We spent the last 5 days in Colorado visiting some friends that moved from Berwick. Caught a Rockies game, hit up a museum and had a blast catching up with them. We’ve now moved on to Sedona, Arizona…the force behind this trip. This is the first family reunion my mom’s side of the family has ever put together. Apparently my grandmother thinks Sedona, AZ is 1/2 way between the East and West coasts! lol Just kidding…she’s a rockstar and my favorite person in the world to torture and tease. She takes it like a champ and dishes it back like a pro.

Anywho, this is just a quick update while we’re on the road. When I can, I’m making progress on the editing (those waiting, I thank you massively!).

…Firstly…

I need to officially thank everyone that showed up at the www.300AlmostNakedPeople.com shoot on the 13th. Besides the nerves and stress that I was ‘enjoying’ we had a great time and got some cool images. Hoping to have those done up soon.  Big props to Ben T. and M.J. at the Press Enterprise from stopping down to cover the event…and then for the amazingly awesome FRONT PAGE article in this past Sunday’s P.E. Thank you both for helping to get the word out!

Tara and Leah Mangan blew everyone’s mind with the cake of cake’s!  Thank you both mucho! There’s so many more people that NEED to be called out…once I have the images ready, they’ll all get the props they deserve. I’m definitely looking forward to doing it all over again soon. I’ll be posting more info on that as it becomes available.

Other things:

The Berwick Mural Project is rockin big time already. Alley Art is making major progress and the YMCA retaining wall will be in full swing once we return to PA. The blog is a touch outdated, but I’ll be making that right in the near future. We’ll be posting ‘artist profiles’ soon so everyone can get to know the great people MAKING this a reality. As always, we’re looking for volunteers all the time. Whether you can paint or not, there’s plenty of ways to get involved. Touch base with Connie through the BMP blog if you’re ready to be part of something HUGE!

Things To Do In Berwick

Check out this cool new Facebook group started by Berwick doer Steve Hampton. How smart is this…whether you’re looking for, or know of something to do in Berwick, share it here. Props to Steve for making this convenient and totally useful community board.

…and lastly…

I’ve got the goods on ANOTHER community art project that will need LOTS of people…about 100 I’d say. That’s all I want to dish on that right now as we have a few things to finalize, but if your interested you can talk to the man himself that came up with the idea. Berwick native, Zach Bremmer. Bro doesn’t even live here anymore and is rockin the creativity for the hometown. When I have more info set in stone, I’ll post it for sure…until then, dig it out of Zach if you can.

That’s it…time to go prospect for gold…Uncle Steve scored some yesterday and I need a tan, so why not!

…is this ASAP enough?

Joey & Jamie’s Vegas mind-melt gave me some time to work up a couple of posts I’ve been wanting to do.  Nooooo, not WHILE in Vegas…you can get a lot done on a 3 hour flight!  Here’s a few from Connie’s most recent modeling shoot.

How much does she ROCK for getting the hair dyed dark just to do this shoot the way I’d pictured it in my head?  Every shoot seems better than the last with her…and that’s a damn good thing!  :D  Once again, thank you Kat for rocking the makeup & general shoot assistance.

And here’s a few from the most recent band promo shoot I’ve had the opportunity to work on.  1 Hot Mess is 1 rad crew of people to have on the opposite end of the lens.  Connie and Kat rocked out the back end of this shoot as well.  When the 3 of us are firing on all cylinders, life is GOOD!  Thank you to everyone involved!

Man I had some fun today.  For four years I’ve wanted to pull what I thought would be one hell of a funny April Fool’s Day prank: making it look like A Perfect Blend, my mother-in-law’s coffee shop here in Berwick, PA, was closed and out of business.  For four years all I’ve ever done was wish I was doing it.  This year I finally made the decision to just get it done.  Last night Connie & I stopped in and covered the entire front window area of the shop with newspapers and hung an ‘Out of Business’ sign on the front door.  We also tethered a video cam pointed outside to a T.V. on the inside.  The idea here was to be able to see the expressions of the locals walking up for their morning fix, as well as a way for me to see outside so I’d be able to run down anyone that ACTUALLY thought we were closed.

It worked better than I could have ever imagined.  All day long we were able to enjoy the hilarious expressions on people as the thought of the shop actually be gone from their daily routines crossed their lost faces.  Slightly evil, perhaps, but everyone enjoyed the laugh and seemed to have a lot of fun.  The newspaper and T.V. station showing up was an unexpected bonus as well.

I’ll file this in my war chest of examples I use when people tell me they have nothing to do, or that there’s nothing to do in this town.  Make your fun.  Be bold, do something…but never stop having fun!  Thank you Mary Lou for letting me do this.  I really appreciate the chance to mess with so many people!  :D

Rock On!

I was digging around some old drives and ran across a few shots of Jazzy’s dance class from about 15 months ago.  Jazzy doesn’t dance anymore, but these will be cute to me forever.

