Ken Blaze Photography Inc

ESCAPED TO THE FUTURE!

2011-02-02T21:22:00.004-05:00

I am pleased to announce the book release for my first book! Here is the press release:

Escaped to the Future book release at Visible Voice books, Friday, Feb 25th, 7-10pm.

Local photographer Ken Blaze has released his first book: “Escaped to the Future: A Series of Speak in Tongues photographs by Ken Blaze.” Come out and hang with Blaze and his friends Brian Straw and DJ Party Sweat for a night of music, memories and fantastic photographs from the good ol' days of Speak in Tongues.

Speak In Tongues was a center of culture, art and music in the Cleveland, OH underground scene from 1994 until Dec. 31, 2001. The venue played host to thousands of underground bands, parties and art shows over its nine years of existence. Now ten years this year since its’ demise, Escaped to the Future has been released as a photo retrospective. Escaped to the Future is a photo essay chronicling the people and ambiance of what was Cleveland’s most unique and volatile venue. The book contains over 145 original photographs as well as memories and quotations from some of the people that went to events at the venue.

The title of the book comes from a photograph of Cleveland scenester, now Los Angeles scenester Sean Carney painting the words “Speak in Tongues has Escaped to the Future” and “We Did It” on signage hung in the windows on the final days of SIT’ existence.

Blaze, 38, is a resident of Lakewood, OH and has lived in the Cleveland area his whole life. He works primarily as a photojournalist in the region.

Visual Music Opens Saturday.

2010-11-05T16:18:00.005-04:00

I am happy to announce that Visual Music: A North East Ohio Photographic look at Rock & Roll curated by Anastasia Pantsios at the We Gallery & Musicain Akron opens on Saturday, November 6th.

On view at the We Gallery. Eleven different photographers who documented the Cleveland/Akron music scene from the 1960s until today will be showing their work. Both local bands and memorable area shows by big-name acts will be included.

Visual Music features the works of:
Ken Blaze, Jay Brown, Bob Ferrell, Neal Hamilton, Janet Macoska, Keith Marlowe, Karen Novak, Anastasia Pantsios, Stephanie Saniga, George Shuba, and Linda Wood.

I was asked by Anastasia to show some prints of my photos from Speak In Tongues. Speak in Tongues was an important venue for the Cleveland music and arts scene from 1994 until 2001. I spent many days down at SIT, and this exhibit will have 16 prints from the series.

This is a bit of a precursor to the ST book that I am finishing up and will be done this winter.

The WE Gallery is located at 20 N. High Street, Akron, OH 44308. We Gallery

Hope you can attend and see some Ohio music history.

Summer is gone already.

2010-09-02T16:21:00.009-04:00

September. September! Wow. Between shooting and staying home with my son Luca, summer vanished in an instant. Wedding season kicked in for me in June, and it hasn't let up since. Good for me! Bad for my blogging. The thing that always takes a hit is the blog when I get super busy. I gotta try and get my editing down in as timely a fashion as possible and blogging just takes away from that for the most part. But today, I have some time, and I thought I'd make a post

I had a birthday in July. That was pretty fun. I used the opportunity to shoot some of my pals as they toured through our new(ish) house. We moved in December, but we never had the chance until July to have people over to see the new digs. This was fun and everyone that participated was great. These are my favorite 8.

I also thought I'd put up a couple of engagement sessions shot in August for couples I will photographing next year.

Engagements are fun for me to get a chance to know my couple and try to create photos that show off their personalities. I think these latest sessions did a good job of that so here's some of my favorites from each session. First up is Erin & Chris and then we have Darlene & Owen.

2009 WPJA PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR! ... almost...

2010-03-17T21:26:00.003-04:00

The WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) just announced the 2009 Photographer of the Year. From the WPJA email that went out this evening:

"The WPJA proudly announces that the 2009 winner of the Photographer of the Year (POY) is Carlo Carletti of Italy. First runner-up in the 2009 WPJA POY competition is Ken Blaze of Ohio. Ian Bursill of England has been named second runner-up in the WPJA POY contest. If this feels like deja vu that's because Carletti won the title in 2006. Taking this year's top honor makes him the first to win it twice. A WPJA member since 2005, Carletti has gained international prominence for his award-winning black-and-white photography. The WPJA congratulates all the honorees for their outstanding achievements, which help make the Wedding Photojournalist Association the most respected wedding photography organization in the world."

