Making the Moment Photography

A night at Glenmoor

Benjamin — Fri, 17 May 2013 18:45:02 +0000

Jon and Lauren are great together and you could tell from every spoken word in their wedding at Glenmoor Country Club in Canton that they are everything to each other.
Lauren gets the prize for best line in the ceremony when she said in her vows, “I can’t promise that I’ll be there for the rest of your life, but I CAN promise that I will love you for the rest of mine.” I am so happy for these two and I wish them all the best in their life together.There wedding took place at Glenmoor Country club in Canton ohio. Glenmoor Country club is a beauful and historic venue for a wedding. It has a castle / mansion feel, which brings so much elegance and personality to a wedding.My great heart and congratulations goes out to these two. I’m so very proud of their wedding photography, and even more pleased we built a friendship throughout the time of their wedding.This wedding and reception at Glenmoor Country Club is one of my favorites to date. I honestly love their imagery so much Congratulations you two!I loved catching this moment. While all of the guests were heading out to the cocktail hour, they snuck away for a quiet moment alone.

78th Street Art

Brett — Tue, 07 May 2013 15:29:23 +0000

One of my favorite things about the advent of a new season of being a cleveland wedding photographer, is the joy of looking back at the wonderful weddings and receptions I was honored to be a part of the year prior.One of my very favorite weddings from last year was Christine & Kyle’s wedding and reception at the 78th Street Studios in cleveland. Christine and Kyle possess a sweet and honest love for eachother, and it was evident as I got to know them throughout the year that they were incredibly kind and compassionate people.I had gotten to know Kyle & Christine through our engagement session earlier in the year, but spending the morning with Christine made me realize just how much she did love Kyle. She was so excited to see him, and as I candidly photographed the girls getting ready, I saw so many glimpses of her heart for him.Christine and Kyle’s wedding was at the church of the Covenant in Cleveland’s University Circle neighborhood. the Church of the Covenant is a campus church for case, with a history and timelessness to it. Christine is crying above (I love raw emotion) as Kyle had written her an incredibly sweet card for her to read right before the wedding. He was waiting just two rooms down, and he was SO excited to see her come down the aisle.Flash forward to their wedding reception later in the day, at the old American Greetings Creative Studios – now known as the 78th Street smARTspace. What an awesome venue for a cleveland wedding reception!This wedding reception at the 78th Street smARTspace in Cleveland was personally adorned by Christine and her friends. With hand painted mason jars for seating assignments, the guests were treated to some fine food by Cleveland’s own celebrity chef Chris Hodgson. Hodgson, well known in Cleveland for his restaurant Dim and Den Sum, and even known nationally for his food truck on the food network, made an all star meal for Christine & Kyle’s guests.It was an awesome night, and you could easily see that the heart of Christine & Kyle’s lives are friendship and fun. We met some sweet people there that evening – notably Eileen and Joe (seen above). After hanging with them a bit that night, we’re pleased to say Holly will be photographing their wedding this month!This is Christine. Full of Joy, full of life and beauty.This is one of my favorite images of them from the day. I like to push the envelope here and there on epic imagery – I’m all about raw and natural personality in my imagery, but it’s always fun to pull out some drama here and there, especially with a sky like that.I love natural wedding photography, imagery that comes off unforced and unrehearsed. I think that’s the big draw many couples find when coming to look for us as their cleveland wedding photographers – that we really can capture people being themselves.These two are in love.For real

Spring into Love

Brett — Mon, 06 May 2013 17:40:04 +0000

Oh how I love the spring. Not only does it mean pretty flowers and nice weather, It means my long long long long long cleveland winter off season from wedding and engagement session photography is over.And with that ending comes a flurry of fun creative outbursts, fresh ideas photography fun with couples like Nely & Nick. This session was a breath of fresh air for me.I LOVE laughter. Not just in life, but in imagery. Nely and Nick laugh often, and I had fun coaxing some joy out of them as we hung out and crafted their session imagery.I also love to shoot through objects. Not only does it provide a real world sense of depth in my images, but it can sometimes evoke the truth of imagery – that the viewer is somewhat spying on the subjects, catching a glimpse into their personality and lives.We photographed their cleveland engagement session, and as most of my sessions tend to feel, I felt as if I was spending time with some old friends. I embrace a casual and yet purposeful approach in my image-making process, which allows my couples (and myself) to relax.Joy – these to are magical. They’re getting married this month and having their wedding reception at the Ballroom at Park Lane in Cleveland, ohio. It is one of my very favorite reception venues in Cleveland, and I can’t wait to spend time with the two of them again.Nely told me that the cherry blossoms were her favorites this time of year – she even picked her skirt to match their brilliant hue. Nely + Nick – I’m stoked. I can’t wait for your wedding – you two rock!

