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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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

Anyone like painting – REALLY HUGE things?  Connie has been interested in getting some murals in Berwick for quite a while now.  She’s working with a small committee of local people to get it done.  They have the support of the borough and building/location owners as well.  What they need is help.  If anyone reading this feels like getting creative in a BIG way, drop Connie a line at 570-578-9412 and let her know.  It all starts on the 24th of April!  THIS IS HAPPENING this spring/summer…might make for a nice creative outlet project!  :D

The Nationwide Insurance building wall

Prime location for some public art (decent photography on the 2nd floor as well, I’ve heard )

Berwick Theater wall

Another cool spot with a lot of viewing opportunity

BIDA wall on LaSalle  St.

I’m excited for this one.  LaSalle’s already got a lot of character…this could really go a bunch of cool ways!

Euclid Alley (The Start of Alley Art)

This is the spot that started it all for Connie.  She’s wanted to do ‘Alley Art’ since back in the day.  Alley Art exploded into the Mural Project as more and more people wanted to help.  If you spend any amount of time downtown, you’ll probably hit up Euclid Alley.  Another really exciting wall waiting for some paint.

YMCA Retaining wall

Looooooooooooong and narrow…visually interesting possibilities here!

If you’re from the area and can visualize each of these spots, think about all of them done up in murals.  What a cool, creative and interesting picture of Berwick that is.  Come be part of something fun!

OK…here we go!  This might be all over the place, but I’ll try to keep it together.  And I’ll put this out there right now; this is my first foray into trying to show someone how I shoot, so if it feels like I’m shooting (pun #1) from the hip, I probably am.  And, an even more important point – these classes will be based around what I know about image making, which is limited to what I’ve been able to teach myself in the last 6ish years.  I’m still teaching myself photography, and I hope these classes can show you how to do that as well.

We’ll lean HEAVILY towards DSLR shooting, particularly in the 1 on 1 sessions.  If you’re more comfortable with, or only have, a point-n-shoot, we can definitely discuss that more as well.  And, if those last 2 sentences didn’t make any english sense to you, please ask…I’ll be happy to explain.

Small Group Classes:

These classes will be limited to 5 people per class, on a first come, first served basis.  To reserve a spot, the course fee will need to be paid in full.  If you’re thinking about attending any of these, get a hold of someone at the studio ASAP.  We can’t reserve a spot until the fee is paid.  And on that note, each class is $75 and will be held at the studio.

The dates are:

• Wednesday April 28th 6-9   –   Camera Control – ISO, aperture, shutter speed
• Wednesday May 12th 6-9   –   Digital Darkroom – file management, workflow, editing
• Wednesday May 26th 6-9   –   Lighting – natural, on-camera, off-camera, mixing

Camera Control

To me, this is where it all starts.  If you don’t know what the camera is doing, you’re never going to get any better at making images.  ’P’ mode works in very few situations.  Actually taking control of the camera is essential to getting YOUR creativity into the image.  And seriously, it’s easier than you think.  MOST of the ’stuff’ on your camera can be ignored…understanding ISO, aperture and shutter speed, and how each plays into your image will allow you to make better images, more often, in more situations.

Digital Darkroom

This should actually be first, but I realize most people just want to shoot and might not KNOW that they SHOULD care about this part…by the end of Camera Control, I’ll have you convinced at just how important this part is, particularly to digital photographers.  Don’t skip this class just because it might sound boring on the surface – I promise it wont be!

Lighting

Oh baby, do I love me some light!  I can’t stop looking at, analyzing, playing with or talking about lighting.  Ask Connie…it’d be a problem if it wasn’t a passion!  :D (ooh…that was good…tweeted!)  Understanding lighting and how YOU are in CONTROL of it will make for better images instantly.  From simple to complex, we’ll talk about it all.  Class note – if I jump around like a monkey trying to make my point on lighting, toss me a banana and wait for me to calm down…I like it THAT much!

I’m going to focus (pun #2) on having fun in these classes –  cause seriously, has anyone ever picked up a camera with intent of irritating themselves?  It’s about creativity and sharing with the world how you see life happening one frame at a time.  I can’t tell you too much about the class setting itself, cause THAT’S one of the surprises for attending.  I will say this however; I’m going for MORE than you’re expecting!

Alright…so that brings us to the 1 on 1 classes…a tad less info here as these are going to be specific to each person.  But here are the details:

1 on 1 Photo Classes:

• Scheduled almost any time there’s an opening for your schedule and mine
• First class is a 2 hr intro class at $75.  The intro class is designed to help me better understand your needs so I can tailor future classes accordingly.
• After the intro class, sessions are $50/hr, booked in 1-3 hour blocks
• You can also schedule a batch of classes for a reduced rate – 6 session hours for $250, scheduled however you’d like.
• Most classes will start in the studio – we’ll decide together where were headed from there if location work is the order of the day
• I have a basic plan for how I’d like these to go, but it’s YOUR PERSONAL class.  We’ll work on whatever you’d like.

