Starting a new business and life from the groundup

Before and After

2012-03-05T08:03:00.001-05:00

United States Merchant Marine Academy senior Kyle Diesel lays on the mat in between matches at the Centennial Conference Wrestling Championships at Gettysburg College.

All around the action there were wrestlers resting/meditating/waiting for their next match or processing their defeat. This one of a wrestler from above before the consolation finals matches.

Quiet Corner

2012-02-26T23:03:00.002-05:00

February 25, 2012; Gettysburg PA, USA; Ursinus senior Connor McCormick (149lb) has a quiet moment in the Gettysburg College wrestling room after being knocked out of the tournament at the Centennial Conference Wrestling Championships.

On Saturday I was up in Gettysburg covering the Centennial Conference Wrestling championships for a friend. I had seen wrestling before, but never really covered it.

After the first 3 matches, the action looked about the same to me (men grabbing other men in fairly awkward places) so I went off to explore while waiting for the consolation and finals matches at the end of the night. Seeing these kids put it all out there was awesome and being able to find their quiet moments before and after matches was awesome. The access was amazing and the facility Gettysburg had was unique, another reason why I love working with D3 schools.

I was shooting from an overhead position - yes I know I'm addicted to all overhead photos - of the matches from the wrestling training room and as I turned around he was just laying there. I watched him for a few moments and inched closer then tried a few different frames before heading on my way to not disturb him. If I had just looked in, I would've never seen him as he was tucked away in the corner. As a former athlete I understand trying to find the quiet corner after a game to decompress.

NDMU Basketball

2012-02-20T16:45:00.001-05:00

Basketball season is coming to a close and one of my favorites from Notre Dame's basketball season. It was a tough season for the Gators, but hopefully the lacrosse and softball teams will have some better luck.

Golden Light

2012-02-15T10:36:00.001-05:00

October 2, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; Pastor Heber Brown III during a rally against a new $100 million youth jail to be built in Baltimore, MD. Brian Schneider-www.ebrianschneider.com

Pastor Heber Brown III is a minister at Pleasant Hope Baptist Church in Baltimore. He is an active community leader who is trying to address issues of homelessness, poverty, racism, worker’s rights, environmental justice, self-determination for Afrikan people and justice for oppressed people groups throughout the world. He is also one the two new members of my Bmore For Baltimore project focusing on entrepreneurs and their work in Baltimore.

This photo was made right before Pastor Brown was about to go on-stage to speak at an anti-youth jail protest. The late-afternoon light was amazing as it was sneaking through downtown. Gives a warm, hopeful feeling to the image.

Create Baltimore 2

2012-01-25T21:00:00.000-05:00

The table after lunch with ideas, words, and of course Utz chips

Saturday, I took the opportunity to attend and participate in CreateBaltimore 2. An unconference gathering of artists, hackers, activists, and just interested Baltimoreans (or at least that makes sense to me) gathered to discuss topics ranging from food to branding to creative spaces to the issues of race in Baltimore.

The unconference/bar-camp is equatable to the anarchy of conferences - sessions are submitted first thing, categorized by the organizers, and then scheduled. The "topic" of each session is just a theme, it's up to the participants in each session to discuss, set goals, outcomes, and content. If you don't like a session, leave and go to a different one.

The conference had some great conversation and people coming together to make Baltimore a better place for the future.

Some of my live reactions from twitter:
Stories are more genuine now. How to craft something genuine is easier now.

What is bmore's post Wire story? #cbmore

What's your MyBaltimore story? #cbmore

Story tellers - content can be amazing but you have to find consumers #cbmore

Baltimore nationalism #cbmore

Why would a city gov not have its data public? #cbmore

Would live streaming open up gov? #cbmore

What iReporter is going to in depth journalism on illegal tax breaks? Absolutely none #cbmore

Baltimore needs to consider pedestrian experience more #cbmore

I can think of a lot of places where I wouldn't put my god-son and grandmother in Baltimore. That's unfortunate #cbmore #880cities

We need to think of a way to design Baltimore for the next 50 years#cbmore

@lrenhrda couldn't agree more. Endless opportunity for all sorts of people. Tons of energy to make it better

@blatterchatter great idea. Would show diversity of all artists#cbmore

@darkheartfelt u can own a home and do what u love

Winter

2012-01-21T17:39:00.002-05:00

For a very mild winter, it has finally gotten cold and the winter weather has shown up. After some great travel to see family and friends, the plan for 2012 is complete and is being implemented. Today we woke up to snow, Annie's second snow. Here in Baltimore that means a few inches with a coating of ice. Doesn't matter because she still loved it. After some coffee to warm-up, I headed out to Create Baltimore 2, a cool unconference/bar camp/idea discussion on the intersection of arts and technology - right up my alley.

Pumped Up

2012-01-02T21:46:00.000-05:00

December 28, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Albany Great Danes during their pre-game ritual in the tunnel against the Maryland Terrapins at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD.

University at Albany Great Danes came down to face Maryland and almost made it out with a win against the Terps. Albany is a really good offensive team with three potent guards leading the team with double-digit scoring averages. It was a tough matchup defensively for Maryland's younger guards who are still figuring out new coach Mark Turgeon's system. Maryland's premier European recruit Alex Len started and made a huge impact on the Terrapins offense with a highlight reel of dunks and blocks. America East Conference player of the week Gerardo Suero scored over 20 points, but the Great Danes tired down the stretch. Albany was super-pumped for the game, but unfortunately just weren't deep enough to pull out the victory.

It was great to work with John and Albany for the game. He wanted some different looks and a sense of place for his team. I really enjoy shooting down at Maryland because the access to the visitor teams is great. I can make pictures like the one above right before introductions and can go back all the way to the locker room door, a rarity at most arenas. This access is great because it's not a view that most fans get to see and really shows some insight into the team. I liked my over-head angle on the baseline, but I might try to go a bit higher next time to clean up the background better. In the second half, College Park turned into Block and Loose Ball City with both teams playing some great defense down the stretch.

Glad to be back in Baltimore after some crazy travel over the holidays to see family and friends across the country. Now just finishing up planning for the new year and getting back on schedule. Happy New Year!

December 28, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Albany Great Danes guard Gerardo Suero (20) attempts a layup against the Maryland Terrapins during the first half at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD.

December 28, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Albany Great Danes forward Jayson Guerrier (30) and center John Puk (44) and guard Ralph Watts (22) and Maryland Terrapins forward James Padgett (35) go for a rebound during the second half at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD.

December 28, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Albany Great Danes guard Ralph Watts (22) and forward Jayson Guerrier (30) defend Maryland Terrapins guard Terrell Stoglin (12) during the second half at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD.

December 28, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Albany Great Danes guard Gerardo Suero (20) is blocked by Maryland Terrapins center Alex Len (25) during the second half at the Comcast Center in College Park, MD.

Spotlight On

2011-12-11T19:45:00.001-05:00

Everything with Notre Dame at Maryland University has been going great. I've covered all their fall and winter sports teams this year, with just lacrosse left for the spring. This was one of my favorites from the swim meet. Usually swimming is a challenging sport to shoot because of limited access, but their pool provided some nice light pockets so I worked it for all that I could. I never got one in the water that I liked, it was too close to the wall for their strokes, but I really like this one right before she steps onto the block.

Michael Oher Cover Shoot for Terminix

2011-11-22T08:09:00.001-05:00

September 30, 2011; Owings Mills, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher poses for a portrait at McDonogh Stadium for Terminix in Owings, Mills, MD. Brian Schneider-www.ebrianschneider.com

About 2 months ago I was contacted by Stone Ward to do a cover-shoot with Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Michael Oher for Terminix Blitz an internal company magazine. The quarterly magazine was featuring an interview and story about his life and movie The Blindside.

It was a big production with location scouting, second photographer, makeup stylist, on-site viewing, etc. Since it was a commercial photo shoot we were not allowed to use the Ravens' facilities in Owings Mills. We had 2 hours total with him so we needed to find a location close to the practice facilities. That was definitely more than enough time to get the shots, and from my experience the athlete usually doesn't stay the whole time.

