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

Getting ready to order the next set of ads to hang down at Fuel Fitness here in Berwick.  Seriously AWESOME people to work with – Marc, Kevin and the rest of the team rock!  Julie, Andrea and I have 2 more shoots planned in the coming months to round out a series of ‘active lifestyle’ images I’ve wanted to shoot for some time.  In March or April we’re going to move the looks outside and get a little gritty with it.  Some time in June (there’s not much time left in that month with some of the other things we have planned for then) we’ll be heading up to the Appalachian Trail for some backpacking/trail hiking radness…can’t wait!

Rock On!

One of these days I’ll figure out a proper way to post one of these polls…until then, I hope this sloppy layout doesn’t give anyone a migraine…

Kat sent over her designs for Lindsey’s chocolate cookbook cover early this eve.  So cool…really diggin how she incorporated the feel of the shoot right in to the layout.  Thanks Kat for doing such a rad job on hair, makeup and covers.  This was a true team effort from start to finish!

If you have a second, case a vote for your favorite, and thanks for playing along…

It was an easy decision to decide to start incorporating new ’stuff’ in to this blog.  So here we go.  This wont be extensive or deep…I just have a question.  What is Google Buzz about and how are you using it?  OK, so that’s closer to 2 questions…whatever.  I’ve been doing a little homework on social media marketing for a class I’m doing for the United Way here in Berwick in a couple of weeks.  I use Twitter and Facebook and blogs for the most part, but I’m always interested in what’s happening in this field.  Last week Google Buzz hit the scene and now it’s all you run across when reading up on this topic.

I’m asking here because, while I don’t use Gmail, I realize LOTS of people do.  I have one, but only just opened it…and it was really only for research purposes…I haven’t done ANYTHING with it yet.  So, to those of you that do spend some time in front of Gmail, are you seeing and/or using Buzz…

That’s about it…can someone shed some light on it for me…?  Thanks!

Wanted to take a quick second and post a few more of the shots from Lindsey’s Chocolate Cookbook shoot.  The original plan was to hold off until Kat had worked up the actual cover layout, but after finding out she was working on a few (in the 3-5 range) I figured I’d get these up now and do something a bit different with the covers.  I shouldn’t be the only person enjoying Kat’s mad layout & design skills.  I thought it would be more fun to post all of them, run a little poll and see what everyone else thought.  As soon as the covers are done (about 2 weeks) we’ll be doing just that.  Until then…enjoy these!

I have to say thank you again to Lindsey for rockin this out like a pro.  Her shoot submission sold itself; from her concept, to the way she presented it, the choice was pretty easy.  Kat getting on board for hair and makeup was basically key to wrapping up this look, and Mollie and Jonathan offering up their retro kitchen was the cherry on the top of this chocolate sundae.  From start to almost finished, this has been an amazing shoot to be part of.  Looking forward to closing it out when we see Kat’s final designs.  You all rock!

Quick Note – We’re planting the seeds of a new project that takes ‘FUN’ (personally one of my favorite past times!) and glues it together with ‘SOCIAL AWARENESS’ in the hopes of getting people involved in projects in an engaging and interesting way.  Being responsible doesn’t have to be boring!  If you get a second, jump over to www.300AlmostNakedPeople.com and give it a read.   I’d love to hear anyone’s thoughts on this project…and if anyone is interested in helping out or adding to the experience, please do drop me a line.  That said, cake is already covered, so pick something else…thank you Leah and Tara!  :D

GOOD BEITZ! (what ROCK ON sounds like when your ears are filled with chocolate syrup!)  ;P

It’s been a bit since the last post…which wasn’t really a post anyway (shoulda probably just tweeted that thought).  Anyway, I grabbed a few things from over the last few weeks/months and slammed together some images that I dig.  I dig these for the images they are, but also because of the people involved in making them; rock-stars, lovers, studs, and friends.  People that live a little louder than the average background din of life in some certain way.  Thank you all for doing your part…

Before I blast off:  Back in December we ran a little contest to get people to think long and hard about the life creative.  This Friday we’ll finally get a chance to shoot the winning idea.  Lindsey Beiter hit it hard with a great idea for her personal dream.  We’ll be shooting a few different images that I personally hope to see her use some day in a recipe book for her dream of being a chocolatier.  The grand-slam will be at the end of the shoot when we’ll be pouring a gallon or so of chocolate over her and rockin out a cover shot for said book.

I’ll be asking Kat, our rock-star editor and graphic design guru (not to mention make-up artist), to slam together a cover layout for Lindsey’s future book as well.  Should be fun!  I’ll also be shooting a bit of video footage of the day so people can see some of what we do on shoots like this.

We have some footage from some other recent shoots in the cooker as well…keep an eye out for that.

And lastly…a shout out to Jonathan and Mollie for use of their quaint and totally idea appropriate kitchen for this Friday’s shoot…THANK YOU!

Rock on!

Still trying to decide if we’re headed out to shoot in Oak St. Part of me thinks it would rock…the other part wonders how much water the studio gear is designed to withstand…?