Snap shots that have definitely grown on me since last viewed…

Have a great weekend…!  :D

It’s CRAZY windy this morning.  I’ll probably find the power out @ the studio when I get in.  C’est la vie!

Yes it’s been like 3 weeks since the last blog.  ’Tis the season of head down editing and not a whole lot else.  But sometimes you have to stop and realize that you HAVE to make time for taking a break.  Just so happens my break times consist of a lot of photography and editing.  Work/life/love – what’s the difference?

The ‘prohibition party’ Tara and friends through for the Frankles last month inspired Connie and Monica to put a shoot together.  We rented, borrowed and invented a few different things and just played around with it for a while.  Kat came in on makeup once again.  Turns out she DID have bigger eye lashes in her bag…who’da thunk it?  And thank you to Kendra F. for the pearls…it’s good to know good people!

This time out I wanted to see what the basement of Berwick Brewing had to offer.  Lots of neat stuff, but I’m a fan of ceiling height…I liked the upstairs (from the last blog) a bit more.  When you read a sentence like the last, realize that’s me whining to myself to stop whining and adjust accordingly next time – to just deal with it. Challenges are AT LEAST 1/2 the fun for me with a camera in hand.  When I can make it work…we’ll that’s just a good day!

Anywho, we had a lot of fun, added to Connie and Monica’s growing pile of images and learned mucho.  We have 4 or 5 more shoots planned for various locations around the Brewery in the next month or so.  I’ll be posting whatever I have time to finish.  For now, it’s back to the ‘work’…or was it life…or love…

Rock on!

This past Monday I had a chance to get the girls and Connie out for an evening fall shoot.  It was probably the nicest fall day we’ve had this year.  Just a fun time chasing the girls around and practicing some shot ideas…

Rock on!

Holy crap, I’ve been trying to get a post up for DAYS!  Easier said than done, mostly because I’m a bit of a perfectionist.  I can’t help it…oh well.

Here’s a few from last weekend at Rickett’s Glen with the crew.  The Zourides Brothers rocked out a goofy lighting experiment, and we all had a great time.  And then there’s Beth and the water shots.  Every time I work underwater I learn a million new things.  Same here.  I can’t tell you what I learned…well, I could, but then I’d have to kill you…which would be a challenge at the very least!  :P  It’s fun, it’s really challenging and always educational…

Enjoy!

The more I work with someone, the more fun the shoots become (for the most part ;P).  So it goes when I get a chance to work with Connie on shot ideas anymore.  Getting our personalities on the same page when it comes to shooting is ‘part of the fun’, but when we’re firing on all cylinders together it’s magic.  We’ve had a few crazy months trying to get ready for the season; getting things in order to help other people with their imaging needs.  It’s easy to forget that I have a willing and ready model with which to play around whenever I’d like.  One that really LIKES to have her picture taken.

Connie and I stole of few moments of life back this morning and cracked off some lighting ideas I wanted to work on.  Being able to create images like these with her, for her, is really what it’s all about…

Enjoy…

hehehe…I wish. On our way out on Thursday morning I stopped in to the studio to grab some gear and change the message machine. In my haste and excitement I looked at the wrong month on my computer calendar and said we’d be back on July 28th…hhahahhahhahahah LOL ……..don’t I wish!!!!!!!!

It was only up for about 30 hours before Mr. Andy Zourides bailed me out and stopped in to change it for me. So, if anyone was lucky enough to call last Thursday or Friday – my bad! Someday I’ll be able to hit the road for entire months, but it’s not this year – {crosses fingers for next year though…}

We’ll be back in the studio full swing tomorrow, Tuesday, JUNE 30th…as far as I know!

Rock on

…we’re down in Ocean City this weekend to cover a show for a local Scranton band, Bliss.  They play down here @ Seacrets a few times a year.  Last year we were only able to catch the first show in April.  Not bad at all, but a tad early in the season for this neck of the woods.  Tonight’s show, smack in the middle summer fun, should be radically different.  The guys in Bliss are awesome.  Energetic as hell and always ready to make sure the photographer is having at least as much fun as they are.  Thankfully, our hotel is the closest building to Seacrets, so getting back is pretty doable no matter how much fun I end up having on accident on purpose!  :D

Last night we cruised up to Fenwick Island quick to catch one of its storied sunsets.  The girls love it, we love it, and as long as we let them get in the water without concern for what they’re wearing or how many times they’ve changed in one day, everyone has a blast.

I spent the time working with some of the built-in Nikon CLS lighting tricks this fancy gear has.  I hardly ever use it, but I’ve been pushing myself to get better with how it works.  Holding the flash in the left hand, camera in right and trying not to loose my balance and fall in the water myself was fun for sure.  Some of these are just plain goofy, but the memories they make are worth every second of the silliness.

Rock on everyone…