Since the client wanted a football field for the shoot that didn't look like a high school field, didn't have any other logos, and a location that was discrete so we could easily control the security. Due to Oher's schedule they were only able to get afternoon times and during a normal high school football practice time. It took a lot of legwork - 2.5 days of location scouting resulting in 2 galleries of location photos and comps - but we finally found a place that worked for them at McDonogh School. The communications team at McDonogh of Lynn McKain and Nina Sinnott, helped us get the approvals and even convinced the head football coach to push back practice a half-hour to make sure we had more than enough time with him for the shoot.

Due to the size of the shoot, client's needs, and logistics, I was able to put together a rock-star team of second photographer Patrick Smith to capture candids, assistant Matt Roth, and makeup artist Natasha Sierakowski. Everybody definitely went above and beyond to make the shoot run smoothly.

Oher was great. He was a very nice, funny, and down-to-earth guy; also very accommodating as we made him wear a Terminix branded shirt and later a jersey.

The client loved the photos and I can't wait to share the tearsheets after publication run is finished. To fit with the article we were going for a hero, positive, I made it, type of look. My favorite and one of the out-takes above.

Good luck to Oher and the rest of the Ravens this season. Can't wait to work with Stone Ward and Terminix again in the future.

Annie

2011-11-21T17:11:00.001-05:00

Meet our new daughter Annabel (we call her Annie)

10/30/11 - Bringing Annie home from the breeder in Frederick.

Em and I've been looking to get a dog for awhile. We decided to get a yellow lab, but wanted to wait until after the wedding so we actually had the time and energy to devote in the training. We were originally going to get an 8 week old puppy (little furball), but when we met her, we just fell in love with her personality and loveable nature. We picked her up Sunday morning after driving through the "snow" storm here back on Oct 29/30.

She's a sweetheart, she loves people but is very shy towards other dogs, though we're working on that. We're finally getting through most days without our rug getting abused. She loves long walks, jumping when asked, running the 50ft length of our house, anything on the ground, and getting treats.

Some of my favorite pictures over our first month with her. Here's a gallery. I'm not sure if she's ready for her own social media outlet like my friend Pat's puppy Pickles.

Sniffing.

Sleeping with Mommy.

Flying on the tennis courts.

Trying to carry the log as big as me on the walk in Patterson Park.

Sitting on command in Patterson Park on one of the early morning walks.

First bath at Dogma of Canton.

Stealing Daddy's chair.

Baltimore Marathon 2011

2011-10-26T10:26:00.000-04:00

October 15, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; The 11th Annual Baltimore Running Festival presented by Under Armour.

It's been a busy two weeks, which is why this is a bit of an older post. I wasn't on assignment, so I wanted to get some stock of the Elite runners, but I also just wanted to make an interesting photo or two instead of just exploring and experiencing the Baltimore Marathon for the first time like last year. Our house is about four blocks up from where the Full and Half Marathons join, so there's a huge party and lots of runners.

I've always loved shooting from above. To me it's more graphically interesting: better backgrounds, pattern creation, spatial use, a different view of the action, plus not being afraid of heights I enjoy the serenity of shooting up-top. The one above was my favorite and shot laying down on the top of my house. Overall, I only made 2-3 photos that I really liked, I just seemed off in the morning. Maybe I was looking ahead to Saturday night. Enjoy!

October 15, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; Volunteers fill up water cups at the water station on Linwood Ave during the 11th Annual Baltimore Running Festival presented by Under Armour.

October 15, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; A wheel chair racer speeds down Boston Street in Canton during the 11th Annual Baltimore Running Festival presented by Under Armour.

NCAA Football: Clemson at Maryland

2011-10-22T09:49:00.000-04:00

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers wide receiver Brandon Ford (8) and defensive end Kourtnei Brown (90) and offensive lineman Antoine McClain (74) react with fans after beating the Maryland Terrapins 55 to 46 at Byrd Stadium.

The last few years I've always been nervous when we played Maryland because they always seem to have our number. I was fortunate enough to be working as a second shooter for Clemson that night with staff photographer Rex Brown. Clemson's media group travels pretty heavy with the local newspapers, staff photographer, and the student newspaper so it was great to see a group of friends I haven't seen since I graduated.

It was an exciting game with all the makings of a Clemson letdown. Letting first-time starting quarterback Maryland's C.J. Brown run and throw all over the defense; an 18 point deficit half-way through the third quarter; and key mistakes on both sides of the ball. We even joked at half, that I brought back the old Tigers. Thankfully this coaching staff and team is different than years past and eventually came back to beat the Terps. Wonder-kid true freshman Sammy Watkins scored three touchdowns and broke C.J. Spiller's school record of all-purpose yards in a single game with 345 yards. The defense made the stops when they had to and quarterback Tajh Boyd really helped the offense come alive.

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins (6) catches a touchdown over Maryland Terrapins defensive back Cameron Chism (22) during the second half at Byrd Stadium.

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins quarterback C.J. Brown (16) falls on Clemson Tigers defensive tackle Brandon Thompson (98) while avoiding a sack during the first half at Byrd Stadium.

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers defensive end Andre Branch (40) sacks Maryland Terrapins quarterback C.J. Brown (16)during the second half at Byrd Stadium.

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers offensive coordinator Chad Morris calls in the play against the Maryland Terrapins during the first half at Byrd Stadium.

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers running back Andre Ellington (23) closes his eyes while sitting on the bench against the Maryland Terrapins during the second half at Byrd Stadium.

October 15, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney celebrates after beating the Maryland Terrapins 56-45 at Byrd Stadium.

Gallery:

NCAA Football: Clemson at Maryland - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer

Fall Ball Lax

2011-10-17T13:04:00.001-04:00

October 9, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels goalie Steven Rastivo (19) reacts after giving up a goal against the Ohio State Buckeyes during a scrimmage using the new experimental rules at Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, MD.

It's all about referrals. I was recommended to US Lacrosse based on my work with Notre Dame. It was a last minute assignment with the conversation starting on Friday afternoon and confirmation Saturday morning for a Sunday assignment. Their local staff photographer was out-of town and two top teams were scrimmaging with new experimental shot clock rules. The assignment centered around the story of the shot-clock and its effect on the game.

It was really my first experience with lacrosse at a high level. I had watched a few club games at Clemson, but it was nothing like I saw last Sunday. The play was up and down the field, very fast-paced, with only 2 shot-clock violations. I really loved the physicality of the game and the atmosphere was great. About 4,000 people came out for an exhibition game between two out-of-state schools, which was great in my book.

They played on a football field and used the play-clock as the shot-clock. Thankfully they were setup relatively in the middle of the field on each side so I found the "cleanest" angle, which is relative because I was staying loose to add the shot-clock but not have too many extraneous extra items left-over on the track. After shooting the shot-clock for awhile I moved on to capture the rest of the game action.

Here's a link to the article about the game, LaxMagazine.com photo gallery, along with some lead images on the front page of the website. We'll see what it looks like in print. My favorite shot clock image from the day:


October 9, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; North Carolina Tar Heels midfielder Walker Chafee (18) and Ohio State Buckeyes defender Joe Meurer (11) go for a loose ball during a scrimmage using the new experimental rules at Calvert Hall College High School in Baltimore, MD.

NCAA Lacrosse: North Carolina vs. Ohio State Fall Ball - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer

Injury

2011-10-11T21:42:00.000-04:00

Notre Dame Gators forward Sarah Morris(5) lies on the ground after being injured by a penalty hit off her knee during a game against Cedar Crest.

It's always terrible and painful to watch when an athlete goes down with an injury. I was focused on her during a stoppage of play when she was defending a free hit. The next moment a loud crack and screams of agony with her on the ground. The ball had chipped a portion of her knee cap and once stabilized she was carried off the field. She was a senior and captain of the team and my hope is that she'll be able to return this season.

I played baseball for 15 years until I went to Clemson and while I had some close calls, I thankfully never had a major injury that put me on the sidelines. It was always painful to watch friends and teammates go down, because there's a certain feeling of helplessness. You couldn't have prevented the injury and you certainly can't help them while they're on the ground. A photo like this always brings back those memories for me.

I converted to black and white because it has a feeling of gritty, isolation, helpless and just simple for me.