I would love to say that it was me. But alas, it was not. 1st runner-up ain't too bad! You could say I was this close - *thumb and index finger millimeters apart.* I had the title in my grasp but a photo that placed 2nd in the last quarter contest was disqualified. (It was my own fault. I should have entered the photo in a different category.) Without that that 2nd place finish it looks like I was pushed back to 1st runner-up.

I am honored to be selected as the #2 wedding photojournalist in the world by the WPJA. I sincerely and humbly appreciate the award and am thankful for the all the couples who have trusted me to shoot their weddings in 2009.

Many congratulations to Carlo Carletti and Ian Bursill.

Full story about this year's winner HERE

An athlete, a politician, and a strike.

2010-01-20T22:39:00.019-05:00

Aside from moving into a new house and having a new office built, I was busy with some editorial work over the last few weeks:

Mentor, Ohio is home to Katie Spotz, a 22-yr-old woman that will attempt to row across the Atlantic Ocean from South America to Africa. I shot a portrait of her for the New York Times.

The story is here with the photo they ran.

This was my favorite shot of her from the shoot.

********

Scene ran a story about Cuyahoga County's new government scheme and the restructuring involved. The head of that restructuring is Martin Zanotti.

See the full story here.

*********

The Cleveland Orchestra was in the news and I was there for the New York Times. The orchestra threatened to strike, and they did on Monday, January 18, 2010. A writer and I covered their concert on the preceding Thursday and had a good piece. Story is here.

These are the two photos they used in the paper the day of the strike. The web had additional images from the concert night and strike day.

*********

Two 1st Place awards from the WPJA

2009-12-29T22:09:00.004-05:00

The WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) just announced the winners of its quarterly clip contest for Q3, 2009. (From their website: The WPJA, an International, membership-based organization, represents professional photographers skilled in the documentation of weddings and events in a candid, unobtrusive style. The WPJA was founded to uphold excellence in the area of wedding photojournalism.)

I am happy to say I was awarded 1st place in two different categories for Q3, 2009. The first photo was from the wedding of Beth and Jimmy and placed in the "Getting Ready" category.

The second image was awarded in the "Dancing" category and was from the wedding of Paul and Lisa.

Full text and contest winners here.

Norris Cole feature.

2009-12-09T16:18:00.002-05:00

Today's Cleveland SCENE has this feature I shot on basketball player Norris Cole.

SCENE - Norris Cole Story

Goodbye to Grandpa's.

2009-10-25T02:15:00.008-04:00

Two months ago my Grandpa sold his house. He had owned it for over 50 years. He had it built, raised three kids in it and those three kids had more kids and we all were brought up in it in a certain way. It was time to sell. He spends most of his time down in Florida and keeping up the house was just too much for him as he is now in his 80s.

I spent one last morning taking a walk through what was now the shell of a place that was very dear to me. My original plan was to have the youngest in the family, Luca, my 2-year-old, pose in all the rooms of the oldest house in the family. Well. He's two. There's no photos of him. It wasn't a "listen to daddy day" ... so to speak. So I shot some images at the house after everything was gone.

When I first looked back at the images, I didn't like any of them. After a couple months, there's a little more heart in them than I had first thought.

The first images are from the outside of the house in and around the pool area.

Scene "Best Of 2009" photos.

2009-10-15T10:14:00.010-04:00

Shot a couple of the 2009 Scene 'Best Of' photos that published this past Wednesday. The idea behind the photos was to combine three of the best things into one photo. Kinda like a best person, best thing and a best place. There wasn't really a reason for putting together what was put together, and I think that made for some good photos. I did two of these out of the bunch. I think there was about 8? total.

First up was Uno Lady with cupcakes from A Cookie and A Cupcake at Ambiance. What we had was Best Female Vocalist, Best Adult Toy Store and Best Cupcakes. Christa was a great great model and really played it up well. Her playfulness made the photo work. The first image is what Scene ran and the second is one of my other favorites. Too bad we didn't catch a color page for this shot.

