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Calendar creator has knack for right moment
By Elise Franco
Youngstown
Scott Lanz, a lawyer by day and photographer every other waking hour, has created a way to show appreciation for the muse that’s kept his craft sharp for 20 years.
Lanz, of Boardman, said he’s been shooting photographs of the Mill Creek MetroParks for at least that long, and in that time his pictures have gone from casual snapshots to thought-out artistry that captures the park’s scenery at exactly the right moment.
In 2007, he was approached by park personnel to create a calendar to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fellows Riverside Gardens. Each year since then, he’s produced a calendar showcasing his own photographs of the parks’ most beautiful places.
“I donated back 10 percent of all gross sales in 2009 and 2010 to the Friends of Fellows Riverside Gardens,” he said. “I couldn’t sell the calendars without Mill Creek, so this is a way for me to support the park.”
Keith Kaiser, MetroParks’ horticulture director, said Lanz’s calendar sales have raised about $1,500 over the past two years. Kaiser said that money will be used to install the “Ohio Woodland Garden.” Each calendar costs $11.95.
“This garden will come along in the next couple years and will show the public plants that grow well in a shady, dry environment while using native plants that grow in typical Ohio woods,” he said.
Kaiser said the project money is important because it helps improve areas of the gardens that are in need of developing.
He said Lanz’s calendars, which sell at Fellows and Lanterman’s Mill as well as other areas of the park and local retailers, are popular among MetroParks regulars.
“I think it’s pretty strong,” he said. “People locally know his work, and if they’ve bought his calendars in the past, they’re looking for it again.”
Kaiser said it’s also common for folks to pick up a calendar or two as a gift to out-of-town friends and family.
But Lanz said for him, it’s not about making money.
“It’s just important for me to promote the park as a place to preserve and protect,” he said. “I try to show it in an artistic way that will get people to appreciate it more.”
The Youngstown native also is one of 21 local artists to have a display at Fellows as a part of Art in the Gardens.
His display is a photograph he shot several years ago of the “All-American Garden.”
Lanz said he loaded the picture into a photo-editing program and used filters until the image looked like a watercolor painting. It was then put on canvas.
“Most of my photography has been very literal, producing a scene exactly as it appears,” he said. “This one I took into a photo art genre. The idea was to take it one step further.”
Lanz said he always has his camera on him because the perfect snapshot is rarely pre-planned.
He described a photograph in which the sunset sky perfectly matched the orange, pink and purple flowers in the grass below.
“I’ve probably been there 100 times before and 100 times since I took that picture,” he said. “It takes patience and luck. I’m always looking at the sky.”