Notre Dame at Maryland University

2011-10-10T22:26:00.002-04:00

One of my business goals for the year was to find a "home" school here in Baltimore. Notre Dame at Maryland University was going through a re-branding effort with an overall move from a college to a university. They have new uniforms, colors, logo, etc and completely new personnel in the Athletic Department. I approached them and a few other local schools through a very targeted promotion and it's really been fun to build a great working relationship and to help them create a visual identity for their new brand.

I've already shot soccer, field hockey and tennis, plus I have a volleyball game this week. More images to come from this school season. Go Dame!

NCAA Football: Temple at Maryland

2011-09-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

September 24, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Temple Owls running back Bernard Pierce (30) rushes for his first touchdown of the game against the Maryland Terrapins during first half at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Maryland.

It was the Bernard Pierce Show as he rushed for a school record 5 TDs and 149 yards, helping Temple stomp Maryland 38-7. I definitely thought Temple would be competitive after almost beating Penn State last week, but I didn't expect the beating they delivered to Maryland. They just came out with the offense hitting on all cylinders and the defense knocking the Terps around. This was also Temple's first win against a BCS opponent on the road and their first win ever against an ACC school.

I was contracted by Temple and their SIDs, who just wanted a few story images of the major performers. The three storylines before the game were: Temple's quarterback Chester Stewart getting his first start of the season in his home state, Bernard Pierce was full strength, and Maryland's uniforms. We started with those story lines, but it became clear that Pierce's story would become the headline of the day. I worked to make sure I made photos of Stewart's emotions before and after the game, and to show Temple's players with Maryland uniforms.

This was my first game of the season, I tried to get out to a high school game to knock of the rust but all the rain here in Baltimore killed that idea. Overall it went well with a lot of positive action for Temple on both sides of the ball, makes it easier to build the gallery at the end of the game for the SID. Overall a great day, made some photos, Clemson won, Maryland lost, then celebrated with a Bison Burger and Natty Boh at the house. Big week - 3 days shooting for 2 different clients.

Favorite image of the day:

September 18, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; Temple Owls wide receiver Rod Streater (18) and wide receiver Malcolm Eugene (84) and Maryland Terrapins tight end Matt Furstenburg (89) try to recover a blocked punt during the first half at Byrd Stadium in College Park, Maryland.

NCAA Football: Temple at Maryland - Images by Baltimore Sports Photographer

Charm City Cyclocross

2011-09-22T21:50:00.000-04:00

Competitors run between the hurdles at the Charm City Cyclocross at Druid Hill Park in Baltimore, MD on September 18, 2011.

This summer I've really started getting into biking. It all started with a LivingSocial deal where I was able to take a set of spin classes at a local athletic club. Since then I've gotten a single-speed road bike to commute and exercise. I heard there was a cyclocross race, which is a mixture of cross-country biking, racing, and obstacles, at Druid Hill Park and I just had to check it out.

There were hurdles, mud, woods, sand, and stairs. The race provided some nice angles and extremely close access to the riders. After walking the whole course the hurdles provided the most action with riders going full-speed towards these foot high pieces of wood, dismounting as close as possible, jumping, and then getting back on to continue the race. It was awesome to see young and old riders tackling the course.

This was my favorite from the race. I was laying on the ground shooting with a 16-35. I really like the symmetry and how the bright red rider is framed by the front tire. Could've been better if he was completely in the tire, but then you lose the symmetry of the running motion.

Some more images located at Baltimore Sports Photographer.

Goodman League vs Melo League

2011-09-02T09:44:00.000-04:00

August 30, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; LeBron James during warm-ups at the Goodman League All-Stars taking on The Melo League basketball game at Edward P. Hurt Gymnasium at Morgan State University on August 30, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. Brian Schneider-www.ebrianschneider.com

Back in Baltimore and the house survived an earthquake and a hurricane. Late, Tuesday afternoon I saw this article and a friend's Facebook status about covering a summer league basketball game filled with NBA All-Stars taking place in Baltimore.

I definitely prefer college basketball to the NBA, but I was really excited to see some of these guys face off in an exhibition for charity. I sped right-up to Morgan State with my gear, where I got one of the last parking spots in the garage at 6pm with the game time at 7pm. This is pretty late for me to get to a stadium, but not having credentials, anything about Morgan State, and the last minute nature, it was really the best I could do. None of the players had arrived and the line was wrapped around with people waiting to get in.

August 30, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; A player enters before the Goodman League All-Stars taking on The Melo League basketball game at Edward P. Hurt Gymnasium at Morgan State University on August 30, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. Brian Schneider-www.ebrianschneider.com

August 30, 2011; Baltimore, MD, USA; Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul are interviewed before the Goodman League All-Stars taking on The Melo League basketball game at Edward P. Hurt Gymnasium at Morgan State University on August 30, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. Brian Schneider-www.ebrianschneider.com

With each player arriving it got more and more hectic and I still hadn't even had a chance to enter the arena. This proved to not really be an issue as a few of us just said our names and affiliations after all players had entered and we were allowed in. Inside the lighting was equivalent to a high school gym and crowd-control was an issue.

My goal was to capture the excitement of the all stars coming to Baltimore and some nice action shots of the stars interacting with each-other and fans. It was exciting to see LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, and Kevin Durant go at each other the whole game. The access was completely open as long as you didn't get hit by a player, basketball, or stand in front of a fan, you could shoot from whatever position you could talk your way into (this went for fans as well).

Made some nice photos in a fun environment. All photos are available for license. Enjoy the gallery below!

Goodman League All-Stars v The Melo League - Images by Baltimore Photographer

Getting Married

2011-08-19T07:43:00.002-04:00

I'm grateful for all the support my family and friends have provided over the years, I'm truly grateful. It's amazing to see everybody travel to celebrate this day with us. Here's a photo from the morning of the Bridal Shower in Shelton.

In less than 12 hours we'll be married.

Sara, Emily's sister, and Lauren, her Maid of Honor, decorate Emily's wedding shoe with her Something Blue at Emily's parents house in Shelton, CT.

Reachout and Run Video

2011-07-21T09:25:00.001-04:00

Finally finished the long-awaited video from Hopewell Cancer Support Reachout and Run. The assignment was to create a video highlighting the race and its importance to participants using race footage and speaker's audio. I took about 16 Gigabytes worth of data: 3 hours of video, 45 minutes of speaker's audio and cut it down into a 2 minute video.

I really enjoyed working on the piece, video editing is a much different animal than photo editing. The ability to work directly with a Creative Director to help fine-tune the product and merge our unique visions together to create the final product was a great opportunity. I really enjoyed the challenge of telling a story through video. As a viewer being able to hear and see somebody tell their story can be very powerful.

I love the power of the still photograph; a single, frozen moment in time is amazing to me, but to hear and see the stories of Brother James Kelly, Suzanne Brace, other cancer survivors, and Hopewell supporters was very powerful.

This was the second video from the assignment, first one is here. I really enjoyed working with them and their mission is definitely one you should support.

Summer and Swimming

2011-07-11T22:43:00.000-04:00

Every Fourth of July, our family gathers at a lake to hang-out, relax, goof-off, swim, boat, golf shoot fireworks, and drink.

For the past 10 years or so, 23 of us have gathered at my Aunt and Uncle's house on Lake Santee, Indiana. Most years I just relax and leave the camera down, but this year I really forced myself to create some photos for my family since I had the extra time to spend with them. The young kids, six of them under 12, are a blast to shoot with their crazy actions and faces; while all the other adults just tolerate the camera around.

I love the energy, fun, colors, and water trails that the pool creates. All images shot with Canon 7D, 17-35 2.8 inside of an EWA-Marine U-BXP 100 under-water bag.

Summer is in full swing. Full plate of work and the wedding.

Adam, 10, wipes water from his face after falling off his inflatable alligator raft in a pool at Lake Santee, IN.

Ryan, 10, smiles at water level in the pool at Lake Santee, IN.

Kyle, 5, plugs his ears while playing games in the pool at Lake Santee, IN.

Brady, 12, jumps in to the pool on a seal float in Lake Santee, IN.

Brady, 12, falls of an alligator float in the pool at Lake Santee, IN.

