Details:

• 1 outfit
• Studio or Location
• Online Proofing
• Piles of Fun

Anyway…it was a great show and it was perfect for seeing this band in their natural element.  Should be a great shoot next week.

Rock on!

Rock on!

This past weekend we cruised down to Ocean City, Maryland to do some family portraits.  We put in the time Sunday evening and Monday morning getting what we needed for ‘work’, then took some time to hang out and enjoy a little of what going to the beach has to offer.  Watching Jazzy & Nora playing tag with the surf will never get old; and when the weather turned a little south we ran inside to do some underwater shooting in the hotel pool.  I love documenting the girls being girls…it’s what being a parent is all about!

…Jazzy also wanted me to make sure I mentioned that they were catching jellyfish too.  Sadly, I don’t think I got any shots of them as they were doing this while I was working with the family we were there to shoot.  Regardless, I can confirm that she actually did catch some…and yes, I think she’s crazy!

Love you girls!

Rock on!

Here’s a few from some of the weddings we were fortunate enough to shoot this spring…had a blast at each one; as much work as they are, I really do enjoy shooting weddings.  Thank you to all the couples who asked us to help make their day amazing!

Enjoy!

The ‘Short Story Stills’ section is something I’ve been working on for a few weeks now.  Each entry is a new series of images that I’m using to stretch myself creatively, both behind the camera and from a production/direction perspective.  In 20 images or less I’m trying to tell stories that have a beginning, middle and end.  And everything is fair game; they can be complex, sexy, funny, adventurous…you name it…if the story can be thought out effectively, I’m going to try to shoot it.

Here’s a few stills from the first three shoots in the series.  Each idea is a collaboration.  The basic concepts for each shoot are planned out ahead of time, but are also completely malleable during execution.  Everyone has a voice; photographer, models, makeup artists and any production assistants we have on hand…the more input, the better chance we have of making something awesome.

Gotta tip the hat to Chantel, Beth & Casey for being on the business side of the lens for these first sets.  A major thank you to Daniel Oz and Chelsea for the backside production on shoot’s two and three…and of course Connie for helping make these ideas realities LONG before I ever pick up a camera.  With all sincerity, everyone of you have been crucial to the success of these shoots and I appreciate your help in a way I’ll never be able to explain.

Thanks for checking them out!  Hit the link in this post or at the top of the page to see each story in its entirety.  And, if you feel so inclined, share them with your friends and cell mates.

Now, time for me to get back to my brats, sauerkraut, cheese curds & funny speaking friends.

Peace, eh!  Yah-sure, ya-betchya!

Other stuff:  I’ll be adding a new section to the blog soon called, at least for now, ‘Artist Articles’.  The basic idea with the AA’s will be to introduce whoever reads this blog to some of the people that inspire me outside of photography.  They’ll definitely have a heavy lean towards music, as I find a lot of inspiration in not only the music itself but what it takes to WANT to be a musician.  Hope to have the first of these up in the next couple of weeks.

I’ll also be moving forward with my ‘off-season’ shooting project soon.  Once that’s moving I’ll have piles to blog over about a 12 week period…or as long as it takes to get the first series done.  The concept is cool…here’s to hoping I can pull it off the way I see it in my head.

…and I should have some info about the 300 Almost Naked People II shoot soon as well.  We’ll have some fun for a good cause all over again!

So, before I pack it in I wanted to quickly post some shots I did recently with Christina.  She’s crazy fun in front of the camera – VERY ENERGETIC – and ready to go that extra bit to make an image cool.  She rocked a collection of hats into a dress just for the shoot! Dig it!

Rock on!

• attempt to make a visual reality of a silly and inspiring idea from a friend
• to push new ideas in ‘social and interactive’ shooting
• to raise some money for The Berwick Movie Theater
• and to add something different to my portfolio of images

My friend Courtney giggled out an idea for a picture to me one day while waiting for our kids to get out of school.  She thought it would be hilarious to capture an image of the cliche advice that if you’re nervous about public speaking to picture everyone in their underwear.  We laughed together about it for a few minutes, talking about what some different images might come out like.  And right in the middle of our funny little conversation it hit me like a ton of bricks that we should just make it happen.  It was such a duh moment it was almost embarrassing.  But I got over it and started thinking about what it would take to make it work.