Next up was local politico Kent Smith and artist Derek Hess at Mahall's with Spudnuts donuts. Kent and Derek were noted as Best Lefty Rabble-Rousers for their book Please God Save Us, Mahall's was Best Bowling Alley and Spudnuts were Best Donuts. Simple enough. Kent was way into this shoot playing on the Superman Clark Kent idea. His name, the cape and the glasses along with the Scene logo looking like the Superman logo made this shot work. Not to discount Derek who played off his end just as well, complete with Jose the Caped Dog-Crusader...

The first image is what ran in Scene and the second os one of my favorites too. This shot ended up black and white as well, but it reproduced pretty well. Both images (this and Uno Lady) ran full page which was nice....

Repo Man

2009-10-08T10:57:00.001-04:00

October 7th issue of Scene had a few images from me on the Repo business here in Ohio. The story focused on the differences in the industry as compared to the reality show that's currently out there. An interesting read and a fun assignment. Used some glam lighting to to contrast the feel of the repo shop that was on the front cover to the stereotype of the people and the business of Repo Men.

Story here:

Takin A Ride

Past Tense

2009-08-10T23:27:00.013-04:00

Sometimes as a professional photog you get hung up in the gear and the newest trends. Gotta get this piece of gear, gotta get this lens, this new software. Gotta get this new book maker program .... whatever. I get stuck in it all the time. I buy gear. A year later it's out dated. I buy new gear. A year later it's outdated. It's crazy. It's the biz. I guess. I bought another piece of new gear. But it was geared in another direction. I stepped back a few decades and got a new instant camera. I would say Polaroid, but it's not. Polaroid stopped making their instant film, so it's kinda silly to pick up a new camera made by them. Fuji, however, has a version of the old classic Polaroids called the Instax. It's still being made, the film is still in production and many people are shooting happily with them.

So I got one.

I love it.

No photoshop. No hundreds of frames. One shot. One moment. No brackets. No nothin. 800iso. F14. 1/64-1/200.

I took the boy to the local kiddie park and shot these 10 frames. These are the 10 I like out of the 14 I shot.

Enjoy.

Recent shoot for National Law Journal

2009-07-03T11:43:00.003-04:00

June was a busy month. In addition to the start of the wedding season, I had numerous other editotial jobs come in. Here's a clip from a recent portrait shoot for the National Law Journal.

Recent New York Times Story

2009-07-03T11:38:00.002-04:00

Here's a link to a recent shoot for the New York Times called:

A Credit Squeeze for Small-Business Owners

Some recent School of Rock portraits.

2009-05-06T14:10:00.003-04:00

School of Rock - PORTRAITS - Images by Ken Blaze

Akron's Suicide Bridge.

2009-05-06T13:28:00.003-04:00

Did a job for the New York Times a couple weeks ago about their proposed use of stimulus money to fence their Y-Bridge, also more commonly known as the Suicide Bridge. Was an interesting day learning about the city from the mayor and from both sides of the issue.

Akron's Suicide Bridge

At home on Facebook

2009-03-10T14:45:00.004-04:00

I've been looking at new ways to market and make friends in this troubled economy. So many of my former colleagues and current contemporaries are looking at the inevitable demise of their publications. Every connection is going to matter these days. So I made the jump over to Facebook this past week. I was leery of using a social network site for business means, but so far the response has been good, and it is quite a bit of fun. Please come and visit!

Ken Blaze Photography on FB

Only 3 days left ...

2009-02-25T16:24:00.003-05:00

Only 3 days left in the month of February and that means only 3 days to take advantage of my wedding package discount. Tell your friends! Check out the The Story of the Day for more details!

Luca's new favorite toy.

2009-01-23T22:57:00.002-05:00

A box.

They always say it's not the expensive toys that will keep your child amused, it's the everyday things around the house.

A new year's resolution.