Kyle, 5, smiles in the pool at Lake Santee, IN.

Fort McHenry

2011-06-29T23:05:00.000-04:00

A couple weekends back Em and I got a chance to visit Fort McHenry when my parents were in town seeing the house. A beautiful, but muggy Sunday morning.

Fort McHenry is a 5-point star fort that defended Baltimore against the British Navy in the War of 1812. It's also where Francis Scott Key. The Fort's history and exhibits were great. I also think this post times perfectly with the Fourth of July.

Since we were experiencing a Baltimore landmark as a tourist, I figured I'd look for other tourists experiencing Fort McHenry.

Been busy traveling, wedding planning, client work, and working on the house. More to come!

The American flag flies over Fort McHenry on a sunny day in Baltimore, Maryland.

Three young kids pose for a picture taken by their parents at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

A young boy climbs up the steps from an under-ground ammunition store, while followed by his mother at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland.

Em sits on a wood bench at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland

Ignite For a Better Baltimore

2011-06-05T11:17:00.003-04:00

On May 26, 2011 the first Ignite For a Better Baltimore, a night of information and celebration of social entrepreneur projects in Baltimore, was held. The event was entertaining, exciting and filled with great people who have a passion to change Baltimore. The speakers spoke on a variety of projects and ideas from urban youth in jail, the idea of buying local, why Baltimore has an entrepreneur community, and social enterprises.

I was working the event for two reasons: contacts for my Bmore For Baltimore project and to help create a community map of entrepreneurs in Baltimore. With the help of the organizers, Kate Bladow and Alex Rinsler, we will create a PDF map to all the attendees with names, organizations/skills, and emails. We hope the map will not only serve as a visual reference for the community, but also improve networking and awareness to the causes/companies people are working to help serve the greater Baltimore community.

Logistics-wise, the event was more challenging than typical event work I've done. The space itself was the best/worst possible. I loved the art on the wall, openness, the hospitality of the staff, drinks, etc., but we might as well been in a cave no air conditioning. There wasn't much space to setup a true "photo-booth" for the map, so depending on the timing I used the curtain on stage and the solid wall in the back near the food table for the headshots. Settings-wise I was shooting wide-open at 1/100 and ISO 3200 or above. Overall, I got my behind-the-scenes photos, speakers, crowd, and map portraits, so it was a successful night.

The event was inspiring and I can't wait for the next one.

Co-organizer Kate Bladow and Creative Alliance Program Director Meegan Hamilton go over speaking details before the program starts.

Baltimore hacker and entrepreneur Mike Subelsky on his phone after giving the opening speech at Ignite for a Better Baltimore.

Co-organizer Alex Rinsler speaks during the opening session of the event.

Attendees listen to the speakers at the Ignite for a Better Baltimore.

Co-organizers Kate Bladow and Alex Rinsler close the event.

Hopewell Cancer and Video

2011-05-29T21:40:00.001-04:00

A couple of weeks ago I shot the Hopewell Cancer Support 5k Reach Out and Run event. I was contacted to shoot photos by their Creative Director because she liked my work of the Baltimore Marathon. With every potential client I take a look at any material I can find to see their photography style, uses, and brand ideas. After checking out Hopewell's site I found their Survivor Stories from previous speakers at the race, and after reading them, I felt they could be even more impactful if they were videos.

We decided I would video all the speeches at the end of the race, then use b-roll footage of the race, family events, and signage of the event. There will be two videos, one as a gift to the main speaker Brother James Kelly of Mount Saint Joseph High School and a more traditional 3-minute web video showing the importance of the race to people surviving and fighting cancer.

The Creative Director and I had two pre-race meetings to discuss day-of logistics and develop a workable shot list. These were vital to make sure we had enough material for both videos. It was a truly collaborative effort and even though I was the only shooter, I enjoy working with the client to fit my vision to their need.

Day of the race equipment consisted of:

Canon 7D
16 GB of SanDisk Extreme Cards
IndiSYSTEM ULTRA Compact Video Rig
Azden Shotgun XLR Mic
Zoom H4N Audio Recorder

After toting the kit around all morning, my shoulders were exhausted. It was very light at first, but carrying it for three hours was rougher than I would've thought. I audio synced with Plural Eyes and edited with Adobe Premiere Pro. I am still learning proper editing, rendering, and codecs, but overall the client and myself were pleased with the product. This was a great experience and I am looking forward to working with Hopewell and Meg on future projects.

25 Years

2011-05-10T11:39:00.000-04:00

My 25th birthday was yesterday. Typically I'm not the one to celebrate birthdays, but this is definitely a special one. Crazy to think that I'm a quarter-century old. Em surprised me with the Orioles experience - pre-game at Pickles Pub and then the Sunday afternoon game against the Rays. Great seats and fun times with friends. Then for my actual birthday night she took me out to dinner at Brewer's Art. We'd been wanting to go for awhile, great food and beer.

Going to be a busy end to the month, putting the finishing touches on a number of things:

My first video for a client
Creating the marketing plan for the rest of the year
Publishing portal for my personal work on entrepreneurs
Planting of the organic garden
Re-finishing the 2nd floor original hardwoods
Wedding planning

Thanks to everybody for the birthday wishes from Facebook, Twitter, texts, and calls. Lots of excitement and work around here. New client work will be up next week!

Spring is Here

2011-05-01T09:22:00.001-04:00

It's been a busy few weeks, lots of marketing work, project planning, shooting, and house work. It's finally spring here in Baltimore and baseball is now in full swing. More to share soon from my first video assignment and new launch.

Baltimore high school baseball in Patterson Park on April 15, 2011

Davidson Journal: Bill Ferguson Article

2011-04-14T21:14:00.000-04:00

Been very busy here with the business/house/wedding all picking up steam. Worked on this project on-and-off with the Senior Creative Associate and Editor at the Davidson Journal. They found my project of Bill Ferguson through JD. The story focused on Bill and JD's relationship and connection to Davidson; Bill is an alumni and JD is a current student. Great article and design, featuring my photos from the project beautifully. I love when photos run big.

Buying a House and ASMP SB3 are related?

2011-03-14T19:18:00.000-04:00

This ~~week~~ month has been a whirlwind. I have some big news to share: Emily and I closed on our first house!

Emily and I at the new house before going to closing.

It's a beautiful 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath rowhome overlooking Patterson Park in Baltimore. We've been looking for months and finally found the perfect home for us with the help of our friends Amanda Lopez and Jillian Fischer. We just fell in love with the original architectural features of the house. Since we had some time left on the lease, we decided our first project would be to re-finish original hardwoods on the 2nd floor. We're almost there, our exciting ~~Friday night date will be to finish sanding and clean for staining tomorrow~~ every night plans are working on these floors ... joys of home ownership. This week we were unable to get the rented drum sander to work, used the edger to do all the floors, made a 1000 runs to Home Depot/Sunbelt Rentals, and been a little too loud for our new neighbors. When not sanding we are packing and moving our stuff over and hope to be living full-time in the house this week.
(I started this post Feb 28 and the floors still aren't done, but everything is in the new house)

I took the opportunity to attend ASMP Strictly Business 3 Conference in Philadelphia. This conference is a MUST for any photographer who is looking to improve their business, network with other photographers, and learn new business ideas. The only negative side was immediately after closing on the home with Em, I had to drive to Philly and was away for our first weekend with the house.

Friday night was filled with a social and sponsor speakers. Saturday was the meat of the conference and started off with a bang. Colleen Wainwright spoke about selling yourself and how the new standard is awesome. Share your personal story through your interactions. Being awesome is useful, specific, and nice. Some key points I picked out of pages and pages and pages of notes:

Judy Herman "Breaking into the Biz" - Share your story and make sure your work reflects it. Build a network of photo colleagues and small businesses. Make sure you are creatively sustained by the type of work you are doing/seeking.
Blake Discher "Website Marketing" - Needs to reflect your personality and engage your viewer in 6 seconds. Consider a searcher to be a motivated buyer and once they land on your site, make it easy. Social Media is here to stay: http://www.socialnomics.net/video/.
Judy Herman, Susan Carr, and Richard Kelly "Essential Business Basics" - Build a team: Accountant, Attorney, Insurance Agent. Four essential paperwork forms: Estimate, Delivery Memo, Invoice, and Change Order. Don't hide behind your paperwork. Earning a living with photography happens when value matches compensation.
Rosh Sillars "Blog Traffic" - Comment on other blogs, Title of the article is important, and figure out where your clients are
Tom Kennedy's Keynote - People, companies, and organizations win by removing barriers. We are truly in a Revolution with information and technology available to the masses. Expect the unexpected and whenever possible be the unexpected. Producers now manage the new outlets to tell the story and this gives you value.
Blake Discher "Business Skills" - Awesome is the new standard. Create a personal bond with clients. Have frank conversations with customers on expectations, budgets, and rights. Show your personal identity to your clients and connect with them.
Jeff Sedlik "Strategic Estimating" - Present a story to your clients with your estimate. Understand your client's usages.

