Left of Center is contemporary lifestyle photography for weddings and portraits. It's about making you feel comfortable while creating fantastic images. Weddings, families, children - all at the locations you want to be at - not in some cramped studio. Let's go make pictures together today!
Last month Lori and I got a night away and went to eat with the fine folks from Spice of Life Caterers at one of their Plated Landscape events. The food was fantastic. The hosts were fantastic. Ben, Brandon, Jess and the crew ooze cool. I think they cook with it like it’s umami.
Last night I got to go behind the scenes and get all photojournalistic while covering their Urban Landscape dinner that was held at the Cleveland Botanical Garden’s Urban Farm on East 66th Street. If you don’t think you can farm on your little backyard in the ‘burbs, you should stop down and check out what these guys are doing in the middle of Cleveland! A really nice garden that provided a lot of the vegetables we ate last night.
Well, summer vacation has come to an end in these parts and the kids headed back to school this morning. I, on the other hand, took a vacation day so that I could have the house all to myself!
Way back in July, or maybe early August, I met up with Diana to take family photos of her family. I might not exactly remember the date, but I do remember that it was her father’s 80th birthday and that when I arrived on that hot summer night I was a offer a cold Labatt Blue and a steak just for showing up!
Her are the ladies of the family – sisters, sister-in-law and a niece/daughter (depends on who you are now, doesn’t it?)
The grand-daughter and the great grand-daughter….and some black-eyed Susans.
Gabbie called me up earlier this summer to take her Senior Pictures. She was referred to me by my September Bride Carli! I love referrals! Thanks Carli!
We decided to meet up at a local park for our first location and then head into Downtown Willoughby. We also talked about what sort of things Gabbie likes to do – sports, tennis….and then the bomb…snowboarding! It’s August! How am I supposed to shoot snowboarding? I came up with some cool, commercial shoot type ideas, but nothing we couldn’t pull off without a crew. I told her not to worry about it because we had some time before the shoot and I’d get it figured out.
Well, the night of the shoot arrived and I still hadn’t figured it out. Since it was hot and humid, we decided to shoot snowboarding last since she was going to put on some of her gear and I didn’t want to start the shoot off with her getting too hot. By the time we got to snowboard, the sky was cooperating and a little rain had left the parking lot nice and shiny. It was dark enough that anything but her the sky would be lit up with flash or the setting sun – a perfect way to hide the green of summer. I think we pulled off August snowboarding pretty well!
Tomorrow morning I’ll be getting up early to head down and volunteer with United Cerebral Palsy of Cleveland. This will be the second year that I’ll be shooting the event for them. I have to say, it’s really amazing to see how UCP helps these families and to see what these young children and their parents, families, and friends are capable of achieving!
Here is a video that was put together by UCP about the event. If you’re looking for something to do tomorrow morning, I’d say you should head downtown and cheer these families, and all the participants on!
