Try Love!

There's a song on the radio right now that proclaims all the world needs is "peace, love, happiness" I firmly agree, and for two years, I drove down Lakewood ave under the 31 overpass, and when I looked up at the overpass, I saw the words "Try Love" in graffiti on the concrete. Now, I know graffiti is vandalism, and a crime, and should not be condoned, but every time I looked up a that writing, I got a little bit of a shiver, followed by a little hope-that yes, we could all try love, and yes, it could very well make a difference. Since I first saw the Try Love graffiti, I wanted to do something with it, but it took me a couple years to figure it out. Finally, one afternoon I took our daughter up to the overpass to photograph her, she was a great sport and gave me an expression that was simply "her".







Almost seems to me like its her that's making this statement



After posting a copy of this picture outside the studio, Jen approached me and told me she loved the idea and wanted to do something similar with her little one. I happily obliged, and we braved the "hill" to capture some very cute pics of her little one.






This little one was just adorable, and very fun to work with.




After these pics I was ready to retire the "hill" as a shooting location, but Heather and I had the idea that it would be fun to bring a couple up for some engagement pictures. So....Aaron and Liz climbed up for what would be our final shoot with the Try Love wall.

These two were crazy cute, and were "monkeying" around the whole time.

And they didn't need much direction either, this is one happy and in love couple.





Several days ago, I was driving my kids home from school and saw that the Try Love graffiti that I had for so long admired, had been painted over by the city. While I am not "upset," I am rather bummed, because as you can see now, I had quite a passion for this wall, and for the message I always felt it gave. Well, it was only graffiti, and I suppose the city has a right to clean up its overpasses.......but the funny thing was, they didn't scrub it off-they actually painted over it...
~Jason