These are just high-level topics that were discussed, but all-in-all it was a truly amazing experience. The ability to network, discuss, and digest the information with other photographers and speakers was truly the best part. I roomed with another Baltimore Photographer Kevin Weber and being able to discuss the ideas/information/concepts each night with a very successful photographer was invaluable. The conference really gives you a foundation to make yourself successful. I'm still in digestion mode, but slowly implementing new processes and thoughts. I had a meeting last week with a friend and have a big announcement of a project coming soon.

SB3 gives you roots ... kinda like owning a house. Now I'm firmly rooted in Baltimore and focusing on my business.

NCAA Basketball: Clemson at Maryland

2011-02-02T22:24:00.001-05:00

I'm a little bit behind in posting, but I recently covered the Clemson at Maryland basketball game for Clemson. It was my first time to the Comcast Center and I was impressed. The areana was big and the stands were packed for a Saturday afternoon ACC battle. The two stars of the game, Clemson's Demontez Stitt and Maryland's Jordan Williams, shined throughout. Williams leads the ACC in double-doubles and is a candidate for the ACC Player of the Year. It was great to see Clemson's new coach Brad Brownell and the way he interacted with the team. His philosophies are different than Purnell's, and it was really great to see the team play in person again.

Jan 22, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers guard Demontez Stitt (2) is fouled on a layup opportunity against the Maryland Terrapins during the second half at the Comcast Center.

Jan 22, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Maryland Terrapins forward Jordan Williams (20) reacts against the Clemson Tigers during the second half at the Comcast Center.

Jan 22, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Brad Brownell encourages his team against the Maryland Terrapins during the first half at the Comcast Center.

Jan 22, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers forward Jerai Grant (45) is trapped by Maryland Terrapins forward Haukur Palsson (13) and forward James Padgett (35) during the first half at the Comcast Center.

Jan 22, 2011; College Park, MD, USA; Clemson Tigers guard Demontez Stitt (2) attempts a layup against Maryland Terrapins forward Dino Gregory (33) during the second half at the Comcast Center.

Gallery:

NCAA Basketball: Clemson at Maryland - Images by Baltimore Photographer Brian Schneider

Maryland General Assembly

2011-01-14T12:58:00.001-05:00

Wednesday was the start of the first 90 day session of the Maryland General Assembly this year. It was also Bill Ferguson's first day as the Maryland State Senator representing the 46th District of Baltimore City. I followed Bill and his campaign all summer for my Baltimore Entrepreneurs project. Bill is a 27-year old former Baltimore City school teacher running against the 27-year incumbent George Della. Ferguson's campaign focused on education and a new vision for Baltimore, his perseverance and passion helped him win the Democratic Primary and subsequently the election.

After the election, I wanted to cover the swearing-in ceremony as the final part of Bill's story. Since this was for my personal project and not an editorial outlet, I was nervous I wouldn't be able to get media access to the Senate Chambers. After many emails and phone calls, I finally found the right person and got the access I needed at 8am on Wednesday. This only gave me just 4 hours to gather up equipment, drive to Annapolis, park, and develop a plan. I knew I would have to be dressed nicely for the event, but I didn't realize a jacket was required. Thank goodness I brought the peacoat so I didn't stand out. It was packed with Senators, family, friends, and media, but everybody was very nice and we all helped each other move around. There were no assigned spots, but due to seating arrangements I got stuck on the other side of the room from Bill's desk.

The ceremony was great. All of the top Maryland law makers were in attendance: Governor Martin O'Malley, US Senator Barb Mikulski, and US Congressman Dutch Ruppersberger. It was really a day to celebrate the elected officials and the start of a new session. Good luck Bill on your first session as a state senator!

Bill Ferguson: First Session of the General Assembly - Images by Baltimore Photographer Brian Schneider

Happy New Year

2010-12-31T16:58:00.008-05:00

It's 2011 and Baltimore is actually starting to warm-up a little. This last year has been both an exciting and challenging time for me. Moving to Baltimore, becoming engaged, starting my business, house searching, and wedding planning have all been very exciting. Bell's Palsy, multiple car incidents, and adjusting to Baltimore have made it challenging.

Successes of this year:

My personal project on Baltimore Entrepreneurs helped me grow technically, meet other business people, and allowed me to experience their triumphs and failures.
Three new clients who have been great to work with.
Joining networking groups and meeting other creative professionals.

Challenges for next year:

Diversify my work and clients with advertising, commercial and portrait work.
Continue my personal projects.
Improve and grow technically.

I can't remember a year where I've grown so much personally and professionally that I'm truly thankful to be a part of the "real world" now. Thank you to everybody who has helped me this year.

As much as I dislike snow, Baltimore is absolutely beautiful snow-covered. Happy New Years!

NCAA: FCS Semifinals

2010-12-27T09:38:00.000-05:00

I know this blog is a little late as the FCS National Semifinal game between Georgia Southern and Delaware was the Saturday before Christmas. I had a great time working with Georgia Southern for their game against Navy in September, and since then I have been following their season all year hoping they'd be back up in the area. They went on a run to finish the season, making it to the FCS Playoffs (the real way to determine a National Champion) and all the way to the semifinals to face top-seeded Delaware.

It was snowing all that week in Baltimore and still in the 30s for game time on Saturday at Delaware Stadium in Newark, DE. Delaware's stadium was surprisingly small for a successful DI FCS football school, but was pumped with blasting music throughout the game. The teams are two completely contrasting styles: Georgia Southern is a triple-option offense, while Delaware is a spread passing offense.

Delaware went up 10-0 by the end of the first half, largely in part to Georgia Southern turnovers, 5 total and 1 in the end zone.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles slotback J.J. Wilcox (19) fumbles the ball against the Delaware Blue Hens during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Georgia Southern's offense moved the ball fairly well. Seeing the option offense 3 times this year, I've finally started to gain an appreciation for the complexity and timing of the plays, plus I've learn to spot the ball carrier and see the lanes to anticipate their movements.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles running back Robert Brown (5) and quarterback Jaybo Shaw (14) on a rushing play against the Delaware Blue Hens during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles quarterback Jaybo Shaw (14) on a rushing play against the Delaware Blue Hens during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles slotback J.J. Wilcox (19) on a rushing play against the Delaware Blue Hens linebacker Paul Worrilow (10) during the second half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

The stat sheet was relatively Delaware was able to capitalize on the turnovers and the untimely defensive lapses by Georgia Southern to push the score to 24-10 half-way through the 4th quarter.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles defensive back Deonte Watkins (16) tackles Delaware Blue Hens wide receiver Rob Jones (5) on a punt return during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles defensive back Michael Butler (40) tackles Delaware Blue Hens wide receiver Rob Jones (5) during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles linebacker Carlos Cave (37) defends Delaware Blue Hens wide receiver Nihja White (19) during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Hard-fought game on both sides, but untimely mistakes on both sides of the ball lead to the Georgia Southern loss. It was a great season with their first-year head coach.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles head coach Jeff Monken reacts against the Delaware Blue Hens during the first half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles defensive back Laron Scott (34) reacts against the Delaware Blue Hens during the second half of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles linebacker Carlos Cave (37) reacts against the Delaware Blue Hens during the final moments of the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Georgia Southern Eagles defensive back Carson Hill (24) reacts against the Delaware Blue Hens after the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium. The Blue Hens beat the Eagles 27 to 10.

