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 The blog is a touch outdated, but I’ll be making that right in the near future.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!

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.

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…

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

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?