2009-01-19T11:10:00.007-05:00

Happy new year! 2008 turned out to be great year for me professionally and personally. My first full year of freelancing was a success. Now the trick is to keep it going and build my client base even more so. Thanks to everyone who had read through the blog and visited my site over the last year.

My resolution will be to post more often. The blog gets a lot of hits, and I would like to show more personal work mixed in with the pro stuff too. I have shied away from posting the thousands of photos of my boy Luca in the past, but I think I will start to add the best of what I have of him as time goes by.

Here's a shot to start of the new year. We basically have been living in a deep freeze around here. Here's the window of our playroom at home. Wow. Our outdoor thermometer said -10 on this day.

There should be a slew of updates in the next month as I try to put together some 'best ofs' for the year.

A little urban fun.

2009-01-07T14:02:00.007-05:00

Got out into the cold frigid weather for a story for Cleveland Scene last month about the pros and cons of Urban Farming. I was surprised to learn about the number of people with their own 'farms' inside the city limits. It was a fun shoot. Our farmers were quite gracious in letting us talk with them in the stifling cold. It was only about 20 degrees and Jocelyn and Meagen were total troopers sitting for the cover photo. At least the chickens didn't seem bothered by the cold. Many thanks to them and Josh and all the chickens for talking with me and Dan for the story.

Full story, with more photos, is here at the Scene website:
City Chicken

Courtney and Mark

2008-12-08T00:27:00.003-05:00

Some recent engagement portraits with Courtney and Mark.

Carla and Eric engagements

2008-10-18T00:47:00.004-04:00

Some of Carla and Eric's engagement photos from October 5th. We had a beautiful day at Squire's Castle in Willoughby Hills.

Big Wheels Keep on Turnin.

2008-07-07T00:44:00.015-04:00

Nice to get out and just shoot something fun. Bunch of guys and gals organized a Big Wheel race down the hill through the walkway tunnel to Edgewater Park at West 65th. Great costumes, fun races and only one broken bone. Was a great way to spend Sunday afternoon. Full gallery here: Big Wheel 2008

Sign up.
Costume preparation.

Starting line.

Fragile big wheel.

On the course.

More on the course.

A little help.

More help.

Finish line.

Heading home.

Taking over ESPN.com

2008-06-18T11:12:00.008-04:00

You have a quiet few months, and then BAM! - all of a sudden you get slammed with projects and assignments. I did a couple things for ESPN this month. I had the font images on the ESPN main page and the NFL page for a couple days. Here's some screen captures from the site:

The first assignment was an all day trip out on Lake Erie with Joe Thomas and Hank Fraley of the Cleveland Browns for a piece about Joe, his fishing show and how he is an "average Joe." I actually managed to last the whole 8 hours on the boat and not get sick! (Wish the same was true for my ESPN counterpart -- sorry James!) They managed to catch 7 walleye while we were out and proved to be really nice and down to Earth guys. It was a fun assignment.

The second piece was to document NFL rookies as they toured the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton. It is now a requirement that each team send its rookies to see the hall. It was another fun and interesting piece. Number one pick Jake Long was there from the Miami Dolphins as was Matt Ryan of the Atlanta Falcons. I haven't been to the Hall of Fame since I was a kid, so it was fun on that end as well.

You can see the full stories and photos at these links:

Joe Thomas Fishing Trip
Rookie Hall of Fame Tour

What's old is new again.

2008-04-10T22:28:00.007-04:00

It's been a long time since I have shot a roll of film. About 1999 to be exact. Almost 10 years. It's hard to believe. I started to go through some of the old film and transparencies I have lying around the house. These are some of my new/old favorites. The first photo was one of a series on a taxi graveyard in Geauga County, Ohio. I don't remember the how or why of going out to the field but it was very cool. This was an old TMax negative.

The second photo is portrait of my two youngest sisters when they were about 8 or 9 years old. They are pictured on the roof of a Lakewood high rise and you can see the city of Cleveland in background. No explanation needed on this one.

The third photo is a frame from a black and white assignment shot during college. I was a newby in the photo world and I was so very proud of this image. Lots of sentimental value and memories in this frame.

