Billi Jo Shank crowned Miss Georgetown Fair 2018

Billi Jo Shank of Danville was crowned Miss Georgetown Fair 2018 during the Monday night Georgetown Fair Queen Pageant, emerging from a field of 9 contestants to earn the right to represent Georgetown at the Illinois state fair queen pageant in January. Miss Georgetown Fair 2018 Billi Jo Shank was crowned by outgoing queen Heather Simpson.

We were thrilled to be there as the official photographers of the Georgetown Fair Queen, and with the crowning of Billi Jo Shank we have now photographed the crowning of the Georgetown Fair Queen ten consecutive times.

Here are some of the very first official pictures from Billi's crowning moment and a sneak peak at our first portrait session with Billi on the midway following the pageant. We've got lots more to show you, so keep checking back for more pictures of the Georgetown Fair Queen right here with Josh and Joe Travels!

Georgetown Fair Queen Contestant Fair Walk with Queen Heather Simpson

Today we were at the Georgetown Fair with the Heather Simpson and the queen pageant contestants as they visited the fair and toured the exhibit buildings. Contestant Fair Walk is a chance for all of the contestants to see the fair in person, and even try their hand at washing a cow. Monday night at the fair Heather Simpson will crown the 2019 Miss Georgetown Fair Queen, so keep checking back all week for exclusive pictures right here with Josh and Joe Travels!

Georgetown Fair Queen Turn Back Time with Heather Simpson

Heather Simpson will crown the winner of the 2018 Miss Georgetown Fair Queen Pageant coming up in just a couple days, and we can't believe how fast the past year has flown by with Queen Heather. These pictures are some of our favorite moments with Heather Simpson and if you are at the pageant on Monday night of the fair we bet you'll get to hear Heather talk about a few of them. Queen Heather's year has been more about the journey than the destination, but now that we're here we can't help but think about how Heather embraced her job as queen to make her year an unforgettable adventure. And pretty cool we got to be there to take pictures of some of it.

Earlier this year we had a chance to do a special photo session with a few of the former Georgetown fair queens, and Heather is soon to join that club (if you missed those pictures online you might stick you head in the fair office and look for them on the wall). We hope Heather's year inspires the next Georgetown Fair Queen to make the most of her year of service, because if you've seen anything from Heather, being Miss Georgetown Fair is probably the best job in Illinois. And if you want to see who follows in Heather's footsteps to become the next Georgetown Fair Queen, keep checking back right here with Josh and Joe Travels!

Georgetown Fair Queen Contestant Tea with Heather Simpson

This weekend we were back in Illinois at with the Georgetown Fair Queen to photograph the queen's tea. The queen's tea is the annual kick-off event for the pageant and serves as a contestant orientation for contestants. We also got to present Heather Simpson with her official portrait, plus we brought along some big prints from our spring portrait session with several of the former Georgetown fair queens. This August we will photograph the winner of the Georgetown Fair Queen pageant for the tenth consecutive time. We'll be making lots of trips to Illinois of the summer and we'll be posting new pictures right here at Josh and Joe Travels!

Key West Five Brothers, Charlie Macs and Key Lime Pie

In Key West and the Florida Keys we tend to take good Key Lime Pie for granted - all you have to do is make a trip to the seaport area and stop into the Key Lime pie shop to get a slice. But in the midwest most restaurants tend to serve a really odd artificially green Key Lime pie, and that's also what you are most likely to find in the grocery freezer case. If you love Key Lime pie like Joe does, don't take the Key Lime pie shop for granted during your next trip to Key West.

Charile Macs on Greene Street just off Duval has become our top spot for good BBQ in Key West. The Florida Keys aren't exactly known for great BBQ so we are happy to have a reliable spot like Charlie Macs. Joe loves the ribs and taco Tuesday is a routine favorite.

Five Brothers has been one of our favorite spots for take out for years and years, and is where Josh prefers to get his Cuban mix sandwich (all the way no mayo please). Five Brothers is a regular spot for locals but you'll see a fair number of tourists hitting the place at lunchtime. And if you really need to find Josh and Joe, if you hang out here for about a week you are bound to see one of them walk in to pick up their lunch order. So the next time you are in Key West be sure to try one of our favorite places and take a little time to relax just like Josh and Joe Travels!

Georgetown Fair Queen Spring Portrait Session with Heather Simpson

As the official photographers of the Georgetown Fair Queen in Illinois we do a lot of pictures with the fair queen, and some of the coolest pictures we do each year are for summer advertising and promotional purposes. These pictures are shot to illustrate the theme of the fair and the pageant, and you might see them in local papers, the pageant program and of course on social media and the official Georgetown Fair Queen Pageant website.

We did this photo session with 2017 Queen Heather Simpson back in April but we tend to not put them up on our blog until the Georgetown Fair Queen Pageant directors have started using them. By now you've probably seen a few new pictures of Heather turning up on the pageant website and a few other places, and we are excited to tell you that these are the pictures are a sneak peek from our spring session.

For those of you interested in a little behind the scenes, our spring session with Queen Heather was actually a combination of several locations plus a lot of time on the white seamless set that we built out at the fairgrounds. This literally took us an entire day, and we probably spent as much time driving and building out the white seamless set as we did actually shooting. We've really loved working with Heather Simpson because she works really hard with us on picture day to create these images. Its a rewarding, exhausting day for all of us so we are very excited when the pictures finally make it out into publication. For the photographers out there, we shot the white seamless stuff with six lights including four on the background and two up front that were the main and fill lights. The location stuff got done pretty simply with single light in a small octa.

We've loved all the pictures we've done with Heather, but as the summer gets going it will soon be time for another queen to be crowned in August. If you live in Illinois in the Georgetown area and would like to become a contestant or learn how to sponsor, visit the best fair queen pageant in Illinois online at the Georgetown Fair Queen official website. Things really get going for contestants the first week in July at the queen's tea and contestant orientation, and shortly after that we'll be doing contestant headshots. It's sure to be a busy summer so keep checking back right here for new pictures with Josh and Joe Travels!