Stephanie Battista

Bella+Sophia Clothing is a modern line of children swear based out of Chicago. Owner & Designer Jennifer Veguilla reached out to me to photograph their launch line, which she wanted to come across as mystical and wondrous. You can shop Bella+Sophia here.

While working at Half Stack Magazine as the lead photographer, we did a combined editorial shoot, showcasing a local gym in Elburn, IL as well as clothing from sportswear brand One P Apparel. check out the gym here and the clothing here

An editorial I shot for Half Stack Magazine featuring Chicago fashion designer Anna Hovet. 

Customers of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library are eagerly awaiting the opening of the new makerspace in the Summer of 2021. In order to promote the Makerspace and give customers a few examples of the possibilities that open up with it, staff members agreed to pose with an example of work they have created with tools/machines that will be available at the Makerspace.

In order:

1. Baking // Stand Mixer

2. Stickers // Vinyl Cutter

3. Quilting // Accu Quilt Go-Big die cutting machine

4. Sunglasses Display // Laser Cutter

The Arlington Heights Memorial Library had an on-going monthly segment in their newsletter that featured a customer who used the library’s studio and/or creative tools available for checkout to work on special, creative projects.

The man featured in this article used Oculus Medium, an immersive VR tool offered by the library, to sculpt. In the photos, I wanted to convey a sense of a digital, whimsical wonder, with a slight sci-fi inspired tone. This feeling was achieved with the bright lighting, shot with a canon speed light mounted on the camera, color correcting in Adobe Photoshop to create a cooler color palette, and a light texture overlaid on top of the photo.

The last picture in the series is the actual layout of the photos in the digital version of the newsletter. In the larger picture on the right; I capture his process as he dons the VR headset and holds the controllers to sculpt in the program shown on the computer in the background. His expression reflects wonder and curiosity as he gets lost in a world he is creating with his own hands in a digital space.

In the smaller picture on the left I captured a portrait of the artist, still wearing his equipment, holding one of the molds that he created using the program and process captured in the first photo. His face expresses a sense of pride in the work he creates.

Another Dear Reader article from AHML Newsletter features a man who found his late foster mother’s works of poetry and tells of his journey into not only transcribing them into a digital format using the library’s computers, but getting the works published.

The photos were taken in one of the library’s studio rooms using a single studio light modified by an Octobox diffuser. I wanted to capture just how much work he accomplished using the library’s resources and the emotion behind it, which is why I featured his mother’s works in each photo. The look in his eyes in these photos really speaks volumes to the love that went into this project.

The last photo on the page is the official layout from the newsletter.

Drawing inspiration from Dean Bradshaw, I wanted to try my hand at photographing derby dames, but from a promotional standpoint. Here, I created a portrait to be used for a trading card, as well as a portrait to be used for a player poster. This concept could be utilized team-wide to sell at their games and raise money for the team. Annevel Knievel is a pivot & blocker for The Dupage Derby Dames

I was hired by Ahava Organic SPAlon, located in Barrington, IL, to take pictures of one of their hair models for a competition they entered into, as well as for their website. 

This Clue series is another product of my Senior Project Ad Concepts. Clue was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. With its vibrant characters, 40's setting, and all of the prop possibilities, I knew it would produce great visuals for re-creating movie posters for a modern-day re-make.

Cubicle Ninjas is a design firm in Glen Ellyn that hired me as a freelance photographer to take portraits of their staff for their website

As a part of my senior project, in which I created mock advertisements, I photographed ads for the video game Bioshock. Throughout the game, you will see posters and mini commercials advertising products within the Bioshock world. I thought it would be a fun concept to create advertisements for the actual game by mimicking the ads seen in the game. It's Ad-Ception.

Natalia Lonska is an actress from Chicago who hired me to take head shots for her new portfolio. 

Steve Kaiser is a classical and jazz guitarist based out of Palatine, IL. Steve hired me to take portraits of him for various promotional uses. 

A Davy Crockett inspired portrait

Adam Zwig is a  singer-songwriter that Half Stack Magazine did a feature article on. I photographed his show at Schuba's in Chicago, IL.