This weekend I did a photoshoot with the Belmont Burlesque Revue cast -- individual shots of all seven cast members, plus group shots. Plus video of 6 dance numbers. We were at the Playground for 10 hours. Did I mention we were in Indiana for Matt M.'s birthday the night before until midnight? I don't think I would have survived if Erica hadn't come along and been my photo assistant for the first 7 hours before she had to go to work (which meant she had a 15 hour work day -- the poor dear).

Earlier in the week I had had a bit of a panic attack when I realized that, while I take lots of concert photos and street photos and so on, I'm usually an available light kind of shooter, and that the theater lights in the Playground were not really going to be suitable for portrait work. So I bugged a number of my photographer friends, and found some good resources in a book, Digital Portrait Photography and Lighting by Catherine Jamieson and Sean McCormick, and in the Lighting 101 section of the blog Strobist (by David Hobby, staff photographer at the Baltimore Sun). I ended up running out to Calumet on Friday and picking up a Strobist-style lighting kit -- a stand, umbrella, reflector, and a Nikon SB-80DX, which I used off-camera for the shoot, but which can also be used on my Nikon D1 (versatility is my middle name).

So... part of the point of this is that I now have a more portraity-oriented photo setup. And I, well, spent more on the gear than I got paid by the BBR. So, if you need a portrait or some baby photos or something, keep me in mind.