Photography by David Smolarek

02/13/2026

Doing Real Estate photography, I get to photograph some interesting properties. Some are quite spectacular, some need a lot of work. This week, I photographed a time capsule house. This is a house in Morton Grove. The current owners moved in in 1970 and the house has not been updated. Complete with s**g carpeting, a pink bathroom and a rotary phone still on the wall in the kitchen!

01/03/2026

Through the lens of a kaleidoscope.

10/16/2025

In addition to my portrait and landscape work, I also do Real Estate photography. I've photographed many unique and interesting properties but none more spectacular than the mansion known as Fairlawn located at 965 East Deerpath in Lake Forest. Fairlawn is 13,600 sf situated on 3.5 acres. It has eight bedrooms, each with an ensuite bathroom and three half baths. The seven car garage and coach house is attached to the main house by a heated, underground tunnel.
The mansion was completed in 1925 and at that time the property was eight acres of land and also contained the first golf course laid out in the Chicagoland area. Parts of the property were subdivided and sold in the 1950's.

08/29/2024

Light painting experiment

08/06/2024

IMSA Sports Car Weekend at Road America.

05/14/2024

In addition to my portrait and landscape work, I also do Real Estate photography. I recently photographed a unique house in the Glenview/Northbrook area on a fantastic chunk of land. 2.5 acres with a large pond on the property. The house had a great layout with plenty of open space and a lot of natural light from the many windows. I'd be interested, but the garage was too small.

04/08/2024

Reflections of the eclipse

03/31/2024