I’m playing a bit of catch up now that my “Pride & Prejudice” project is wrapping up, so we’re going to jump back two weekends so I can share some photos from the Dirty Girl Mud Run, which was held at the Toyota Pavilion on Montage Mountain on May 4th & 5th.

Mandy and our friend Amanda completed the 5k obstacle course/race together for the second year as the “Dirty Nerdy Girls” team. So of course I was there to document it; one of the perks of dating a photographer is having them on-demand for this sort of thing.

If you’re not familiar with the Dirty Girl Mud Run, the name pretty much sums it up: it’s a 5k race course that goes through woods and swamps, up and down hills, and through streams…with obstacles thrown in for good measure. It’s a girls-only event and the general idea is to get as filthy, mud-soaked as possible. Which the “Dirty Nerdy Girls” clearly had no problem accomplishing.

I have to say that the event showed a definite improvement over last year; the course was laid out much better, from a spectator point of view. Whereas last year the first third of the course couldn’t be watched, this year nearly all of it was accessible to spectators. Plus the obstacles seemed much more interesting – and more fun for the girls. (Like the giant waterslide that landed in pool of mud, which looked like a LOT of fun!)

So congrats to Mandy and Amanda on finishing this race for the second time. It was fun to get to watch and you definitely did justice to the whole “dirty” part!

And this is it, the last batch from what has been an amazing eight-week adventure. This happens with all big projects, the sudden, startling realization that it’s over and the sense of emptiness that goes with it. There’s a whole mix of emotions: the joy of having created so many great images, pride in a job well done, a sense of comradery with the cast and crew, and a sadness that we won’t be working together any longer.

It was such a thrill to have been able to work with this cast and crew, to make so many new friends and share so many experiences.  It was a thrill to read through the program on opening night and see myself listed among them under the heading “Production Photographer”.  It was, well, you get the idea…it was fun.

I simply cannot say enough about all the people involved in this project, but do want to take this moment to thank them.   They have been an absolute pleasure to work with and, in all honesty, have been my favorite group yet. Thank you all for working so hard to help me make such wonderful images of you, thank you for welcoming me into your show, and thanks for being awesome in general!

I will miss you; here’s hoping we’re able to work together again sometime!

Without further ado, I simply want to introduce the photos of “Pride & Prejudice” itself. I don’t think I really have to say anything about them; the dedication, hard work, and outstanding performances by the actors and crew really say it all!

Just a last note: these come from the dress rehearsal, when I was able to cover the entire show from start to finish and run around the theater without disturbing anyone in the audience. It was my first time seeing the whole show, but I also missed a lot of it being behind the camera, which made it all the more fun to take a seat in the audience on opening night and simply enjoy the show for myself!

“Pride & Prejudice” opened to a packed house and the first three performances went off without a hitch. They’re taking a break during the week and will run the second set of three performances on Friday and Saturday – so if you haven’t gotten down to see it yet, this is your last chance!

In the meantime, I wanted to share what will probably be my last set of images from the project. These go back a week before opening night, to Scranton’s First Friday on 03 May, where members of the cast met downtown for a little on-the-street marketing. They reversed the city, in costume, handing out flyers, taking up the show, and generally having a good time. (And we stopped for a few group photos along the way.)

Afterwards, we returned to the square for an evening of collaboration with Ballroom One, a local dance studio situation on the square. Ballroom One offered free dancing and, in between, “Pride & Prejudice” put on a series of mini-performances, vignettes of scenes from the show, to give everyone a sneak-peek.

Plus, the cast got some free swing-dancing lessons from owner Shauna Baldino. (Shauna did the best she could with them, but there were a lot of left feet in that room!)

It was a free-wheeling kind of night.  The kind that makes it easy to capture some fun moments.  And with everything winding down, I just wanted to share a few images that would otherwise have been overlooked.

I covered the dress rehearsal last night, but all I’ll tell you is that this show is AWESOME!  I loved it!  If you’ve already got your tickets then you’re in for a real treat (and if you don’t, get them while you can!).

All my best wishes to the cast and crew for their opening tonight! Break a leg!

“Pride & Prejudice” got a great write-up in Scranton’s Times-Tribune this morning. The article explored the facets of the show, including its move to the 1960s and the challenges that come with writing a new script while remaining true to the message and nature of the original Austen work.

It’s also a great promotion for the show to be featured and get this level of exposure right before opening night. Here’s hoping that the house is packed for each showing and that everyone – Austen fans included – falls in love with The Vintage’s adaptation.

On a personal note, seeing one of my photos from the promo session on the front page of the Lifestyle section was an exciting way to kick off my Thursday morning. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times you have your images published, it’s always a thrill to see them in print. But mostly I’m just glad that I was able to provide a visual to go with the story.

The cast and crew of “Pride & Prejudice” have spent the past month hard at work learning lines and practicing blocking as they move closer to their opening night on 10 May. I had the chance to join them again this past week at rehearsal to shoot headshots, which will be used in the programs and possible a couple of other places.

Headshots are a funny kind of portrait – on one hand they tend to be rather sterile, against plain backdrops that hide the environment and leave the subject a little disconnected from anything else.  But at the same time, they’re very free and open in terms of expression; it’s really up to the person being photographed to choose the expression that best fits them, at that moment, for that show.  Some folks are smilers, and they can smile; the more serious among us can look more serious.  So even within the limbo of a white backdrop, you end up with a lot of personality showing through.

Anyway, this crew really made them their own and were an absolute pleasure to work with, as usual.  We were able to get the entire set of them done in about 90 minutes, spread across two consecutive nights.  (Although there’s at least one cast member missing; we’ll have to catch up with him later!)

