Left of Center Photography » landscapes

Blue Hen Falls

Paul — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:22:50 +0000

It’s probably been 16 or 17 year since I was last at Blue Hen Falls. A lot has changed. Back then it was in the Cuyahoga Valley National Recreation Area. Now it’s a National Park. Back then I went in armed with zip lock bags, rulers and a notebook. I was spending my mornings and afternoons capturing and cataloging salamanders as part of my senior project while finishing up my degree in biology. I had a camera with me just in case I found one I couldn’t identify, but I don’t recall taking many pictures. I would have never thought then that my next visit would be for the sole purpose of capturing the falls on film…well…on pixels.

Prints of these images can be purchased HERE

Spice Kitchen+Bar

Paul — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:11:36 +0000

My good friends at Spice of Life Catering Company have opened up a restaurant on Cleveland’s West Side. You’ll find it right on the corner of Detroit and W 58th Street. Not only will you find great food and a nice atmosphere, but you also find six huge prints from Left of Center Photography hanging on the walls!

Toward the end of last summer, while I was eating under the trees at Holden Arboretum with Chef Ben and his wife Jackie, they mentioned that in their search for a new kitchen, they found a whole restaurant. I asked if they were going to need any art to decorate the place but at that point they weren’t exactly sure since it was all so new. Fast forward to late this winter and I get a call from Jackie asking if I had anything they could use. She described the style they had in mind and my heart sank. I knew I just didn’t have it in my portfolio. The best way to describe it would be a late fall/early winter harvest type of imagery. And with Cleveland not exactly having a typical snowy winter I didn’t see much opportunity to go out and capture some pictures that would fit the need.

Then, just two days before Christmas it snowed. I also just happened to find myself out in eastern Ohio farm country. Luck was on my side. A few hours in the car and I had what I hoped they were looking for and it turns out that I did.

Just last Tuesday the restaurant opened up. The prints made it there that day and are on display until Spring. Stop down, grab a bite to eat and check them out!

Peter B Lewis Building – On Location

Paul — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 16:56:03 +0000

Drove down the CWRU this morning to do a little locations scouting for an upcoming wedding. The couple is getting married at Harkness Chapel, and while I’ve walked that area few times, I’ve never really considered photographing a wedding in it.

I’m pretty sure the snow will be gone by then, right? Hopefully, we get a great blue sky day and temperatures in the 50s!

Anyhow, could resist snapping off a few frames of the Peter B Lewis building since I parked right in front of it.

The End of Stebbin’s

Paul — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 02:23:59 +0000

So this is the last post on Stebbin’s Gulch. Thanks for putting up with it!

These were all taken with my 5dmkII and a 20mm or 100mm Macro lens. While the last posts were about shooting film and waiting to see what I would get after developing it. I was really interested in looking for the finer details in Stebbin’s and that’s why so many of these are macro shots. I’ve been there before with wider lenses and I’ve captured the landscapes shots. This was my first time in with a macro lens and I wanted to take the opportunity to get a fresh angle on things.

That’s it! I have to pick a dozen or so of these shots to have critiqued by Ian next week. Have any favorites from this series of posts that you think I should include?

Stebbin’s Gulch – A Little More Recent

Paul — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 22:54:42 +0000

So last post was about hiking into Stebbin’s Gulch just around the time World War II was starting. This time around the technology is a little close to the end of the 80′s – valley girls and mullets. I shot the following pictures with a Canon AE-1. This is the camera I first got into photography with. Well, not this AE-1, that camera is long gone, but it’s the same model. It’s another camera I like shooting, but I found my eye is lazy and I just don’t manual focus like a used to. It amazes me that I used to shoot football and soccer with a manual focus camera. I can barely shoot my kids standing still and nail the focus today if I have to rely on myself to do it.

This was the final shot in the last post. I’m standing in the exact same spot – just different camera, lens and film.

Next post will bring us back to the current age of digital SLRs and color photography! I promise!