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My Traveling Buddies

Here's a picture of my road tripping buddies Caleb, Joshua, and Josiah. We took this while traveling through the desolate land of Eastern Montana or Western Dakota. It's one of the only drives I know of where you can go hundreds of miles without a town.

Yellowstone National Park

Here is the Old Faithful, the famous geyser of Yellowstone. It's amazing the crowd that lines up to see this erupt. Like everything in Yellowstone, it's larger than you expect. See those black dots in the background. Those are people. I decided to go infrared on this shot, because it's the only type of shot that I haven't seen of Old Faithful. This landmark has probably been photographed more than any other in the U.S., but that's open for debate:)Here are 2 more shots from our roadtrip through Yellowstone National Park. This is The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. It is amazing; so steep and vast that you get that weird feeling in your stomach when you get close to the edge.

Cruising Through Yellowstone

I finally got the time to process these photos from our trip to Yellowstone Park. We were hired to shoot a wedding in the wilderness of Butte, Montana and decided to make a roadtrip out of it. This was probably one of the most beautiful drives I've ever been on. Yellowstone Park was great, but I was most impressed with the landscapes coming out of the park on Beartooth Highway. This first one is a mountain lake at about 10,000 feet.

Just before coming back down on the east side of Beartooth Pass, it opened up into what looked like a Lord of the Rings scene with Mountain Lakes and huge canyons everywhere. I call this one "Top of the World"

Senior Picture Special!

John Penton : Motorcycle Legend

A few weeks ago I was contacted by the American Motorcyclist Association. They run a magazine in conjunction with the Motorcycle Hall of Fame. They asked me to do some photos to be used on the cover of the magazine of John Penton. John is a really layed back guy with a love for coffee (like me) and a lot of ingenuity. He started Penton Motorcycles which later became KTM. He was a pioneer of off-road motorcyles. Here is a sample from the shoot.

cleveland oh photographer

Joel Grimes Portrait Lighting Workshop

I had the opportunity to attend a really cool portrait light workshop from Joel Grimes this weekend. While the fam was having fun at a waterpark, I was having fun taking pictures like this. Let me know what you think. Which one is better? I can't decide.

Stephen and Stephanie are Married!

As the photos will reveal, Stephen and Stephanie were a tremendously fun couple. They loved each other and enjoyed their day so much it was evident to everyone around them. Both are in the Service, and they have the "fun" of currently being stationed far apart. Stephen is serving in Iraq and Stephanie is in the States. Due to the circumstances, they had to reschedule her wedding because Stephen was unable to return home for the ceremony. I am certain that being in this situation would give anyone a deeper perspective on what is important in life. The astonishing thing to me was how they possesed that meaningful connection while at the same time being laid back and having so much fun.

The picture below is a recreation of a photo Stephanie's grandmother had taken in the same church when she was married years ago.

Stephanie outranks Stephen so she made him stand at attention and do a few pushups for her. I am not sure he enjoyed it as much as she did. This is the only time I have witnessed such things on a wedding day.

Anessa and Jeremy - Married on New Year

Well, the new year if finally upon us. Kristin and I were able to spend the last night of 2009 celebrating with Jeremy and Anessa. The day went very smoothly. Due to the weather and the timing of the event, we spent our time shooting in all the nooks and crannies of the ceremony and reception location. With such a loving couple and great guests, it was no surprise that the evening was so wonderful. One thing that did pleasantly take me off guard was a speech by Anessa. Anessa, a French teacher, gave a thank you to her French speaking guests. She gave it with so much emotion, I could understand clearly what she was saying without being able to decipher a word of the French. I learned a lot about communication that evening, and I am so thankful we were able to be apart of their great day!

The pic below is one of my favorites from the evening. I wish I were able to put it on the blog full size. It has a depth to it that really draws you in.

In my opinion, the best man would have earned his title on the merits of the look in the pic below alone.

Of course, it being a New Year's party as well, we had to have a little silliness.

2009 Family Christmas Card

With all of the cards we sent having probably reached their destination, I now have liberty to post our 2009 Family Christmas Card. We wanted to do something that really showed an aspect of our family that is fun, realistic , original and that didn't include an overabundance of one-time bunchy holiday sweaters. We had to drain our cupboards for a month, to effectively get the shot. Here it is and Happy Holidays!

Help-Portrait Toledo

I don't know how many fellow photographers follow our blog, but I thought I'd let you know about one of the greatest ideas that I've seen in a while. This past weekend Mat, Kristen and I got the chance to participate in Help-Portrait in Toledo. There wasn't one organized in Cleveland yet, but these events took place all over the world on December 12. It was a great experience for us. Here are a few links so you can find out more about it and perhaps volunteer next December. We might try to get one going in Cleveland.