Featured! Captured::Pittsburgh Open Air Gallery

One of the events of 2017 that I considered a huge highlight of my year, was being featured in the Captured::Pittsburgh Open Air Gallery in Shadyside. (If you don’t believe me, you can go back & read my “year-in-review” post here.) The whole experience from start to finish was simply amazing & one of my “secret” goals for 2018 was to be featured again.

The Captured::Pittsburgh Open Air Gallery is a beautifully lit & maintained space on Walnut Street (across from the Apple Store) in Shadyside. What was once an overgrown walkway, the Captured::Pittsburgh team has turned into a beautiful all-season gallery space. To me, it’s absolutely incredible to think that the guys saw that space & had the idea to turn it into such a beautiful area. Every month, a theme is announced and submissions are taken in via their Facebook & Instagram. At the end of the month, 8 different images are chosen to be featured as 30″x33″ aluminum panels in the gallery space. They are professional, weather-resistant, gallery-quality, and gorgeous!

This year, the theme for February is “Love”. I obviously have a few (just a few) images fall into that “category”! I literally jumped up & down (and might have yelled just a little bit) when I got the email stating that one of my images had been chosen to be featured, during February, for the second year in a row!

So, on Friday night, Derrick & I left Braelynn at Grandma & Grandpa’s and had a date night in Shadyside. We started with dinner, on the recommendation by one of the guys Derrick works with, at The Yard. Hold-the-phone, it was AMAZING! If you’ve never been there, you MUST go! We were so blown away by how delicious it was that we’re already planning a trip back (obsessed?). We were a bit early and it was a bit chilly, so we walked around Walnut Street a bit – exploring the different shops & stores (and the Apple Store, of course).

Did I mention it was freezing? Last February, on opening night, it started off raining, which then changed to snow while we were standing there. While no precipitation was falling this year on Friday night, it was bitterly cold – a whopping 12º. And, while I had on a sweater & heavy winter coat, my feet were not nearly as protected (I wore short high-heel boots & thin socks). Let’s just say this: after standing there for an hour, I was literally in pain. I have never felt such agony over simply being cold. I told Derrick, “I think I have frostbite.” He laughed at me, but I was serious! It took several hours for my body (but mostly my feet) to go back to feeling normal again.

So, besides the whole not-being-prepared-for-Artic-weather thing, the gallery opening was amazing. It was fun because, whereas last year, only 3 other photographers came out to see their photo unveiled, 7 of us were there on Friday night! It was a blast to meet & get a chance to chat with some of the other photographers and hear the stories about their images. Each of us who were there were able to unveil our own photo, and then sign it.

Seriously – that whole process of pulling the cover off, seeing an image that I took, and then being able to lay claim to it by signing it – just wow. Such an incredible moment. And this year, I was smart & brought my own step-ladder, but the Captured::Pittsburgh guys were smart & had a step-ladder too (because, I’m short & can’t reach, okay?!)

Jason kicked off the evening by giving an introduction to the space while Adam live-streamed the whole thing to their Facebook page. Speaking of which! If you would like to watch that live-stream, if you just hop on over to the Captured::Pittsburgh Facebook page – if you skip to around the 5 minute mark, then you’ll see yours truly!

I don’t really have a fear of heights. And normally, I have no problem with climbing up onto a ladder. But by this point on Friday night, I literally could not feel my toes & I might have been a tad bit nervous to climb up onto this ladder! At the end of the night, Derrick told me that I’m only allowed to enter images into the gallery for months when it’s warm. And then Jason told me that I am “disqualified” from any “winter galleries” due to complaining (if you watch the live-stream, you’ll hear him say it). I’m telling you, it was freezing!

I just wanted to say thank you again to the Captured::Pittsburgh guys – not only for picking my image to be featured, but for the gorgeous space & all the hard work that goes into running this Open Air Gallery month after month! You all are awesome & I’m blessed to know you guys – thank you!