I’ll figure this out soon…

Wanted post these quick before heading out for the day.  Had a great time on each shoot.  All the ladies here rock it awesome for the camera.

Thanks ladies!

Hey, look what I broke!  Got inspired to move the blog over to another service last night.  Things were going well until I started messing around with this end of it…you might have noticed some subtle changes ;P.  I still think I’d be better served moving the blog, but what I realized over the last 24 hours, among other things, is that I can’t do everything.

Ultimately, yes, I want to be able to, but it’ll all come in time.  There’s sooooo much I want to try and DO with the blog, the website and social media in general, that I try to dabble in quite of bit of it, but end up excelling in none of it.  This blog is a perfect example.  It’s lame as hell.  I know what I want…at least I think I do…but I’ve really been sucking at making it all work.  Teaching myself ’stuff’ is one of my favorite things…I love it.  But I realized today that some things are going to take longer than I’m used to having patience for.  Staying focused on the shooting and editing is pretty much primary for most of the season, but I still REALLY want to take some of this stuff up a notch.

On my run this morning I started thinking about video blogging – actually, I’ve been thinking about it for quite some time, but what I wasn’t doing was actually doing anything about it.  I think it would be rad to start putting short vids together of shoots or some of the cool stuff we try to fill our lives with.  Not because I NEED someone to watch it, but because ‘I’ want to watch it…and I think it’ll be SUPER fun to do.  I have friends that can help with this, but I still want to know how to do it myself.  Annie B and Jimmy C are both either in or getting in to video.  I’ll be bugging the hell out of them to come have some fun with us, but until we can work that out, Connie and I can give it a shot.  I haven’t shot any video because I was waiting around for some magical moment where one of two things would happen; either someone would come in and just start doing it for me, or I’d have some epiphany and feel like I knew what I was doing.  Neither is happening…but duh..seriously, why would they?  It hit me today that the only way for me to feel comfortable shooting video was to start, accept that I’ll be screwing it up a lot from the get go, and learning from that.  Along the way, perhaps I’ll be lucky enough to have someone want to show me what I’m doing wrong, but if not, I should be learning some interesting and fun stuff, right.

Same for the blog…this thing stinks.  But I can’t seem to take the time to make it like I want, and when I tried last night, I made it smell worse!  I’m sure I know at least a person or two that rocks blogs blindfolded…but I’ve never asked.  So now I am.  Anyone out there really good at this stuff?  Can I bend your ear for a few minutes?  I need help with it.  I want to get some video going here, links to the important stuff and basically take it up a notch, while at the same time having fun with people that geek out on some of the same things I do.

I know and work with some really cool and artistic people.  It’s great!  I know musicians (anyone bored and want to work on some soundtrack stuff for the videos?).  We’ll probably both learn a lot and walk away with some cool collaborations on top of it.  I know writers (anyone want to have some fun with that skill helping me get my point across online?).  I know other photographers (anyone want to get together and shoot some time?).  All the stuff I think about and never seem to be doing…that’s what I want to start doing…right now.

I’m starting to ramble a bit here…sorry about that.  My brain has been in overdrive this week.  I started helping Barry & Cathy Beck get their online presence stepped up and it just inspired me to start doing the things I’m thinking about all the time…I’ll end this here.  This all sounded more clear in my head anyway.

Sunday night – if anyone is interested in dropping by, we’ll be on Oak St. (the one way thing).  I’ve been running by those passenger cars for a couple of months thinking it would make a cool image.  So I’m going to take it.  Sunset, some studio lighting and an idea.  If I hose it, oh well, it’ll still be fun.  If anyone is interested in geekin’ out with us, cool!  If not, cool too.  I’m thinking we’re going to shoot some video of it all, just to see what we can put together and start the process of making better, more interesting videos in the not too distant future.  Monday, we’re headed out of town for a shoot @ Daniel Oz studios in Philly…thinking we should vid that too…why not…

Basically I want to start having more fun…does anyone want to come out and play?

Had a blast shooting this week.  No one here is a 1st timer in front of the camera…a couple of them have been here NUMEROUS times.  Started off the week with Nicole – I think this is her 5th or 6th shoot in the 18 months I’ve been working with her.  Always energetic and packed full of ideas.  Tuesday saw the return of David to the studio.  The dude’s motivated in everything he does.  And we had to relive the tie+beater look again; this time with added spice!

On Wednesday we had Christine in to play around with some lighting ideas and basically have a good time.  Thanks for putting up with my stupid humor Chris!  :D  And yesterday I go the chance to work with Sarah once again.  Every time she gets in front of the camera she blows my mind.

So here’s a glass raised for everyone that finds the time to explore their own creativity while trying to have as much fun as possible.  Thank you all for rockin it this week.  Also, a big shout out to Allyson and Erica for rockin’ the makeup on 3/4 of these shoots – Sorry David, I’ll get you someone next time!  :P

Peace Out!