Earlier this year I found myself in Cleveland, Ohio. While there were a number of (arguably) more obvious things to capture here, a long standing love of this movie meant I had to see the house from the 1983 holiday classic, A Christmas Story in person.
With the iconic leg lamp in the front window and the Bumpus House next door, the house from A Christmas Story has since been transformed into a year round museum dedicated to the movie. Complete with a tour and a gift shop across the street, you can even pay to spend the night in the Bumpus House (and thankfully, unlike in the movie, you can avoid the dogs).
Naturally, there is some trickery going on here. During production the house was used for exteriors, but as is often the case, was not actually where the interior scenes were filmed. A Christmas Story is also set in Indiana, but was filmed in Cleveland and Toronto.
Regardless, the house has been beautifully restored and turned into a really unique Christmas landmark. For fans of this classic or movie locations in general, the house from A Christmas Story is definitely worth a look the next time you're in Cleveland, Ohio.
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| It's a major award! |
A few visual highlights from a stay at the Schofield Hotel in downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
Over 5500 miles covered, 10K+ images shot, and some incredible sights marked another successful series of travel shoots as I explored the Northeast United States over the last two weeks. While this road trip did have some overlap with previous shoots, all totaled I spent time in 14 states. In fact, I filled in the last few gaps I had on the map - meaning I've now shot photography and video (in varying capacities) in all 50 states + the District of Columbia.
Highlights included a pretty diverse range of activities - from exploring ships in Baltimore to beaches in Cape Cod to driving back roads in Vermont to walking the entire National Mall in Washington D.C. This ended up being one of my most ambitious road trips to date, not because of the distance or driving required, but instead because I had to have a bit more strategy to cover one of the most populated and expensive parts of the USA effectively.
Traffic was always going to be an issue in this part of the country, and knowing that I'd be staying in a different city every night meant navigating a lot of busy streets. I always try to give myself windows to catch up if things don't go to plan, but my biggest worry was getting stuck / wasting time in traffic jams in some of America's largest cities.
Amazingly, my timing seemed to work out in avoiding most rush hours and the buffers I gave myself actually allowed me to cover more places when I ended up ahead of schedule. All of the experience I gained planning elaborate shoots like this over the last few years really seemed to come in handy this time. I'm just as willing to admit that I lucked out though.
There's no question, as much fun as it was, this series of travel shoots in the Northeast was really challenging to orchestrate. That's just made me more excited to share it now. Stay tuned for more additions to my Middle America series in the weeks ahead!
