Tagged: photography

A Bird, Boat, Bike, and Bridge

I often find myself location scouting for weddings on odd days here and there. Add to this that I am easily distracted (look, something shiny!), and I typically come home with a grab bag of images. Lately, that grab bag has been filled with scenery shots, because well, I must practice my scenery and details shooting. Portraits come much easier for me.

So, below are a collection of recent scenery shots from around Cleveland and Lakewood. Some of you may even recognize the locations. When I saw the alliteration between the images, I knew I had to post them.


Above is the Cleveland Jazz and Rib fest held each Memorial Day weekend.

I have always wanted to photograph Blackbird’s red door against the green summer ivy.

Most of you will probably recognize the Nautica Queen parked on the Cuyahoga River is downtown Cleveland. I just love how the film was able to handle the bright white while also opening the shadows. It really does amaze me sometimes. So, that’s a bird, a boat, a bike and a bridge. For those that get into the techie stuff, all of the above is Kodak Extra shot on a mix of Mamiya and Hasselblad.

Crafting Heirlooms

My modest Cleveland home is filled with fine-art prints of all sorts. There are family photos, photos of friends, some clients and even some crazy prints. For example, a large print of two friends dressed for a wedding as Dumb and Dumber. Seriously, a wedding! We also have a few albums, all of which we treasure. When developing our recent branding redesign, we also reconsidered the fine-art prints and albums we offer. To match with the our clients expectations and the brand, we had to make improvements.

As we always have, we continue to provide our clients with the very best prints. All wedding prints are printed on true archival-quality photo paper by the best lab available. But as part of the branding redesign, I wanted to make delivery of client proofs into a “gift.” So, we teamed with the best wedding album producer available to create something really special for all of our clients. Cypress Albums helped us to create the Proof Presentation Box.

Like any other print, we give our clients fine-art proofs. The individual proofs are now paired with a archival-quality box for storage and display. Each box is bound in Japanese book-binding silk, features a magnetic closure, and decorative ribbon. So far, the response has been overwhelming. More so, I want to keep each box that arrives, but I am happy to give them to our wonderful clients! Should a client choose, each box can be customized to match their style  in one of many different fabrics.

Our albums have received a similar upgrade. Working again with Cypress, we created the Heirloom and Whistler albums.

Heirloom Album

True heirlooms are build to last for generations. The desire to feature such high quality albums is born from my own experience. I still have prints from my great-grandparent’s wedding. I love the vintage feel and quality of the prints. Each Heirloom albums is custom designed for our clients. After carefully selecting the images, design the layout and choosing fabrics, the albums are then hand-made by Cypress. Each fine-art print is adhered to a very heavy page and bound tightly into the album. Many clients also choose to keep the album safe in a presentation box.

Whistler Album

The approach to the Whistler album matches the Heirloom album – the best build and quality available. The image selection, layout design and fabric selection all follow an identical process. However, there is one key difference between the Heirloom and Whistler albums. Where the Heirloom album pages are like boards, the Whistler has thinner, lighter page cores. Each page is still very thick, but the weight of the book is reduced. Due to the lighter weight, the Whistler sits nice in the hand.

Many of our friends and clients choose the Heirloom album for themselves and order a matching Whistler album for their parents.

Of course I just love showing off our samples. They are filled with create memories from friends and clients. I keep them in our living room as a nice reminder of all the great couples I have met. I am certainly looking forward to crafting many more heirlooms for future couples.

P.S. – Completely unrelated, but I wonder if our dog understands trips in the car. Does she know she’s moving, or does she think the scenery is just changing really fast?

Jamie & Ethan – Cleveland wedding

Note for friends and family – the full gallery of images is available!

Have you ever had a day where everything seems to go your way? I had one not too long ago. Ethan and Jamie were recommended to me by a fellow photographer. That was a good start. Then the Ethan and Jamie hired me to photograph their Cleveland wedding. OK, getting better. Then they gave me complete creative freedom! I nearly had a creative orgasm on the spot.

You might remember that Ethan and Jamie are a creative couple. After all, they created an amazing wedding announcement. Not only that, they are both have a sense for photography and knew what they wanted. Lastly, they really liked my native style and gave me freedom in my work.

So what did I do? First, I incorporated Polaroids in the form of a 1970’s SX-70 instant camera (more on the Polaroids in a future post). Next, I bought new lenses for my digital system so I could create the look I had in mind. Finally, I worked hard to push my creative style in new directions.

I have said it before and I will say it again – I LOVE my clients! Here are some early results –

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

This next photograph is one of my all time favorites. I think it might make the cut for the wedding portfolio –
Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

Great idea – serve a midnight snack at your wedding reception. Jenny’s Ice Cream is a great choice.

Ethan and Jamie's wedding at Cleveland's Glidden House

As always, big thanks to Michael Kalbo for great second photographer work.

That is all for now. As I mentioned, another post is coming that will have the Polaroids from the wedding. It is definitely worth checking back for those.

{Update – polaroid post is here}

P.S. – Ethan’s brother, Jeremiah, kept me in stitches all day

P.P.S. – Jamie and Ethan, have a great honeymoon in Kenya (lucky!)

P.P.P.S. – Last one. Did I mention we’re having a BBQ and y’all are invited?

!-- Google tag (gtag.js) -->