The PhotoShelter Collection

2008-01-20T23:56:00.001-05:00

Winter has taken over in all its frozen glory, and I've been keeping sharp by submitting to the PhotoShelter Collection. The PhotoShelter Collection is a new stock agency specializing in contemporary imagery. It's been a good outlet to experiment with some things around the house, and to have fun at the same time. You can see my PSC portfolio in the links at the right of the blog.

Identifying "Baby Grace"

2007-11-29T11:04:00.002-05:00

AP called me to cover a press conference in Mentor announcing the identity of "Baby Grace" was discovered. The girl is Riley Ann Sawyers from Mentor. It was a hard press conference to shoot.

The first photo is of Riley's father, Robert, talking about her life and the things he remembered the most about her. The second photo is of Sheryl Sawyers, grandmother to Riley, and Ray, uncle to Riley. Sheryl is holding a picture of Riley and an Elmo doll she bought her for Christmas.

My son Luca is 7 months old now, and I can't imagine what this family is going through. My condolences go out to the Sawyers family. This press conference was very emotional, and I hope my photos helped tell this unfortunate story.

Photos © Associated Press.

Bramley portraits, 10-27-07

2007-11-15T00:14:00.000-05:00

Sometimes a wedding shoot is nothing like any other wedding shoot. Dawn and Kevin's wedding photos were a perfect example. Dawn called me to discuss wedding photography a few months ago. She and Kevin were already married out on the west coast, and what she needed was some reception coverage. But in addition to the reception photos, she wanted some interesting portraits of the two of them in a different setting. So what she wanted was some images shot at Lakeview Cemetery. We had a fantastic time and the portraits are way cool. These are some of my favorites. The setting was screaming black and white.

Luca turns 6 months.

2007-10-29T15:51:00.001-04:00

Usually any photos I shoot of my son Luca end up on his own special blog site - www.kenblaze.com/luca - and people other than family don't see how cute this kid is. He turned 6 months old this last weekend, and my wife Kristen and I set up a studio in the house to capture some portraits of him. This is one of my favorites from the day.

Tis the season ...

2007-10-19T12:55:00.000-04:00

Yes it is the engagement time of year. I went out to Willoughby Hills to photograph Mike and Laura, a couple whose wedding I will be shooting in November. We had fun walking the streets of Waite Hill while getting the evil eye from all the cars passing by. Did you know that it's safer to walk against traffic when in Waite Hill? We had a fire captain stop and tell us. Here's some of the shoot.

Busy weekend

2007-10-16T12:13:00.000-04:00

I had a productive weekend. It was the busiest for me in a while. Shot Tara and Steve's wedding on Saturday, Meghan and Drew's enagagement photos on Sunday and Nick and Nate Bonvissuto's kid portraits on Monday morning. Tara and Steve will have a gallery up on my website in the next couple weeks. But here's some of my favorite stuff from the other two sessions.

Sarah and Wille (9-28-07)

2007-10-09T15:08:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I shoot weddings that are not full days. Those weddings don't end up in my galleries on the weddings part of my website because I don't shoot the "story of the day" for those weddings. I often still have great photos from these weddings that you don't see. Here's my favorites from Sarah and Willie's wedding.

Indians/Yankees ALDS Game 1

2007-10-08T00:36:00.000-04:00

So I shot game one of the Divisional series between the Indians and the Yankees last Friday night. I shot the game for AP. It has been about 5 months since I left my job at the News-Herald, and this was my first trip back to Jacobs Field. You may have seen some of my photos on SI.com or CNN.com or ESPN.com or Yahoo sports or wherever else they run AP photos. It was a good night for the Indians and for me. I haven't had the chance to get out and shoot too much baseball this year, and I was happy to come up with some nice images. The shot of C.C. Sabathia was my favorite from the night. He had a good game but it was a tough battle in the end to get the win. The shot of Victor Martinez hitting the home run was a favorite on SI.com and seemed to sum up the Indians night.

Ken Blaze Photography Blog Begins!

2007-10-08T00:19:00.000-04:00

I have decided to start a blog to chronicle some of what is going with me in my world of photography. I will devote this blog to some of the interesting things I am shooting and to keep clients up to date on recent assignments. Enjoy!