Our New Diggs

Brett — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 18:42:07 +0000

It’s been a lot of work getting here. 8 Years in business, a few hundred weddings, and hundreds of thousands of individual pieces of artwork crafted for our clients, but here we are. It’s exciting. If you’ve been wondering why our blog has been quiet for the past 3 or so months, it’s because our team (and lots of friends!) have been hard at work transplanting Making the Moment Photography’s offices into our new creative offices in Westlake, Ohio. It’s been a labor of love to say the least!Our brand new creative photography office is located right by Crocker Park in Westlake, we’re literally across the street from all the fun, shopping and fine-dining that is Crocker. It’s a cool spot, and we’re incredibly thankful to everyone who made this move possible!With the help of Jim & Nikki (I photographed their wedding last year, and now my wife and I count them as close friends), we transformed a typical wall into a fun and reclaimed Pallet wall. We collected and disected roughly 40 wooden pallets to build our own accent wall in our upstairs meeting room.

It took about 8 hours of work, and was a fun (and relatively cheap) undertaking. Pretty cool. We finished it off with a giant metal print of our logo with over a hundred of our favorite images pathwork overlaid.We found these really hearty wooden artisan desks at Pottery Barn. The floor was hand laid by our team and many friends. It took a LOT of time and patience, but the new floor is sooooo nice. Many thanks to Renee who lead the charge and taught us how to do it!

Check out the difference replacing the flooring, and some good painting can do above.

Above is our new art display wall, featuring our pretty nifty ring shot montage. One thing we’re known for in our wedding photography is our funky ring shots, so we made a little tribute wall just for those.Our new office is FULL of sunlight, thanks to tons of skylights and lots of big windows. It’s bright and happy and helps keep us creatives happy

Kudos, Credits & Thanks

The above transformation and work encompassed hundreds of hours of work from a mostly volunteer army of friends and clients. Words cannot express how thankful we are we are finally here in this office – and so much credit goes to those listed below. Many below sacrifced days upon days (and some nights) of hard work, and both myself, my family, and the team here at Making the Moment Photography are forever indebted to you.

Robynn & Dean – Gifted Interior Designers and Visionaries
Colleen Yacovella – Supportive and Patient Wife
Jim and Nikki Mikolich – Passionate Pallet Wall Engineers, Architects, Builders, and legendary friends
Jim Mikolich – Phenom Floor Layer, Beer Advocate, & ToolMaster
Renee Dunn – Construction Supervisor & Quarter Round Queen
Jordan Scheutzow – General Badassery & Floor Mastery
Dan Yacovella – Construction Coach, Tool Lender, Father
Luke Howell – Flooring Dude & Electrician
Jared Depolo – Flooring Achievement Unlocked
Andrew Depolo – Freaky Flooring Skills
Brian Depolo – Wall Outlet Installer & Mover Extra-ordinaire
KevBot – Wall Art Hanger-upper Master
Matt Dotson – Prince of Paint
Amber Barnes – Vinyl Flooring Friend & Mover
Dale Barnes – Mister Mover Himself!
Scottie Howard – Muscles McGee Mover