Tickets to the show are on sale via their Facebook page.  And if you’d like to catch a sneak-peek before the 10 May opening, members of the cast will be performing scenes as street theater during First Friday Scranton on 03 May!

Wow – what an awesome shoot this was! I hooked up with the cast of The Vintage Theater’s production of “Pride & Prejudice” last Saturday for a themed promotional shoot. Well, it wasn’t just an absolute blast, but this crew rocked it in a major way.

I’ve been working with The Vintage for several months now – we’ve formed a great relationship, so my working with their latest theater production was kind of a natural extension of it. Our goal on this shoot was pretty straightforward; capture a series of images that could be used to promote the show.

I met with the production crew and we compiled a shot list for the day, identifying all the “must-haves” based on the story and character relationships. Things like, “a shot of Darcy & Bingley that shows their friendship;” “Liz & Darcy with an awkward vibe;” and “the Bennett family together.” (I should probably mention that this rendition of the story is set in the 1960s.)

We broke the shoot down into three segments, each of which kept with the general theme of a cocktail party, which influenced the costumes and posing of the actors. Segment one was set in the sitting room and was a quieter, more formal look. Segment two was the cocktail party itself, where we shot the two different character groups, as defined by their social class, before mixing them altogether. (During this segment we tried to focus more on candid photos, rather than staged poses & reactions.)

The final segment was a much more relaxed, slice-of-life series. We kept the set very simple for this one, just the settee in front of the stairs, and rotated three different combinations of subjects through, putting an emphasis on showing the relationships between them.

Overall, it was a huge success. The actors were on board with the shoot, the concept was sound, and we got an amazing amount of support from everyone – including some great volunteers who handled all the hair and makeup for us. The final look of the images is, I think, just what we wanted. The Vintage should be able to get some great promotional use out of them and (hopefully) attract a lot of attention for the show.

The biggest challenge? Making sure that we got the overall look we wanted – very 1960s – but uniquely our own. With Mad Men being very popular right now, and their own season promos having just come out, we didn’t want to look like we were mimicking them. And I think we pulled it off.

Pride & Prejudice opens on 10 May. You can get all the details from their Facebook page. If you’re in the Scranton area, I strongly recommend you come out to see a performance, as it’s going to be great!

A final thought: as we were wrapping, one of the cast mentioned how cool the whole experience had been from their perspective; apparently no other production she’d ever been in had pulled out the stops like this and done a full-on photo shoot. That was really nice to hear – positive feedback like that at the end of a shoot is pure gold to a photographer.

As we start moving back into spring, it’s much easier to get out with the lights and start making some good portraits again. Also helps that the models aren’t freezing while we do it! So we’re back with a familiar face, Sara, who has been my go-to model when I have ideas and want to do a shoot. She’s fun, easy to work with, and has great personality in front of the camera.

She reached out to me this time, asking if we could do some portraits of her and her brother, Tony, to give to their mother for her birthday. Sounded like a great idea to me and the only question was “When can we do it?”

We met up at Nay Aug Park in Scranton last Saturday afternoon with a rough idea of what we wanted. The main goal of the day was to have fun. Sara put it best herself when she said that her family wasn’t too serious, so fun, silly photos would be, well, expected.

Piece of cake. I’d much rather hear than than a client who says, “I want a super-serious headshot and I REFUSE to smile.”

We’d planned on shooting in the treehouse, but the gate was locked. We did consider jumping it, but ended up going down to the playground instead. Playgrounds are great for sessions like this because they are definitely not too serious. It’s easy to be silly and have fun when you’re playing on the slides and climbing into towers.

I even convinced Sara and Tony to reenact a scene from “Rapunzel.” Or maybe it was “Sleeping Beauty.” In any case, Sara became the damsel-in-distress in the tower and Tony struck a knightley pose, a stick for a sword, as if he was going to rescue her. It was pure silliness and made for a great photo!

We wrapped up with some more traditional shots down on the covered bridge over the river before finally giving in, admitting we were all cold, and heading back to the car.

Wow, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten anything up here.  Chalk it up to the winter doldrums, which we are thankfully (finally) moving out of.  I’ve got some interesting things lined up for the next couple of months, a few projects, a few shoots, and hopefully a lot of cool images.  But in the meantime, I want to kick it off with a quick series here, of the grand opening of Morning Glory Cafe in downtown Scranton.

Morning Glory has actually been around for a while now, but this marks their official grand opening.  They’re housed in The Vintage, in the old Manhattan Room in the Hotel Jermyn.  And they are totally, completely awesome!  Great drinks, food that certainly sounds delicious (although I haven’t gotten around to trying any yet), and a really hip atmosphere.

I stopped by on Saturday afternoon to grab a quick portrait of the owners, Katie and Chelsea.  Because really, every business deserves a nice photo of the owners on their big day.  (Plus I built and maintain The Vintage’s website, which includes a page for the cafe – so I had a little bit of an ulterior motive for getting a shot that they could use there.)

I also made several photos of the cafe space itself, which at the risk of repeating myself, is really awesome.  I really love the pallet-wood tables, which tie in with the cafe bar. Add in the antique vases, flowers, and white chairs, and the whole place has a very relaxed, welcoming vibe that’s a little, well, vintage – yet still manages to be hip.  It’s the sort of cafe that I like to enjoy a cappuccino in – and I did.

So congratulations to Katie and Chelsea on their grand opening!  Here’s wishing you all the best, and I’ll definitely be in for a caffeine fix soon!