Meet-a-Mom, Jessica Remus
What’s your favorite family activity in the Hinsdale, Western Springs, La Grange, Clarendon Hills Area?
One of our favorites is the La Grange Pet Parade. We walk down and grab the same spot to sit and watch it every year with neighbors, family and friends. Unfortunately it has to be held virtually this year.
How many children do you have and what are their age(s)?
I have two boys (9 and almost 11 years old), and a 5 year old daughter.
How long have you lived in the Hinsdale/WS/La Grange/CH Area? What made you decide to live here?
We moved to La Grange Park in July, 2010 from Wicker Park. I’ll never forget it because it was during the 4th of July holiday, about 100 degrees and I was about 100 weeks pregnant with our second son. We knew we wanted to land somewhere with great schools and where our kids could grow up playing with neighbors, and run around a little bit more freely. We really like that we can still walk to the train, downtown La Grange, and schools from our house.
Where’s your favorite place to eat and/or shop in the Hinsdale/WS/La Grange/CH Area?
There are so many! I love shopping at Jayne in La Grange. I have bought many a pair of shoes and boots there. I also love Bloom 3 and Vintage Charm. For dinner we really like Steak and Vine (their key lime pie is amazing!), and Lucca’s is another favorite spot. I go to Owl & Lark fairly often, it’s a fun place to meet a friend for coffee or bring your laptop to work for a little bit – and their avocado toast is my fave.
What’s one thing people would be surprised to know about you?
People that know me as a photographer are often surprised to learn that I spent many years at a lab bench doing research on the immune response. I love science, and all of my schooling is in biology and immunology. Many scientists I know have an artistic side, which might not make sense at first but you need to use both sides of your brain to answer complex research questions and to create art. Also, creating art has always been a great outlet for me!
Anyone special you’d like to thank for helping you through parenthood?
We wouldn’t have made it without the help of my parents and my in-laws. They have been very prominent figures in our kids’ lives (wouldn’t have it any other way!) and have swooped in to help us with the kids countless times.
Are you involved in a business venture, a local organization, a creative endeavor, or in the corporate world? Please share!
Yes! I’m a children’s lifestyle and portrait photographer. I am a one woman show at Jessica Remus Photography. While most of my work focuses on young children and their families, I do photograph older kids, headshots, and some commercial work as well. I shoot mostly on location, but I also have an amazing industrial studio space in La Grange now. I love it, it’s a huge raw open space that’s flooded with natural light and it really allows me to get creative (and comes in quite handy with unpredictable Chicago weather). 
About 5 years ago, I realized that school photos were an area in need of some major improvement. Not much had changed since my own school pictures eons ago. The same fake smiles and blue backdrop. It seemed like such a missed opportunity to capture an amazing classic portrait at a fleeting time when kids change so fast. So I started taking portraits at a few area preschools and it is one of my absolute favorite things to do each year and has become a huge part of my business. I love taking honest and timeless portraits of little kids, just letting them be themselves. You will never hear me ask a child to smile! School portraits have become very popular and are part of the reason I started looking for a studio space – so that I could offer these portraits to children year round that don’t attend my preschools as well as to older and younger siblings of my school kids. I can’t wait to be able to get back to doing them again soon! I love watching my preschool kids grow up through my lens, I get to know the families and it’s a lot of fun.
I also really enjoy photographing animals – if you have a dog I will insist that they are involved in your photo shoot! I’m an artist with the HeARTs Speak organization, a worldwide collaborative of artists donating time and talent to photograph shelter animals to get them seen, increasing awareness and adoptions. I photograph adoptable dogs and horses as much as my time allows. It’s amazing what a great photograph can do, and very gratifying that my photographs have helped many animals find forever homes. My work with animals has led to some really fun pet food and pet supply company collaborations that also benefit shelter animals.
How has this community been instrumental in getting you to where you are now?
I have been so fortunate to have the vast majority of my photography clients come to me through word of mouth. I have had such huge support from so many amazing clients within our community, I really do have the very best clients! They have all propelled me to where I am now.