First, we needed a place to shoot…a theater would work…and our studio happens to be 2 doors down from The Berwick Movie Theater.  My ace in the whole here was, as is often the case, Connie .  Everyone loves her and Mr. Vincent (owner of the theater) was no different.  A quick conversation and some handshaking later and Mr. V was cool with the idea.  At this point, aside from a location to shoot in, I didn’t have anything else worked out about it: how to get people there, anything regarding the technical side for lighting and whatnot, nothing…just an idea and a location.

Then, as is very often the case, 95% of the idea flooded into my head one day while I was running.  The project should have it’s own website, a catchy and informative name, something going on to entertain the participants while I messed with lighting and that we should probably record it too.  In the course of a 6 mile run I had most of it put together.  The name – 300 Almost Naked People – made me laugh…it wasn’t just a couple of friends, it was 300 almost naked people; bordering on absurdity.  Every time I said the name I laughed…that was good enough for me.  And we would use the website to host info leading up to the event.  As far as ideas for shoots go, this one was developing nicely.  Next up was getting some help on board.

Berwick might be small, but it doesn’t lack for talented people.  For this one I ask my friend Annie to help make a couple of promo commercials and to record the days events.  We had fun working together and I learned a lot from her.  Smart man Jeff Haskell proved his technical prowess by helping us live-cast the event on the internet.  In reality, Jeff’s part wasn’t really considered until just a few days before go time, and on the morning of the event I handed him two laptops and a modem and told him to see what he could do.  The live-cast wasn’t really planned out, but I figured if it worked it would be a nice accent to the ‘social’ aspect already woven into the idea of the shoot.  What Jeff actually did was WAY beyond anything I could have hoped for!  He’s a motivated dude.  Thanks Jeff.  Long time friends Dylan and Dave of BriggsFest & The Highland Games fame used $100, a few cases of beer and an afternoon or two to build two custom telescoping light stands in order to get my lights where I’d need them.  I had no idea how they would get it worked out, but I knew they would.  My father once told me I didn’t have to know all the answers, but I should have an idea on how to FIND the answers.  I’ve always appreciated that advice.  I would also need someone to keep anyone that might actually show up entertained.  Waiting for me to set up another shot can get boring…at least, I always worry that it can.  So I asked local comedian and DJ Chris Romig to MC for us.  Rock it he did!  I wasn’t ready for how funny he could be, but dammit he was hilarious!  Thanks a million Chris.  And finally, while not my idea or specifically part of the planning for this shoot, sisters Tara & Leah surprised everyone with a seriously amazing treat – a scale rendition of The Berwick Movie Theater made of cake!  Unexpected and completely awesome!

On the day of the shoot everything was working smoothly.  People were showing up pumped to get undressed, the gear was all working and things were moving as best as I could hope for.  The day started off pretty darn nice, but I was about to be reminded of one of the most important lessons of being a photographer; preparing for what you can, adjusting when needed and NOT loosing your cool when it starts to hit the fan.  While I thought I had accounted for everything, or at least thought about accounting for it, I hadn’t.  For whatever reason, I assumed Mr. Vincent wouldn’t be at the event.  It didn’t seem like his style and I had been working with his granddaughter Renee for access to the theater whenever we needed it.  That was very a rookie and stupid mistake on my part.  Of course he would be there…it’s his place.  He’s an old school dude and that’s they way it’s done.  My plan was to make sure everyone helping had what they needed and then mentally prepare myself for shooting.  If you shoot you know what I’m talking about, if you don’t I probably can’t explain it.  As it turned out, the preparing myself part never happened.  Mr. V was so involved, rightfully so, with everything that was going on, rather than having to worry about 1 or 2 things I had 15 people all asking me what they should do about whatever Mr. V was asking them.  It totally threw me…I was never able to focus on anything regarding image making.  I just snapped away.  I kept reminding myself to create rather than just capture, but I never got that far….it was just frame after frame trying to get to get to the end of the shoot.  I hadn’t felt that out of control behind a camera in a few years at least.  And it wasn’t like the unraveling was happening in a vacuum…I was aware of it, but I couldn’t keep my cool enough to even address that, much less make an image.

