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Justin Ketchem Photography bio picture

Welcome to my blog!

This is where I post images and discuss what is going on in my world - mostly my world of photography. After a wedding, event or portrait session, I'm anxious to share my photographs. My blog is the first place they are seen. My customers know to come here a day or two after the shoot to get a glimpse of how spectacular their images turned out. I also use the blog to keep everyone up-to-date on new offers, featured products and special projects. 

Please take a few moments to look through my posts. I hope you like what you see and read and visit often.

 

Join me at the Bridal and Beyond Bridal Fair this Saturday

bridal-beyond-logo1_sbhj_n7t2 I really excited to once again participate in the Bridal and Beyond Winter Bridal Fair on Saturday, March 7. Bridal and Beyond has 35+ vendors, live music, designer gowns on live models, delicious treats, a complimentary chair massage and fantastic prizes, including a free engagement session from yours truly. 

I love this show because it’s big enough to have a great selection of vendors in every category, but it isn’t so big that it’s overwhelming. I especially enjoy having the opportunity to sit down with brides and show them my custom albums and discuss their wedding plans.

Here are the show details:

Bridal and Beyond Winter Bridal Fair

Signature of Solon, 39000 Signature Drive, Solon, OH 44139

11:00 am - 3:00 pm

I hope to see you there!

Alex

Alex is a tall, beautiful young lady with a desire to model cloths. After a few months of trying to match up schedules, we finally got together for a shoot. Alex did a great job. She had great expression and tons of confidence, which are indispensable in modeling. Here’s a few of my favorite shots.

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Aloys and Curt

Since Aloys and Curt are getting married on New Year’s Eve, they wanted to keep with the winter theme and do an engagement session in the snow. We had such a great time at the Chagrin Valley Hunt Club in Gates Mills. Even though the snow was coming down pretty good, even sideways at times, Aloys and Curt were joking and laughing the whole time. Their playful interaction and bantering made photographing them an easy task. I’m really looking forward to their holiday wedding.

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Carly

Carly’s Bat Mitzvah party was awesome! Everybody was dancing and having a great time. Rock The House played awesome music and put on an incredible break-dancing show towards the end of the night, and Executive Caterers at Landerhaven did a great job of taking care of everyone. Carly was so easy to photograph because she was always laughing and smiling with her friends. I really enjoyed documenting Carly’s Bat Mitzvah.

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TJ

TJ is one of the best-behaved babies I’ve ever photographed. He just kept smiling. In fact, we were a good 20 minutes into the shoot before he got even a little tired of everyone shouting out his name, making silly faces at him and moving him around.

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Rock The House Open House

I’ve worked a lot of events with Rock The House, and I’m always impressed with their non-stop energy, unmatched ability to entertain and consistent professionalism. When Matt Radicelli (the owner and founder) asked me if I’d snap some shots of their open house, I was happy to do so. I was really floored by their operation. Their HQ allows them to showcase all their capabilities, and it’s easy to see why they book more than 300 events each year. The B&Gs that attended the open house were excited about RTH providing the entertainment for their wedding. I’m excited about photographing some of their receptions.

Here’s some of the shots from the very successful open house.

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RTH HQ is huge. This is the lobby area before people started arriving.

That's quite a rock

That's quite a rock

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The light show was really impressive.

As much as the vibrant colors, LED lights and monograms rocked, the disco ball is still a must-have.

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Join me at the Bridal and Beyond Workshop

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Bridal and Beyond is a fantastic resource for brides (and grooms) that offers everything from bridal fairs to workshops to wedding planning services. I’m excited to be conducting a workshop on how to have the “picture perfect” wedding, with the emphasis on the word “picture”, of course.  This workshop is for B&Gs that haven’t booked a photographer as well as the ones that have. I’ll discuss what to look for when choosing a photographer as well as tips on how to help make your wedding-day photography go smoothly.

The workshop will take place on January 16 at Catan Fashions in Strongsville from 12:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. In addition to my workshop, Bridal and Beyond will be talking about the latest wedding trends, and Fitness by Debi will discuss her Bridal Fitness Bootcamp, and how to get fit so you look your best.

Details for the workshop are below. I’m really hoping to see you there!

Catan Fashions
12878 Pearl Rd - Strongsville, OH 44136

12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

Jennifer and Anthony

After the cancellation of our first shoot due to blizzard-like conditions, I finally hooked up with Jennifer and Anthony downtown. It was cold, but at least the snow wasn’t coming down sideways.

This was the first time I met Jennifer and Anthony and we got along wonderfully. They were really looking forward to the session despite the frigid temps. We shot all around Public Square, on E4th and explored an empty alleyway. We ended up back at the square for some shots with the Terminal Tower in the background.

I had a lot of fun and we got some really nice shots. Here’s a few of my favorites.

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Stacy and Ryan

The rain stopped just in time for Stacy and Ryan’s engagement session. We met up in Little Italy at dusk and had a great time walking up and down Mayfield Road looking for fun places to shoot. Fortunately, it was much warmer than the day before and we actually spent about two hours taking photos. Stacy and Ryan decided to ditch their coats for a few shots and it worked out well. You can’t tell if it’s December or July.  I’m sure next July will provide even warmer weather for Stacy and Ryan’s wedding. I’m really looking forward to it. I had a lot of fun with these two.

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Caroline and John

So many of my couples are from out of town and schedule engagement sessions for when they are home visiting family. It’s usually this time of year, which offers opportunities and challenges. The opportunities include getting engagement photos and Christmas photos at the same time. There’s usually lots of colorful lights and the cold really forces couples to stay close and squeeze tight. The challenge, of course, is the cold.

And today, it was COLD!

But that’s OK, because I met Caroline and John at the Arabica in downtown Willoughby. We warmed up with some coffee and took some shots inside. They grabbed the best table in the place for photos, right in front of the Christmas tree. When the Christmas lights came on outside, we bundled up and headed to the square. It was really frigid and the wind was blowing hard, but Caroline and John managed to shrug it off and be totally natural for the camera.

I had a really fun time with Caroline and John and I’m really looking forward to their wedding in May. Here’s a couple shots from Caroline and John’s engagement session.

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