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!
Today Was A Good Day
July 19, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
Wanted to get a few shots from today posted before I crashed. Today was one of those days where everything was just clicking. I really had a blast working with Theresa & Arielle, both NOT first-timers. Kat was back rockin makeup and Erin (the intern – I’ll have a post introducing her soon) and Allie helped keep things moving and easy going in the blazing heat and drenching humidity. It’s always nice working with a rad crew! Thank you everyone for helping make images like the ones here.
BIG day tomorrow!
Rock On!
…and a few more recent images
May 24, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
…is this ASAP enough?
Joey & Jamie’s Vegas mind-melt gave me some time to work up a couple of posts I’ve been wanting to do. Nooooo, not WHILE in Vegas…you can get a lot done on a 3 hour flight! Here’s a few from Connie’s most recent modeling shoot.
How much does she ROCK for getting the hair dyed dark just to do this shoot the way I’d pictured it in my head? Every shoot seems better than the last with her…and that’s a damn good thing! :D Once again, thank you Kat for rocking the makeup & general shoot assistance.
And here’s a few from the most recent band promo shoot I’ve had the opportunity to work on. 1 Hot Mess is 1 rad crew of people to have on the opposite end of the lens. Connie and Kat rocked out the back end of this shoot as well. When the 3 of us are firing on all cylinders, life is GOOD! Thank you to everyone involved!
Body Art: Paint & Glitter
April 14, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
READ THIS FIRST
A quick thank you to everyone that stopped down for the www.300AlmostNakedPeople.com teaser video we shot last week at A Perfect Blend. Between the test shooting on Wednesday and the real deal on Thursday we got a pile of cool footage. Annie B. rocked the editing and the vid is currently with Andy Z. for audio and sound effects. The plan, right now, is to have it posted Sunday morning for anyone interested in checking it out. We’re getting to work on a 90-120 second promo piece in the next week or so…drop me a line if you’re interested in taking part in that.
I really appreciate everyone that’s been getting involved in this. It’s all about having fun and putting to use the amazing skills and talents of the people I come into contact with every day. It doesn’t take much to make life way more interesting…get up, get out and DO IT!
The images linked here depict artistic representations of nude bodies. If this type of art offends you, please DON’T look. I respect that it might not be for everyone – to each their own, right? Thank you for taking the time to read this!
Every once in a while I get to stop working and try something different. These three shoots definitely fall into that category. I’ve wanted to do some body paint shots for a while now, but the logistics of getting willing participants, at least a partially baked idea and of course an artist all together at the same time makes it a tad challenging. Again, with just about everything I shoot, I learn a TON of stuff when we’re pushing the boundaries a bit. Like, make sure the room is TOO warm…cause people standing around naked will get cold after 3+ hours, pretty much for sure. Ellie and Steph are total champs all the way, and a HUGE thank you goes out to Olivia Jacobs for her rockin paint skills and patience. Working with all 3 of these awesome people was a great experience.
And Kat was back for more makeup fun, this time on the ‘human discoball’ glitter shoot that Courtney and I have been hitting around for a while. We rocked a totally awesome set of images and everyone walked away pretty stoked about this one. And lastly, thank you to Connie and Corry for all their help with Courtney’s shoot – it is mucho appreciated!
…and yes, the studio DOES look like fairy’s exploded here…gotta love me some glitter!
Enjoy!
Kat’s Cookbook Covers!
February 21, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
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…
Chocolate Heaven
February 13, 2010 by vard · Leave a Comment
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