Time in the Sun

Luke — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 19:09:39 +0000

It’s not very often that we get to share personal posts, but I thought it would be fun to show you piece of my life and a bit of my creativity outside of wedding photography. Jess (my wife) and I recently decided to get away for a week and spend some time in the sun together. Best. Decision. Ever. We both needed it. We went to La Romana in the Dominican Republic and the scenery absolutely blew me away.The sunset above was from one of our first nights at our resort. It was simultaneously snowing back in Ohio. If someone can remind me why we live in Ohio, I would appreciate it. Thanks.Funny story about the top left image. Jess hates airports. Wait, let me rephrase that. Jess HATES airports. She likes to fly and is totally fine once she’s on the plane, she’s just not a big fan of everything leading up to boarding. Therefore, we arrive at airports very early when we fly. As you can see, we were the first people at our gate…and for quite some time. On our way to the Dominican, we had a layover at JFK in New York City. The top right image is of NYC’s coast.I love palm trees. And I took a LOT of palm tree pictures. I’m hoping to frame some of these bad boys soon.
I was hesitant to bring my DSLR camera on the trip. I thought I may just want a week off from taking pictures. As it turns out, I’m really glad I brought it with me. Now Jess and I are able to preserve some of the best memories of our lives from this week. When we’re old and gray, we’ll remember this vacation.
I love the jumping shots above. This tree was one of our favorite spots to venture to on the beach at sunset as the scenery was out of this world.
Not only did I bring my DSLR…I also brought a polaroid along for some fun pictures.
The best part about this week was getting the chance to slow life down and simply breathe. It’s so easy to get caught up in life’s worries while forgetting to enjoy the day and take in the scenery around us. This trip was a great reminder for me as to what life is all about.
Jess took the black and white image above of me. She didn’t mean to make me out of focus…but I think it turned out pretty cool. Go Jess!
Soooo, we found this super-top-secret-amazing-cliff-lookout-spot. And we went there often. We had to go off the beaten path to find it, but it was so worth it. The view was incredible. Before others would get to it, they would turn around because you had to walk over very rough coral and needed shoes to get to the super-top-secret-amazing-cliff-lookout-spot.In the top image, I tried to make it look like I was levitating. Did i pull it off?It’s so fun for me to go back through these images and blog them because they remind me of the great times we had together. I love the emotion and memories that photography stirs up. It takes us back to a place we once were in life.The polaroid above is of Jess standing on our super-top-secret-amazing-cliff-lookout-spot. One of my favs.Overall, it was an amazing trip and I’m glad Jess and I were able to slow life down a bit. Super refreshing.

Chris & Alex

holly — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:17:41 +0000

Weather in Ohio can be a tricky beast. I personally think that I’ve talked enough to mother nature about the weather that she should start listening to me, and on some days, I feel that she has. Until she gets in a mood and changes her mind.In this wedding, a little of both happened. Alex and Chris were so calm throughout the day, even when getting physically attacked by mother nature herself so I’ve certainly got to give them credit for that. Regardless of nature trying to blow us all away, there was lots of laughing and happy times. Take that mother nature, we don’t need you to have a good time!They both got ready at their house that morning. It’s so convenient when everyone is together. I also would like to formally request everyone have one of these sweet magnified mirrors at their wedding. I love how giant it makes her eyeball!Alex getting dressed prior to the wedding at the Taylor Mansion in Columbus. He’s a good-lookin’ guy, eh? This tall building is so awesome. However, it was a wind tunnel. After this shot above, a HUGE gust of wind hit us and her veil went flying! He went after it but I really didn’t think he would catch up to it. Thankfully, there were people walking down the alley from the other end and saw it flying right for them so they caught it. Crises averted!With their wedding in Columbus, we went to Downtown Columbus for their creative photography session. It had some really great spots! We always bring assistants to weddings, and because Luke wasn’t photographing a wedding that day he came along. Because he is from Columbus he was able to take us right to the best spots!

Luke almost got blown away on our way to find shelter from the wind. It was tough!

By the end of the session, I think we all just came to accept the wind and embrace it. That is why I LOVE this photo. I think mother nature would like it too.Blending architecture and people is something we’re passionate about around here.The Taylor Mansion was beautiful! I am grateful it was only windy and not raining (yet) because I just love the images we were able to get outside and the sweet locations we went to, but if it had been raining, this house would have been a great back up plan as well. Backup plans always help me sleep at night.

Everything is all prepped for the outdoor wedding at the Taylor Mansion in Columbus. Beautiful.

The ceremony happened at pretty much the perfect time. Everything just became calm and it was quite lovely. The light became soft and even and it was perfect. If it would have been 20 minutes later, it would have had to be pushed inside the house. This is where mother nature was like, “ok ok you guys have been good sports about the wind, I’ll give you a totally lovely ceremony” And thats exactly what it was

Jenga pieces for a guest book is a brilliant idea. If I wasn’t already married, I would steal this idea for sure. Each table had it’s own theme of all these lovely places. I have a problem when it comes to twinkly lights and chandeliers. I’m like a moth to a flame! SPARKLEYYY!!

Once all the major events were done, it rained like crazy. But who cares about that. There was a tent, great food, lots of laughing and everyone was having a great time. I call that a successful wedding. Oh… and more twinklies. I can’t stop. Don’t judge me!