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

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.

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.



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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.



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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.




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Two 1st Place awards from the WPJA

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.

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

SCENE - Norris Cole Story

Goodbye to Grandpa's.

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.

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

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