Sprinted 3/4 of the field to get a few of the Delaware celebration after getting some initial dejection of Georgia Southern. Most SIDs won't use dejection photos and I really wanted some of the jube photos with students.

Dec 18, 2010; Newark, DE, USA; Delaware Blue Hens wide receiver Mark Mackey (8) reacts with students after the FCS National Championship Semifinal at Delaware Stadium. The Blue Hens beat the Eagles 27 to 10.

All-in-all it was a great game to experience. Even though the client lost, I was able to get some good shots of their younger players and the opportunity to capture two memorable parts of this season for them.

Baltimore City Championship

2010-11-16T12:31:00.000-05:00

I got the opportunity to cover the Baltimore City Girls Volleyball Championship for the Baltimore City Schools a couple weeks ago. While I was excited to cover a championship match, I'm always weary of volleyball games. I've never really understood the sport and until a wiser photographer gave me the advice to "follow the setter to see where the ball goes," I was pretty lost. I also found I increased in quality as I moved up to an elevated angle. Not only does it help clear up the background it allows me to follow the game more easily.

When I was at Clemson, the Volleyball gym was a cave compared to the other venues. The soccer field and volleyball gym were a tossup on which was worse - horrible and recycling florescent lights in the gym or no light hitting the corners. Newer sensor technologies help negate these issues. Due to my past experiences I was nervous about a high school gym being worse: ISO 3200, 1/400, 2.8. About a full-stop worse than what I was used to. The 7D handles the low light well, but the Mark II definitely struggles with it.

The game was held at City College High School, which is a really nice public school in the northwest part of the city. The matches were fairly entertaining, with City College winning both the JV and Varsity city championships. A few photos from each below.

Beautiful Day for Football: Duke at Navy

2010-11-04T21:29:00.000-04:00

It's pouring rain as I write this in Baltimore, but last Saturday was a perfect day for football: 60s, sunny, and clear skies with a slight breeze. The weather in Baltimore has been up and down, but unusually warm for the most part. With the seasons starting to change, I was excited because the 3:30 start would provide some nice light towards half-time and into the second half. This being my second time at Navy, I was more prepared and brought some kneepads as the field-turf cut my knees up pretty bad last time. For this game, the client was Duke and with the young team, they didn't have any specific needs.

The first quarter was a little slow, with only a 30-yard field goal from Duke's Will Snyderwine. I like this because of the nice reaction to the kick, much different than my usual Clemson field goal dejection photos.

The second quarter was absolutely fast-paced with Duke forcing turnovers and scoring 3 touchdowns, pushing the game to 24-0 at halftime. The Blue Devils made it easy to take some photos of both the offense and the defense.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils defensive end Patrick Egboh (90) sacks Navy Midshipmen quarterback Ricky Dobbs (4) during the first half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils tight end Cooper Helfet (81) runs after the catch against the Navy Midshipmen during the first half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils wide receiver Donovan Varner (26) runs after the catch against the Navy Midshipmen during the first half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

My favorite photo of the day, Duke's quarterback, Sean Renfree, jumps over the pile for the first touchdown of the game.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils quarterback Sean Renfree (19) dives over the pile for a touchdown against the Navy Midshipmen during the first half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

Since I got a ton of material, I felt safe enough to take a few chances and really try to get a good picture. After editing my half-time take, I decided to shoot a few series from above (one of my favorite positions) right outside the press box. The play was a little boring, but I was able to get some decent action taking place over the Navy midfield logo. Navy made some adjustments at halftime, and started to make it a game so I went back down to the field.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils quarterback Sean Renfree (19) attempts a pass against the Navy Midshipmen during the second half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils quarterback Sean Renfree (19) scrambles against the Navy Midshipmen during the second half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

The fourth quarter was back and forth with Duke holding off the Midshipmen with timely defensive stops.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils linebacker Matt Daniels (40) tackles Navy Midshipmen slot back Andre Byrd (20) during the second half at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

Oct 30, 2010; Annapolis, MD, USA; Duke Blue Devils kicker Will Snyderwine (96) and punter Kevin Jones (49) react during the final seconds against the Navy Midshipmen at Navy-Marine Corp Memorial Stadium.

Gallery:

NCAA Football: Duke at Navy - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

NCAA Soccer: Wake Forest at Maryland

2010-10-28T20:48:00.000-04:00

Here are a few images from the recent Wake at Maryland soccer game at Ludwig Field. It was the first time in awhile I got to shoot the home team as I was helping out the Maryland team shooter who hadn't made it back from the football game in Boston earlier that day. Good game and beautiful weather.

Ludwig Field was packed and the fans were ready for the game. Maryland is currently ranked #3 and while the game was close because of a late Wake Forest goal; for the most part the Terps dominated the game.

Baltimore Marathon 2010

2010-10-19T12:34:00.003-04:00

One of the best things I like about living in Baltimore is there is always something going on, from general city life, to festivals, to marathons. This last Saturday was the 10th Annual Baltimore Running Festival with 22,000+ runners competing in a marathon, half-marathon, 5K, and kids race. I likeenjoy running because it allows you to clear your mind and challenge yourself mentally and physically.

I've competed and photographed 5Ks, but have never actually watched a marathon. Since the full and half-marathons course ran right through my neighborhood I figured it would be a great Saturday morning taking pictures of the runners, fans, and atmosphere around the historic Canton. My goal was to capture runners' emotions with the beautiful scenery of Baltimore.

Preparation

When shooting 5Ks, I always find a course map or someone who knows the course. If I had enough time or didn't know the route, I would walk all or most of it, to find the right angles. My favorites are hills, through trees, and anything with water. For the marathon, I knew I wouldn't be able to get the start, or the finish, because of logistics issues. I was on the 15th & 16th mile of the marathon and 2nd & 3rd mile of the half-marathon. Since both surround my house, I knew the scenery and knew exactly where I wanted to start. According to the website, the marathon runners were expected at 9:15, the race started at 8am. The half-marathon started at 9:45 so about 8 minutes after you should expect to see runners. It took me about 1-1.5 hours to create my custom Google My Map with locations, ideas, route, and notes that you can find here.

Course map with the routes through Canton

Execution
I wanted to catch the head group, so I was out at Boston St and Aliceanna St at 8:30, plenty of time to get my bearings and prepare for the first group. I situated myself near cops, because in this situation, the status of the runners is called over the radio and I can listen in and get the heads up. By mile 15 I figured the cream of the crop would be at the top with over 50% of the marathon complete. The second group contained the male division winner, which after getting his name was able to search for his bib. Unfortunately he was in the back of his pact and due to my shot selection, I couldn't get a clear shot of him. Thankfully he and some others wore their bib properly, their specific number out, but most runners did not, which made it very hard to identify these runners.


Oct 16, 2010; Baltimore, MD, USA; Kenyan runner David Rutoh finished in 2:13:11 to win the male division of the 10th Annual Baltimore Running Festival sponsored by Under Armour. Rutoh is in the second row of the group, bib 3294.

After realizing I may have missed one of the winners due to my shooting position, I changed my strategy for the female runners. They were behind another Police motorcade. I stayed on the ground, but instead of staying on the inside of the turn, I went to the outside of the turn and shot with my 70-200, compressing the background and focusing only on the few lead female runners heading towards me. As they got closer I switched back to the wide, but I like the verticals better.


Oct 16, 2010; Baltimore, MD, USA; Ukranian runner Olena Shurkhno, 33, finished in 2:32:17 to win the female division of the 10th Annual Baltimore Running Festival sponsored by Under Armour.

I didn't quite get to Canton Square as I had planned, because I lost track of time with the runners on Boston Street but I really wanted to get the stream of runners on the second mile of the half-marathon coming down Pratt St. After a nice 8 block sprint, I got up there just in time to get the flow of runners.

Oct 16, 2010; Baltimore, MD, USA; Runners on Pratt Street and Patterson Park Avenue in Canton during the 10th Annual Baltimore Running Festival sponsored by Under Armour.

By that time I had made plenty of different runners, but really wanted to make some nice feature shots of the race, scenery, and fan interaction. It was a fun and memorable experience. I loved how people were just cheering on thousands of strangers who were competing for themselves and others. I didn't see any of the famous local runners or people in crazy costumes, but overall it was fun to cover and watch.

