I first met Nina and Joe after booking with Joe's sister, Dolly, who's wedding was earlier this year. It's such a cool experience to be able to shoot photography for two members of the same family. When you walk in on wedding day, everyone knows who you are, the relationships have been established. Just a great feeling overall.

Nina and Joe are an amazing couple. They are so loving in everything they do, that being photographed seems to be second nature to them. We started out the day in Rocky River at the Color Nation salon. This place is really well decorated with lots of bright vibrant colors and open atmosphere. I was able to grab some great window light portraits as well as some macro detail shots of Nina's ring. When I was shooting her ring, I was checking my display on the back of the camera and I remember thinking, "I don't think I'm going to need to crop into this at all. Wow." (Well done Joe)

From the salon, we moved back to Nina's house for make up and prep. It was really fun to photograph the girls getting ready and the family members coming in to congratulate Nina on her big day. After a few hours at the house, we moved to the church, which was St. Marion Catholic in downtown Cleveland. If you haven't been to this church before, it's definitely worth a look. Beautiful ceilings, altar, and ambiance.

We just so happened to be in downtown Cleveland on the day of the airshow, so many of the roads were closed and the traffic was nuts, however, it also meant that many of the parks and locations we wanted to visit were pretty much empty. Thus, we were able to grab some fantastic pictures downtown and avoid the big crowds.

At the end of the night, we wound up at Ahren's Banquet Center for a wonderful middle-eastern reception. The bride and groom were lifted up in the air, the band kept the dance floor packed... it was just a great night for Nina and Joe.

I really enjoyed working with the Assaad and Lahoud families, and I can't wait to show the photos of their beautiful day. Congrats Nina and Joe!

-Steve

I first met Jackie and Mark at our last wedding of the 2010 season. Jackie was a bridesmaid in Jessica and Kevin Schulze's wedding. The entire bridal party was a lot of fun to work with, so I knew that I was going to have a great time working with Jackie again.

We started out the day at Neon Salon in Sunbury. The girls arrived early to get their hair and nails done. A couple of the girls wanted to open up a bottle of champagne for some mimosa's and I remember thinking, "You may not want to point that in anyone's direction". The girls took the bottle outside and tried to remove the cork which just so happened to fly about 30 feet across the parking lot. Hilarious.

The wedding was great for me because I got a chance to shoot in my hometown of Westerville. The ceremony took place at St. Paul's which is a staple in the Westerville community. Beautiful weather, everyone was relaxed... couldn't have asked for more. I met up at the church with one of my up and coming shooters, Brooke Mott. (who did a great job I might add...) Between the two of us, we were able to capture some wonderful moments.

The reception was amazing. We were shooting at the Royal American Links country club, which is a great location because of the variety of areas to shoot in. Everything there is goregous. We were able to run around the golf course for a bit and shoot some fun group photos. The night flew by as the dance floor was packed up until the end of the reception. Kudos to the D.J. who did a fantastic job.

Congratulations to Jackie and Mark! We had a blast working with you!

-Steve

It's hard to keep up in a world that's changing ever-so quickly. This year alone has seen numerous changes to Kaufman Kramer. Brad has moved to D.C., Chris is getting married, and I'm engaged... as if we all aren't busy enough right? The thing that I'm most proud of is how our company has grown right along with us. We've been in business for a wonderful five years and so I thought that now would be a great time to put together our five-year reel and to also announce some up-and-coming blog posts we are planning to release.

Along with our posts about our engagement sessions and weddings, I plan to showcase more posts about technique, image processing, travel photography, food photography and photo gear. We're also running full swing into wedding season, so between edits and album designs, I thought it would be nice to read up on some of the things going on in the industry.

We've always been grateful to our family, friends and clients for all the success we've had thus far, and we're all looking forward to another five years of great photography with amazing people.

One thing that will never change is our commitment to using our passion to tell our client's stories... Enjoy the reel!

-Steve

It's been a few weeks since Kendra and Mark's wedding and I wanted to share some of the final images.  We captured some really wonderful moments at their wedding and I've highlighted them here.  Kendra and Mark had an amazing day full of love, laughter and one intense reception!  Enjoy the video and images.

A few weeks ago, I had an opportunity to catch up with some old friends...and shoot a wedding at the same time.  I went to school with Chris at BGSU, and naturally when it came time for him to get hitched, he gave us a call.  We had an absolutely wonderful fall day and the weather was perfect for capturing some relaxed formals outside after the ceremony.

Katie and Chris had a wonderfully ornate russian orthodox ceremony at St. Michaels in Cleveland, OH. The church was beautiful and full of opportunities to capture incredible detail shots. The brilliant thing about russian orthodox ceremonies is that all of the 'major' events are repeated three times.  So in the off chance that I am not in exactly the right spot (wait...me!? not be in the right spot? yeah right.....) you have two more chances to get it right.

I love photographing weddings where I know the bride and groom as well as a lot of the guests.  It creates such a welcoming atmosphere and gets me pumped up to do some really creative work.

Here are a few of my favorite shots of the day as well as Katie and Chris' animoto video.  If you'd like to see the full story, head on over to www.kkpphoto.com/lamparyk which will take you to their Pictage event.

We typically don't shoot engagement sessions in inclimate weather, but in Katie and Chris' situation we were on a tight deadline.  I had my initial reservations, but I have to say that their session is one of the best we have ever done....in the POURING DOWN RAIN. 

I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat if you gave me the chance. I suppose that the only thing I would change is I would wear my swim shorts. : )

Our session began down by the lakefront by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH and progressed to several other prominent downtown locations. 

I have to say that my favorite part of the session was the very last part when we busted out the umbrellas and shot in the East 4th Street neighborhood (http://www.east4thstreet.com/) At this point in the session I was soaked, the camera was soaked, and the client was soaked...but here's the thing...nobody cared.  We were all having so much fun creating some really unique images that we stopped caring about the rain and concentrated on the photography.

Who could ask for more than that? Enjoy the Animoto and images.

Ah, Ohio. Sometimes, the weather just doesn't cooperate. A few weekends ago, we shot the wedding of Breanne and Tyler... and did it rain! We had plans to shoot a good portion our photography outside with them immediately following the ceremony, so when the downpour started, we were thinking... this will not be good.

Amazingly enough, as soon as we stepped out of the car, the rain stopped, and the sun came out. Who knew? The result was a beautiful scene at the Harding Memorial in Marion, Ohio. The wet ground really made the photos pop with reflections and actually helped create even more unique images.

The wedding reception was next door to the Palace Theater in Marion and I was very anxious for the opportunity to shoot in the beautifully ornate space. Towards the end of the night, we got our chance to shoot and the photos turned out AMAZING.

I think we were able to produce some phenomenal images and I can't wait for Breanne and Tyler to see their album!

All in all, a great weekend that started out rainy, but ended up with the sun in sky and great images in the camera. Enjoy!

-Steve