Despite my emotional implosion, I still feel that the 300 People project was a success.  Maybe not a success like the version I had played out in my head, but successful no less.  Lots of people willing to help and 50+ brave souls ready to shed it all for a fun and entertaining time.  Artistically for me though, it just didn’t do what I was hoping for…I never felt really connected in the way that I need to when shooting to feel good about it.  But I can live with that.  I swung for the fences; I just didn’t connect solidly.  It’s taken forever to get these images posted for a few different reasons.  Getting the studio ‘work’ out takes priority, but it wasn’t hard to ignore these images because I just didn’t ‘feel’ anything for them.  Self-applying the word ‘artist’ has never been something I felt comfortable with, but it’s about the only explanation for ‘why’ 300 People didn’t work for me.  It’s art and it’s personal, as public as we made this.  I liken it to how musicians or painters work…they produce lots of stuff that we’ll never see or hear.  I think this would have gone down that road if I didn’t feel like I owed it to the amazing people that helped and took part in the idea.  It was important to me that they see something from this for their efforts…a huge thank you to everyone that was there, clothed and otherwise.  It literally couldn’t have happened without you.

So, that’s it…I enjoyed doing the 300 People project.  It was a great exercise in coordinating a big shoot with lots going on.  The live internet feed was awesome – that we decided to do something like that for a first attempt at a big production shoot is funny as hell to me in hindsight.  Glad it at least appeared to work out.  People seemed to enjoy the event…I tried as much as I could, but I was so off my game ‘joy’ wasn’t really the emotion I was dealing with.  If you were there, you rock…if you watched, thank you.  That we didn’t get 300 people almost naked is a non-issue for me.  It was always about just doing it and seeing what happened.  And hell, it’s motivation to try again…and again.  The basic idea for 300People II is already worked out.  Not sure when I’ll get to it, but it will happen.

And I want to say thanks again to Mr. Vincent.  I deeply appreciate your kindness and boy did I learn a lot!  Thank you.

…here’s to trying for big, accepting reality and working hard to do better the next time out.  Thanks for reading.

We’ve been working pretty closely with a rockin little boutique down the road in Bloomsburg, PA for the past couple of months.  Nicole Good opened The Purple Zebra last fall, aiming her wares at the style conscious female.  She also does interior design, with her workshop right there in the corner of her store.  It’s hip, edgy & trendy…a bit different from the average small town main street store.  More so, Nicole is pretty into social media and alternative marketing methods, something I’m very into myself.  It’s a good fit.

Nicole asked me to shoot her Spring Collection with the goal of producing both ads and art for her store.  Knowing the studio would limit what we could do, we landed the use of an old bowling alley/bar/nightclub/gym here in town.  Awesome to find…’challenging’ to work in.  The heat hadn’t been on in months and no matter what was happening outside, it was a steady 45F inside.  Not bad in short spurts…VERY tough to work in for 9 hours.  My hat goes off to our models; Lindsey, Brit, Erica & Miranda.  Frozen solid by the end of the day, with nary a complaint about anything.  That’s awesome…really…thank you ladies.  Everyone did a fantastic job.  And thank you to Tara for making our models all purty n’ stuff.  Always awesome to have you on the team.  Thank you Nicole for asking me to shoot this…definitely looking forward to working together again.  Gotta throw a shout out to Rick at Pepper’s for allowing us the use of a great shooting location.  I look forward to shooting there again – in like August…one of HOT months anyway!  Thank you MaryLou at A Perfect Blend for the killer food!  It’s the best around for real.  And finally to Connie for being the backbone of pretty much everything.  Keeping people moving, fed and as warm as she could all while blasting ideas throughout the day.  Thanks bud!

Here’s a small sampling of the images shot on Monday.  Another great shoot with an amazing crew of people.

Rock on!