Making Something From Nearly Nothing
July 22, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
Today was planned months ago. The image ideas and how to execute them had been thought about over and over. It was going to be tons of fun and hopefully produce some really awesome images…images of some really motivated and exceptionally fit individuals hittin the Appalachian Trail…
…looks like we’re going to have a few more months to plan that out. Doh! Someone in the PA government decided it was time to close Winter’s Trail (one of the on-ramps to the A.T. in NEPA). Yeah, we were confused… but mark one down for scouting! This past Tuesday morning Mike D, Mary and I got a super early jump and headed up to the A.T. to be in position for sunrise. The plan was to be ready when first light hit, assess what we’d have time to do and come up with some shot ideas based on the possible…with a touch of the nearly impossible.
So that WAS the plan. When we drove up around 5:30 and found Winter’s Trail closed. Lots of fences and chains and a whole bunch of ‘go away’. With some quick goat thinking we moved on to two other locations that Mike and Mary knew of. Unfortunately nothing was really working for what I was hoping to shoot…and least not like the A.T. would have.
Feeling slightly less that satisfied with my early morning adventure, I headed back to the ‘Wick to figure out what to do.
Relief was found near the bottom of beer (I know, how many times has that happened, right!) The fine folks at Bandit’s Roadhouse came to the rescue and let us use a warehouse they own to get the shoot done. Having just shot there on Monday, ideas were fresh and ready to go…albeit COMPLETELY different ones from what we wanted to do on the A.T.
Yesterday, less than 24 hours before the shoot, it hit me that I might try something a little different this time. Rather than get right into the workout shots, I thought we’d work into them. The warehouse has some awesome old offices, relics of workdays paste. It was begging for a shoot. I dropped Julie, Seth & Andrea the news and asked them to whip together a look for the office. They rocked it…with very little notice they all put together some great looks.
Kat came in on makeup for everyone and the rest of our team for this shoot (Connie, Erin & Steph) played key roles in making sure it all worked. Thank you Julie and Matt from Brandit’s Roadhouse for helping on location needs. And major props as always to the rest of the team today…thank you all for kicking ass! 
Basically I was trying for a linear progression in the images…a story board sequence of sorts. From the dulldrums of the office to the energy and excitement of LIFE being lived. As this was my first attempt at it, there are some obvious deviations from the time line that could have been done better. But all-in-all I’m pretty satisfied with that part of the shoot, and I’m really stoked about the images. We’ll take what we learned from this and give it another shot on another shoot some time soon.
Rock On!
BriggsFest 2010- Day 2
July 11, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
Saturday’s overnight rain didn’t seem to slow anyone down this weekend. It was refreshing and a nice break from the recent crispy heat. Things dried up and the party picked up right where it left off. When the sun went down I dropped most of the gear and had some fun with ‘left-hand extended’ off-camera flash (OCF). If your shooting gear supports it I’d recommend playing around with it when you can. It takes some getting used to, but it’s a lot fun and can really change up shooting situations that aren’t ideal.
Another amazing BriggsFest! Thank you to Richard and all the Briggs for rockin a better time every year!
…and to my boy Dan Hess…always bringing the party hard…security be damned! Yahtzee Mutha-F!!k!r!
BriggsFest 2010 – The Beginning
July 10, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
That was a damn wet night. But the rain held off until plenty after the music stopped, and the deluge quit just before the place started buzzing again this morning. Yesterday was a perfect ‘BriggsFest Day’: Plenty of sun, fun, people, music and food. Here’s a few from yesterday and this morning as a recap…
Lots more shooting to do today! Rock On!
Teaser Commercial Bodies Needed
April 5, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
Hey…just a quick post asking for help from anyone with a few minutes on their hands. This Thursday evening starting at 6:30pm a couple of us are getting together down at A Perfect Blend during their Open Mic Nite to shoot a little footage for the 300AlmostNakedPeople.com project teaser video. We need people willing to stand still for a few seconds. We’re shooting body parts for a montage clip that we’ll be posting on YouTube and on the project sight. If anyone is interested in being part of this, show up! Shoulders, legs, hips, feet…etc. That sort of thing. (Just to cover my butt, you gotta be 18 to play along…thanks for understanding)
Connie (who can be reached at 570-578-9412) will also have some info about the Berwick Mural Project, and an opportunity for you to paint something THURSDAY NIGHT @ A Perfect Blend in support of the project. Painting starts in Euclid Alley on Saturday, April 24th. Hope to see you at Open Mic Nite on Thursday for more info.
That’s about it…if you’re interested, we’ll see you there…if not, thanks for reading anyway! :D
Rock On!
April Fool’s Hijinks
April 1, 2010 by vard · 4 Comments
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!
Coffee Shop Love & Twitter
March 25, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
It’s no secret that I like social media. I like it because it’s fun and because it works…it’s definitely different than all other forms of advertising, which are mostly passive. Social Media is NOT passive. It’s engaging and dynamic. I look at it as part of what I do to make my business go round. I make and edit images, I know I should always try harder, I learn something new every day, and I social media…it’s just one of the things I have to do in the course of my life. It doesn’t hurt that it’s actually fun for me too.
So, as I sit around and try to make social media work for Studio D, it dawned on me that I’ve been completely blind to the opportunity to use A Perfect Blend as a little test business…it’ll help me better understand what works, what might not, and how to implement different ideas, AND!, it’ll help my mother-in-law’s business as well. She doesn’t have time or even the interest in adding more to her plate, but I can…and besides, it’s fun! :D (yes, I’ve said that)
In reality, Connie and I will be working on this together…
So here it. All you have to do is get a Twitter account (I mean, that is, for both of you that don’t already have one, right?) and follow @BerwickBlend. If you can, send the tweets down to your mobile device so you always have it at the ready. Starting April 1st, a week from today, we’ll start tweeting from the @BerwickBlend account. We’ll let you know what soups are up for the day and what the daily special is…how many times have you called in at 11:30am to find out that Arden’s BBQ or the Chicken Caesar Salad just sold out……ya, that sucks? We’ll also be giving away a free drink every day. We’ll tweet a code…then it’s a foot race to be the first one at the counter with the code. On the surface, it might look like this is a pretty small group of people to aim at, but these are exactly the people that make this business possible. Without the support of the businesses and downtown locals, A Perfect Blend wouldn’t exist. That said, we’re not forgetting that some people like to visit Berwick AND eat all in one eventful day. So we’ll also be tweeting, occasionally, for a free lunch for the first person to retweet the daily special. We’re going to start a little slower on this one, perhaps once a week. But I do see this becoming more regular in time. Don’t worry that you have no clue what the last couple of sentences meant…get the Twitter account and follow, and then ask me on the phone or here in the comments how to do something. I’m happy to explain.
This is planned for the long haul, so don’t sweat it if you don’t have it all figured out by next Thursday. Over time we see this as a great way to let as many people know, as easily as possible, what The Blend has to offer. And on top of it all…this is fun!
I’m such a dork! :P
