“Photography is that act of creating images to capture precious memories and preserve relationships.” These are the words of Chris Holley-Starling, owner of Chris-Holley Starling Photography here in Cleveland Heights.

Chris got started in photography because of her husband. One day he brought a camera around and she was unsuccessful trying to use it. Determined to learn how, she enrolled in some photography classes at Cuyahoga Community College. She was immediately identified by her professor as someone with a good eye and encouraged her to continue to stick with it. These inspirational words led her to eventually be hired to teach photography classes at the college, and open her own studio in 1995.

Chris is truly passionate about what she does. She says the advantage of getting your pictures taken by her is that she takes the extra time to get to know her client well before the photo shoot ever takes place. It is her belief that the best pictures are taken when the person is truly comfortable with her, because a certain level of trust has now been created to make the experience more enjoyable. This gives her a major advantage over big retail studios. Most of the people working here are only trained for a few hours and have little to no experience. Most of these places you can be in and out in a half hour, with Chris she schedules her appointments to last up to 2 hours because she wants to make sure she captures every bit of the experience. Many people are camera shy, and do not enjoy having pictures of ourselves taken, but want photos of everyone else. Given that she left us with this thought, “We all want pictures of our children and grandchildren and not so many of ourselves. But the way we treasure those pictures of the people we love, they will also treasure the pictures of us.”

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