Wow! Some days just stand out against the rest, and yesterday was one of them.  I spent the morning talking about the utility of Social Media to a room full of non-profit organizations from our area.  The last time I was that nervous was probably shooting my first wedding.  :O  I was really looking forward to the class since we were covering a topic I truly enjoy, but when it came time to get some sort of plan together for what to talk about in my teenie little 3 hour window, I really had a hard time with it.  Part of it had to do with the material; as much time as I spend learning about Social Media and how to use it for our business, I spend an equal amount of time understanding that I have a lot to learn.  But I guess that’s probably also WHY I enjoy it so much as well.  And part of the struggle had to do with myself…the pressure I put on myself to do something just a little different than might be expected. This trait plays itself out in a lot of what I do and I think it comes from just trying to live each day as big and as loud as I possibly can.  I want to remember every day because of the things that make it different from all the other days of my life.  It’s a challenging, educational and fun way to live!

Beyond the nerves and the sweating however, it was exactly the kind of day I really look forward to.  It was something new…something different!  As the class zoomed past in a blur my nerves of course turned to excitement.  The questions and the feedback from those attending really put me in my groove and it all just started to flow out.   It really was awesome.  Thank you Joy at the Berwick Area United Way for asking me to do this.  You pushed me to try something new and I really appreciate the opportunity to do so…

Needless to say, this week has been a heavy one.  Aside from the class and other projects, there’s still ‘the work’ that needs to get done.  My backlog of editing is pretty ‘amazing’, if I can use that word describe it…?  But I AM getting there.  Thank you everyone that might be waiting on images for your patience to let me do this as best as I can for you.  Seriously, it means a lot to me…

In the next few days I’ll be kicking up a post about some photography classes the studio will be offering in the not too distant future.  The classes will either be the 1 on 1 variety where you have my complete attention and excitement about photography.  And while I have a pretty good plan for ‘things’ to cover, the 1 on 1 classes will be very geared toward answering the questions you have.  I see these classes as pretty customizable to your needs.  The other flavor of lesson will be in small groups (perhaps 3-5 people) where each session is focused on something specific.  One day spent on ISO control and how to use it in your photography…another day spent on lighting theory and ideas…etc.  It’ll make more sense in the blog focused on that topic…hopefully I’ll get it out this weekend.

We’re headed down to Philly today to visit some family and give the girls a little big city culture.  We’re all pretty pumped for the experience!  Before we head out I wanted to get some new images posted.  Some of these are from the end of last season, and a couple are from the beginning of this week.  This is the kind of post that on the surface may seem less thought out or focused that most…To me however, it’s an example of what I like to shoot and the variety of experiences that make being a photographer truly awesome.  Thanks for looking.

Rock On and enjoy your weekend!

Definitely one of the coolest parts of this gig is talking to people about not only the images we’re about to work on for them, but also about the images they may want to make on their own.  DLSR camera’s have made it easy and affordable to make better images.  The feedback, either instantly from the back of the camera, or shortly thereafter on a computer screen, give you a chance to make adjustments and corrections, reshoot and see first hand the results of those changes, usually immediately.  At least for me, this is a GREAT way to learn.  It’s linear and just makes sense.

The question I get asked most often is probably ‘what does it take to be a professional photographer?‘  The quick answer, a business degree!  I get the feeling most people don’t want to hear that, but it’s all but true.  That said, it doesn’t take a degree of any sort to make better pictures; just the desire to do so.  If the image is pleasing to you, you’re good to go.  Everyone has opinions, preferences, likes and dislikes, all of which can help you see things from different points of view.  In the end however, being comfortable with yourself and what you’re doing with a camera is all that really matters.

When I get into a conversation about gear, particularly with someone new to photography, I bring up the lens in the image here; the 50mm f/1.8.  Both Nikon and Cannon make it, as I’m sure many other camera and lens manufacturers do as well.  In the ‘bang for your buck’ category, this lens stands alone, BIG TIME.  Nikon’s runs about $120, Cannon’s is about $10 cheaper.  When lenses regularly go for $1500.00+, the 50mm f/1.8 feels nearly free!  It’s durable (the one in the image here is from my dads old film Nikon…its been beaten, dropped, tossed, shipped and forgotten about by various members of my family for 20+ years, and still takes a razor sharp image.).  It’s feather light, awesome in low-light situations and IT DOESN’T ZOOM!  I’m not going to get into the ‘prime vs. zoom’ argument here, that’s for someone else’s blog…but the fact that this lens is fixed at 50mm is WHY I like it so much.

This lens (and all other primes) remove the ability to zoom in or out at the the lens in your attempts to make a better image.  Often, and I’m hella guilty of this myself, you’ll snap an image that looks NOTHING like what you were going for.  With a zoom lens on, who hasn’t just zoomed in or out and reshot the same image?  There are definitely times when that really might be all the fix you need, but I’m willing to bet in most situations you’re just closer to or further away from the same cruddy picture.  The 50mm doesn’t give you that option.  The only thing you can do is change YOUR position relative to your subject.  Once you start moving all sorts of new possibilities open up.  It forces you to open your minds eye to different approaches to your shot.  Move left, move right, get on a ladder, hug the ground; different scenarios for making something awesome start to materialize quick.

I can go on all day about this rad little workhorse.  Mine’s seen greener pastures, but still does what I ask of it.  I use it almost every day and wouldn’t think of putting a gear bag together without this lens.  If you’re looking around for something that will invigorate and inspire your shooting, give this little guy a try…

Rock On!

More blogs on the way:

• 1 on 1 and Small Group Photography Classes
• More Recent Shoots

Stay tuned…