Totoro, has approved the view. Studio 25 Chicago.


09/07/2026

Meet AI me again, this time in cashmere. That was the most fun part of making my own dating ads, dressing my clone. I wanted my AI self to be comfortable and cozy, and she has never once complained about the turtleneck.

The real point: dating photography is a real thing I do, and it works. Every photograph in this ad is a real client, made by real me.

Send this to whoever just came to mind.

09/04/2026

She was on a phone consult with me from the 9th floor. I was on the 51st. Same building. Neither of us knew.

Kasi booked a Luminous session for herself. Then she decided her daughters were coming with her.White tanks and jeans fo...
09/03/2026

Kasi booked a Luminous session for herself. Then she decided her daughters were coming with her.

White tanks and jeans for the three of them against the white brick. A solo portrait for each of the girls. And then Kasi on the dark backdrop, in black, for the portrait that is entirely her own that she is using for The Luminous Project.

They had never had photographs like this taken together. With her oldest leaving for college soon, the timing was everything. One of these is already printed and going on their wall.

This is what The Luminous Project is for. A few spots are still open this fall. Message me for details.

09/02/2026

So I was taking an amazing class by Jenna Soard from The Secret AI Society and messing around with AI and cloned myself to make my own ads. Apparently, Google Ads needs youtube videos to make the ads run smoothly and honestly there is just not enough time in the day as a small business owner. I can be photographing clients or I can be filming ads of myself, and I know which one I would rather be doing.

The face and voice in these are AI me. You can tell because her hair and her makeup is flawless and she does not have my under-eye circles. She also has never once needed a coffee.

Every photograph in them is real client work, real people, made by real me. That part will never be AI.

Huge thank you to Jenna Soard | Creative Director | Launch Your Brand with AI of Secret AI Society for teaching me how to do this. Mind officially blown.

Now the important question. I made two of these and cannot decide which one is funnier. A: the double chin one.
B: the fluorescent hallway one.

Vote in the comments.

I have a notebook full of locations - rooms, underground streets in chicago where the light hits a certain way, random r...
09/01/2026

I have a notebook full of locations - rooms, underground streets in chicago where the light hits a certain way, random roadsides, murals - I am always collecting ideas for photo shoots.

Years ago at a ribbon cutting in Naperville and then again at the opening of the The Ville’s new business in downtown Naperville. I noticed a law library on the first floor and wrote it down. When Judge Terra Costa Howard needed campaign portraits and the courthouse was not workable, I knew exactly where to go.

Thank you to Bridget Baldonado Salela and The Ville Team for opening the building on a Saturday to accommodate my whimsy - and make this shot finally happen!

One of my favorite parts of the session - Terra even let me try on her judge's robe so I could feel how heavy it is. Wish I had gotten a picture of that! Probably my only chance.

Studio 25 Naperville and Studio 25 Chicago in Streeterville.

Fifteen years ago I photographed this wedding as a guest with a brand new camera I would not could not put down. I was a...
08/31/2026

Fifteen years ago I photographed this wedding as a guest with a brand new camera I would not could not put down. I was almost certainly annoying the actual photographers. Sorry, whoever you were.

Danny and I met freshman year of high school. Prom, Notre Dame, London, and still friends after all these years…. He married the amazing Colleen and I made them a little album from that wedding before I had a business at all. I actually totally forgot I even did that until she reminded me during this shoot - 15 years later!

A few weeks ago summer they flew in from Florida for the Foo Fighters concert and stayed at the gorgeous Blackstone Hotel. There were like 3 weddings that weekend…. so we found a side room with marble floors and gorgeous light and snuck in for a few pictures. This is where Danny and Colleen did their tasting years before! The kids showed me Al Capone's barber chair. Then we recreated their wedding photos outside, with the kids pretending to be horrified.

We finished off the night with a visit to Lou Malnati’s and brought both families together.

Address

25 W Jefferson Street Unit 2
Downtown Naperville, IL
60540

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