Gallery:

Baltimore Marathon 2010 - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

Women's Soccer: Clemson at Maryland

2010-10-16T00:22:00.000-04:00

Last night the Clemson Tigers went up against the #4 Maryland Terrapins in a cold, wet match. I'm not a huge soccer fan, but I absolutely love watching soccer in person. Being there on the sidelines you really see how surprisingly physical the game is played.

It had rained all day, setting up a nice sunset and a soaked field. I got there about an hour before game time and scoped out the field. The soccer field is in the middle of the track and the bleachers aren't very tall or close, so no vertical positions. Photographers aren't allowed to shoot from the goal-line on the field either. I settled in somewhere between the box and the circle. The lighting was best there, but like most soccer fields isn't worth much either.

When shooting soccer by the first half, you usually have enough of the ball-fighting and players breaking away to satisfy your needs. For the second half, I was able to focus on the coach, get some file photos of Maryland, and work on capturing goalie action. It was a rough game for Clemson, they played tough, but were outmatched 4-0.

Gallery:

NCAA Women Soccer: Clemson at Maryland - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

College Football in Full Swing

2010-10-04T15:44:00.001-04:00

College football season is now in full-swing and with Clemson's recent losses to Miami and Auburn, everything seems to be fairly normal. While at Clemson I shot 32 games including 1 ACC Championship game, 4 games verses our in-state rival The University of South Carolina, and 2 Bowl Games. Here are a few of my favorites and memorable photos from my days with The Tiger.

My first photo published in The Tiger was on the front page of the Sports Section. I was so proud to see my work in print. A few of my friends around campus even noticed the byline.

Sept 24, 2005; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers safety Jamaal Fudge (24) reacts by flapping his wings after the play against the Boston College Eagles at Memorial Stadium.

James Davis was a beast and this photo was taken during the beginning of the Thunder and Lightning years. This was taken during my first away game, a neutral site contest on an NFL field against the Temple Owls. It was in the second half and I decided to stay in the Clemson endzone, even though we were on our 20. I was waiting for the big play since I had already captures other game-telling images.

Oct 12, 2006; Charlotte, NC, USA; Clemson Tigers running back James Davis (1) runs away from Temple Owls defenders for a long touchdown run at Bank of America Stadium during this neutral site game.

Death Valley at night after the Tigers ran down The Hill. What could be better? Taken as Clemson entered the 2007 season with high hopes by beating Florida State on the Labor Day Monday Night game.

Sept 3, 2007; Clemson, SC, USA; The Clemson Tigers enter Death Valley after running down The Hill at Memorial Stadium before the game against the Florida State Seminoles.

Cocks Blocked. My first time shooting at South Carolina, it was cold, the fans were mean, and the sidelines were crowded. This was the second blocked punt of the game and my favorite of the two. Clemson went on to win with a last second field goal.

Nov 24, 2007; Columbia, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers wide receiver LaDonte Harris (26) blocks South Carolina punter Ryan Succop (14) punt. It was the second block of the game for Clemson who won 23-21 at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Former head coach Tommy Bowden touches The Rock for the last time. It was a long 2008 season and it was definitely time for a new energy.

Sep 27, 2008; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Tommy Bowden touches Howard's Rock before the game against Maryland at Memorial Stadium.

After a week of questions about Dabo's experience, the current head coach Dabo Swinney looks down into Death Valley for the first time as head coach. Seeing the new energy and change he brought to the program has been great. This ran on the front page of The Tiger that week.

Oct 18, 2008; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney looks on before Clemson runs down the hill against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets at Memorial Stadium.

During my time at The Tiger I tried to expand our coverage of all aspects of the university. One of the ways I accomplished this was by doing interviews and portraits. My original idea was for Dabo Swinney to be in Death Valley at The Rock (kissing or reflecting) but the day of the shoot, it was a torrential downpour. Instead we did it in the weekly press conference room in front of the background of pre-game ceremonies. Sometimes you have to call an audible. This still fit with him reflecting about the season and expectations ahead.

Apr 14, 2009; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers Head Coach Dabo Swinney at the end of Spring Practice, his first as a head coach for the Tigers.

I was working on all season to capture the pre-game rituals of Clemson and bring them to the viewer like they've never seen before. I have shots from Tiger Walk, the tunnel, boarding the buses, coin drop, top of The Hill, and running down The Hill, although I didn't have access to the elusive bus trip from the locker room to the top of The Hill. Maybe some day. One of my favorites and also my last home opener at Clemson.

Sept 5, 2009; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers running back Rendrick Taylor (5) and head coach Dabo Swinney react before getting on the bus to run down The Hill before the game against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders at Memorial Stadium. This is the last home opener for Taylor at Clemson.

CJ's dominance his senior season was evident. A Heisman Trophy hopeful and one of the greatest Clemson players of all time. It was great to witness his entire career and I hope his NFL career is just as good. A favorite of Lightning running away from the pack.

Sep 19, 2009; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers running back C.J. Spiller (28) on a rushing play against the Boston College Eagles during the second quarter at Memorial Stadium.

The Clemson kicking game always had its struggles. After a fast start, Richard Jackson all made us remember Jad Dean's senior season kicking woes. My favorite of seemingly hundreds of missed field goals and extra point reactions. If good, this would have sent the game to overtime against TCU. I love his reaction and the two TCU players framing it during a downpour.

Sep 26, 2009; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers kicker Richard Jackson (19) and TCU Horned Frogs defensive back Nick Sanders (20) and defensive back Rafael Priest (10) react after Jackson missed a field goal during the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium.

My all-time favorite Clemson football photo. Dabo getting dunked as time expires against Virginia to give Clemson its first Atlantic Division title and berth into the ACC Championship game. My last game as a student in Death Valley. I stalked Dabo on the sidelines for about 10 minutes, waiting to catch this moment.

Nov 21, 2009; Clemson, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers tight end Michael Palmer (86) dunks head coach Dabo Swinney with Gatorade in the final moments against the Virginia Cavaliers at Memorial Stadium. The Tigers clinched the ACC Atlantic division title by beating the Cavaliers 34 to 21.

I was hoping my last game against South Carolina would be more like my first one in Columbia (Cocks Blocked), but that wasn't the case. CJ returned the kickoff with one shoe on, but it was all down hill from there. A hard-hitting game on both sides, but beautiful light.

Nov 28, 2009; Columbia, SC, USA; Clemson Tigers tight end Michael Palmer (86) is tackled by South Carolina Gamecocks defensive back DeVonte Holloman (21) during the second quarter at Williams-Brice Stadium.

One of the greatest football games I've ever seen in person: the 2009 ACC Championship game. Both teams fought hard and Clemson was so close. CJ was the star of the show.

Dec 5, 2009; Tampa, FL, USA; Clemson Tigers running back C.J. Spiller (28) reacts after the Tigers lose the 2009 ACC championship game to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets 39 to 34 at Raymond James Stadium.

Here are the rest of my favorites. I enjoyed every minute of every game, from the grueling South Carolina heat to the long car rides to away games.

Clemson Football Favorites - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

Georgia Southern at Navy

2010-09-19T12:53:00.000-04:00

This assignment will be truly memorable for many reasons. When I moved up to Baltimore, I kept telling myself that I had to see a Navy football game to witness the honor, atmosphere, March of the Brigade, and Annapolis. Last weekend I saw this first hand as I accepted my first SID assignment since the relocation to Baltimore, and to top it off, it was 9/11.

I was shooting for the away team, the Georgia Southern Eagles. They are historically one of the top Football Championship Series (Division I-AA) teams of all time and use the same Triple-Option offense as Navy and Georgia Tech. Not covering these types of team exclusively, they can be challenging because you really never know where the ball will end up and they appear to just run "into the pile" and push. On the plus side, the games are usually quicker because 90% of the game is running plays.

