This is how you put a baby to sleep. I had no idea. It’s like the Vulcan Nerve Pinch for babies I guess.

I just finished chronicling the work of Theater of the Seventh Sister Associate Artistic Director, Lydia Brubaker during her annual Shakespeare Camp at F&M. Every summer Lydia directs a group of young men and women (from ages 13-18) through an intensive theater workshop that produces one Shakespeare play. This year’s offering was The Taming of the Shrew.

One of the most interesting parts of the workshop, at least for me, was the gender distribution of the students and how that affected the play. The students, some dozen or more young women and three young men, because of the make to female ratio, all played cross-gender roles. Put simply, all the guys played women on stage and woman played the male roles. So not only were they learning and working with the process of acting but they had the double hurdle of playing against their own gender. In a time of life when we all formed our adult identities, these students were not only working it out in real life but on stage.

I can’t say how impressed I was with the group’s passion, involvement and their performances. It’s simply amazing to watch Lydia work with the campers and them work for her. The students (and Lydia) do everything from working the theater itself to costuming their roles. I saw the final dress rehearsal today and I thought they did an admirable job with the play. It was very entertaining.

Below you find a few samples from today’s dress rehearsal and you can view the other images I shot throughout the workshop at the links below.

final dress rehearsal gallery

first dress rehearsal

rehearsal

blocking

acting exercises

For now, let’s get caught up on the photography end of things.

I’m doing some design work for JSID part of which had me shooting images of their new office. Here is a photoshopped version of one shot of that building I did just for fun.

Lydia Brubaker from the Seventh Sister Theater Company is holding a summer acting camp and F&M and I’ll be stopping there to shoot the progress of the class. It’s wonderful to watch as I have some small and indirect connection with some of the theater games she’s employed in the course. Her students all seem very enthusiastic and have been quite nice. Here are a few shots from the first installment of that project.

And finally, F&M hired me to shoot portraits of one of their professors, geology and Earth Sciences Professor Carol De Wet. Being a Geologist she’s a rock star in my world (since i was kid I’ve had this obsession with geology). She was an utter delight to chat with and I’m really proud of the shots. I think F&M is happy as well which is the best possible result. Here are a couple of my faves from that session.

And for me, as someone who has always been obsessed with illustrating motion in still images, this kind of twilight event is a dream come true.

So yeah, I had a great time shooting at the LCHS carnival this evening. I’m really happy with a lot of the shots.

Speaking technically, almost all of this stuff (except for the fireworks shots) were hand-held. The magic of the D300 sensor is something to behold.

Enjoy a taste of the midway…

If you want to view the entire gallery click here.

See more images below the jump…

So, starting from right after the Sertoma BBQ, here is quick wrap up of the last two weeks.

If you click on the link in the intro to each image, you can view the entire gallery from which that image came.

One shot from the 27th Annual Fiesta (a fantastic party by the way).

Ricky Calderon, owner of Club Rumbha was kind enough to invites me in to shoot some images for a project for the City. Club Rumbha is a great little club and if you want to do some Salsa, it’s the place. From what I understand, Ricky even offers to teach beginners some steps.

I just started a new project for JSID focused on one Northeastern Lancaster neighborhood. There’ll be a lot more in this set soon.

Velaska Jewelry is a new client and I’m working on a bunch of different things for owner, Kathryn Pearce. These are just some initial tests. We’re working on defining a style and then I’ll be shooting a good representation of her many designs.

I managed to wake up early enough to catch some shots at this year’s Red Rose Run.

Last Saturday’s 300 North Queen Street Block Party was fun. Here’s one of my favorite shots.

One of my favorite things about Lancaster is the Lancaster Police Mounted Patrol. I’ve been lucky to befriend two of the officers and they’re always good for a great shot when they are out on duty. I stopped by the paddock a few days ago to see what’s new and check on one of the horses, Zeke (below) who has literally come back from death’s door and is now back on duty with Officer Wayne McVey. We’re all really glad Zeke and Officer McVey are back to work.

Most recently, as part of that new JSID project I mentioned above I got to shoot inside Grace Lutheran Church. It’s a beautiful church. Here are just a few of the great images I managed grab in a mere half hour inside.

First Friday, a shot from Gallery 141…

The second wedding I’ve shot in two decades (I don’t shoot weddings, this was an exception for a very good friend)…

Team WeeBee racing at Lanco…

Equal rights rally…

Kids visiting the Lancaster Museum of Art’s Maurice Sendak exhibit…

A shot from a lunch promoting the Convention Center where a video that I made from my images of Lancaster was shown…

Artistry In Motion vintage car show…

YWCA’s Race Against Racism…

McCaskey High School Senior art show at Building Character (which, by the way, was a wonderful show)…

Vintage Datsun 1600 being worked on at WeeBee Audio/Video…

Shooting a TV commercial at WeeBee Audio/Video (Watch Blue Ridge cable, channel 11, Sunday’s at 3:00 p.m. to see the commercial)…

That’s a busy week.

Two things stand out here.

One, I love my work. Look at what I get to do.

Second, Lancaster is an amazing place. The variety of things to do in any given week is simply astounding. The beautiful surroundings, the friendly people. I love my city.

Today I’m working on a jewelry catalog and web site, a catalog for a racing products manufacturer and work for the rest of the my regular clients.

And, as Linda Ellerbee used to say, so it goes…

I can’t wait until the BBQ next month. By the way, I am setting up something special for the BBQ. It’s basically about 36 hours long from start to finish and I’ll be there shooting it from start to finish and, and here’s the fun part, I’m working on a way to post hourly updates to the site. So you’ll be able to see the entire event almost live.

The Sertoma BBQ is unique in so many ways but it’s also one of the most visually interesting event in Lancaster.

You can look at the images from last year’s BBQ here.

The complete gallery from the Dinner is here and below, a few shots from their after-dinner production, “Chickens of the Caribbean”.

The Conestoga River.

It’s simple enough to get a shot of some portion or other of the cenvention center. It’s trying to get all of it, without the buildings that it’s nestled in between.

So after visiting the roof of Southern Market, the roof level of the King Street Garage I noticed this church steeple. Why not I thought?

The wonderful people at Trinity Lutheran allowed me to scale the their steeple (with guidance from Trinity Sexton, Geoff Herr). To say the least it was an amazing experience. Ignoring the view from the steeple, the church itself is a work of art. It’s like going back in time. And all of it, everything, is immaculate. They’ve just finished an eight year long restoration. The church is this beautiful combination of brand new and antique. It is like going back in time.

Here are few shots from the Trinity gallery.

This is shot from inside the steeple where 200 years of painters, carpenters and other service people have left their names.