Thanks to the sponsors of this really fun event. Power & Light District, The Lazarus Group, Missouri Bank Crossroads, Latte Land, Overland Photo Supply, Latte Land, Screenland Theaters and Clay Ransom Photography. Also a special thanks to long time WSS friend Kelly Jander for the heads up on this event.

There really isn’t much to type in this space, it was total devestation. I am sure people who are smarter or more eloquent than me could put the things I saw into words. I really can’t so below is just a few of the pictures that I thought told a better story of the situation down there.

Won’t ever forget the day we went down there. Thanks to our friend and fellow artist Lauren for her help that day. Simon has his own set of unique fantastic photos he will be sharing soon.

Update: One of our commenters Hal threw out a link to the song listed on the record in shot #14. Link here.

Some of the lyrics jumped out at me.

“And many an hour of sweet happiness I spent in that neat little town.
But bad misfortune came o’er me, and caused me to stray from the land
Far away from my friends and relations. They follow the black velvet band.”

Feel free to contact us at info@westsidestudiokc.com for any prints or other photo needs.

Kate was very sweet. She is funny though. She loves burying her face in the soft carpet and loves her fingers. Usually it takes kids a little while to warm up to someone with a big camera in their hands but she was all smiles from the start.

I had to throw in this last one. Have you ever had a day where you felt like this? Ha.

On Friday Simon and Zachary shot for this year’s Ugly Sweater Christmas Party. It is the 3rd year Zachary has been a part of this great event that is held to support Operation Breakthrough.

Operation Breakthrough is an organization that supports Kansas City children. There are a wide variety of programs geared toward children who have wide ranging needs.

A brief description of how the party began from the website…

“The Ugly Christmas Sweater Party began in 2005 as a small holiday gathering in Brookside hosted by Ramsey Mohsen, Scott Aripoli, and Patrick Perkins. While cleaning up in 2007, we decided to turn all of our hard work in to good for others, and raise money for a charity.”

Westside Studio was excited to lend its services to this cause. The hard work of the steering committee coupled with the generosity of the sponsors, attendees, Tower Taven, and private donors made for the most successful event to date.

Our goal of raising $20,000 was demolished with the grand total exceeding $26,000 for Operation Breakthrough. Check out some of the photos from this special event and take some time to learn more about the imporant work Operation Breakthrough does for our community.