SIDs are always busy and running around, especially on game day. Rose Carter, the SID for Georgia Southern, and I were able to speak over the phone earlier in the week and briefly before the game about what she wanted/needed to see from my shots. Most SIDs seems to have similar, but also different needs from a game, and these needs are much different than covering for an editorial outlet. They typically want strong isolation shots of ALL players (not just key players) and coaches, a few key plays, and a story telling image for their athletics website. Rose was really great to work with, and she also knows Tim Bourret, the SID at Clemson who was influential in helping me and The Tiger grow by allowing us to try new accesses and ideas. Rose is an great SID like Tim, and I can't thank her enough for the opportunity to work this game.

In addition to getting shots for GSU, I also wanted to take some good photos of the March of the Brigade and some of Navy's key players and head coach. Here are some of my favorites from the game and the slideshow is at the bottom.

Gallery:

NCAA Football: Georgia Southern at Navy - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

Victory in the 46th

2010-09-15T21:31:00.002-04:00

Last night I got to experience something that was truly amazing. Bill Ferguson, a 27-year old, former Baltimore City school teacher, won his primary. Throughout the summer I've been following Bill through the campaign process: knocking on doors, holding fundraising events, calling voters, and spreading his message to people who were looking to improve Baltimore. Bill's energy and passion showed through and defeated a 27-year incumbent in George Della, Jr.

Last night, his dream to change the education system for the better came true. From 7am to 8pm on September 14, Bill stood on the corner of Fait Ave and S Linwood Ave in Canton trying to convince voters to trust him. On the opposite corner Della stood doing the same. By the end of the evening, when the votes we tallied, Bill's sweat and passion earned him a Senate Seat in the Maryland House.

Bill Ferguson on the corner of Fait Ave and S. Linwood Ave in Canton on Election Day. Ferguson was speaking with voters from 7am-8pm.

Bill Ferguson and his wife Lea embrace as the polls close.

Bill squats as the last few minutes before the polls close.

Bill (center) and Lea (right) react with supporters as the margin of victory is announced. Ferguson won 60% of the vote.

Laura Jones (left) and JD Merrill (right), two campaign workers embrace after victory was announced. Laura and JD personally went out of their way to help me this summer.

I was truly lucky and fortunate enough to have Bill trust me with close access to him and his campaign. Over the next months I hope to put together. I can never thank him enough for it an am truly thankful. It's people like Bill that make you want to stay and change Baltimore with him.

Nationals and the 7D

2010-08-10T20:30:00.000-04:00

A few months ago I picked up the Canon 7D to start exploring video and multimedia for future projects. The 7D's price offered a great value: 18 Megapixels, 8 frames per second, full HD video, great high ISO performance, and light weight. It's a great all-around camera for my current work: sports and documentary, with some personal video projects.

Equipment wise, sports photography isn't all about FPS and autofocus speed. It's about making pictures, capturing a peak moment telling the story of the game. To find clean backgrounds, different angles, and interesting light to frame a great moment.

Initial Reactions
The 7D is surprisingly light, but very sturdy. It's magnesium-alloy body feels much more solid than my 30D and is comparable to my 1D Mark II. The huge viewfinder and LCD screen are both nice upgrades over older cameras. The autofocus is good, fast, and accurate and on-par with the 1D series. I had heard this before my purchase and I was pleasantly surprised on the responsiveness. It still gets tripped up, but I'm in the process of tweaking the custom settings. The files the camera produces are simply amazing. The noise is low and they are vibrant right out of the camera.

The ability to switch over and shoot video is phenomenal. Now I just need to beef up my sound recording equipment to match the 7D.

MLB: Philadelphia Phillies at Washington Nationals - Images by Brian Schneider

Tech Review: HTC Hero Smartphone

2010-07-21T22:34:00.019-04:00

HTC Hero - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

I've had my HTC Hero on Sprint for a little over a month now, so it's time to give a short review. This phone was the precursor to the HTC Evo 4G. After researching and playing around with friends' BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android phones, I knew I wanted the flexibility, open-source, customization, multimedia and Google apps integration of an Android phone. I chose the Hero on Sprint because of the rebates and plan: free phone and $70/month with mobile-to-mobile, 450 minutes, and unlimited everything else.

Things I like:

The HTC Sense user interface is great at integrating Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr into your already established phone or Google contacts. It won't save the extra information in the contact record but will reference it for calls, texts, and emails.
The Google integration is seamless, even working with my Google Apps account.
The trackball. It makes it much easier for me to move the cursor around, though I know lots of people hate these.
The 5mp camera is surprisingly good and it's nice to have a camera always with me.
Sprint's network has pretty good coverage around the city and I have experienced only a few dropped calls, much better than with AT&T.

Things I don't like:

Can lag when starting apps: Maps, Google Voice, Camera and making phone calls. Personally I think it's partially due to the Sense UI and the phone being a bit under-powered.
Battery life. Usually have to charge it everyday, with heavy use I have to charge while on-the-go. This was caused by the SMS Messaging app not working properly and fixed by using another SMS app described here.

Android vs. Apple
Since I have never owned any Apple products, I have never really had the need to have the iPhone. My main problem with Apple's iOS is the very closed development and publishing environment of apps. Apple approves every app for content and usability before it is published and there is a $99 fee each year for the right to publish to the App Store. Android's App Market only approves apps for usability and has a $25 lifetime fee for the right to publish. To me a company should not limit a developer's content unless it affects the usability of the device or causes security holes. Otherwise, let them publish their apps and have the opportunity to capitalize their work.

Recommend:
It's almost essential for a business owner to have a smartphone of some sort. It gives you the freedom to have your email, contacts, documents, and Internet access with you at all times. If you are considering purchasing a smartphone, play around with different devices and really look at the current plants from the major providers, AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, until you find a device and plan that work for you.

My First Slideshow

2010-07-02T13:42:00.000-04:00

Knocking on Doors from Brian Schneider

It took me awhile to figure out how to edit the audio and timing of the photos inside of Soundslides, but I think for a first try it came out well. The music is legal as well, so please turn your sound on your computer.

Since I'm still bootstrapping, my audio was recorded on my HTC Hero smart phone. Not ideal, but good in a pinch. The only problems I encountered was when the streets were noisy or a car drove by.

Posted it on my website as well: Baltimore Commercial Photographer.

Thanks to Tom Priddy, Multimedia Editor of the Spartanburg Herald-Journal for his help and suggestions.

Over the Palsy

2010-06-30T22:26:00.000-04:00

After about 2.5 weeks and many anti-viral medications my face is finally back to its normal self. It was very scary at first, but over time I was able to joke about it. As far as I can tell it's like I never had it.

It's not to say it can't come back, but hopefully it won't.

Time to get back to a full working schedule.

Networking Event Tips

2010-06-28T08:26:00.003-04:00

We all know networking is important. Almost every successful business person I know attributes some of their success to networking. It help gets your name out there, meet new people, collaborate on different projects, and meet and learn from people in different disciplines.

Although highly important, these networking events can be stressful, especially for those who are more introverted than extroverted. Here are some tips I have found to help me make the most of these events:

Have a spiel - A quick elevator speech about yourself and what your passion is.
Have a plan - If there is an RSVP list, research the companies/people you want to talk to and why, create a "hit list".
Dress professional - Remember you are making a first impression with other attendees.
Don't stand in the corner - This is very hard, I still do it myself occasionally. To get yourself more comfortable, smile and go up to another quiet person, they are most likely in the same position you are.
Ask others what they do - Learn about others and share info about their industry. Remember to make mental notes about their successes, problems, goals, etc.
Be as efficient as possible - Make the most of the event and your hit list. Offer to follow up to learn more detail about the person at a later date.
Exchange business cards - To follow up with your new contact.

After you have attended, now what?

Make notes on each contact - I use Google contacts to keep all the information I know/learn about them. I also make notes each time I meet with them, since I have a particularly bad memory.
Connect with them on social networking sites - LinkedIn and Twitter are the easiest and less personal compared to others like Facebook.
Follow up - Send an article or interesting note, hopefully on something you discussed with them to help jog their memory. Don't expect your new contacts to follow up with you, be proactive.
Offer to take them out for coffee - A coffee meeting offers flexibility to be quick or if the conversation is going well to last longer. A face-to-face meeting helps build a personal relationship.

Local Baltimore Groups

Since I didn't have any contacts when i first moved to Baltimore, I started researching different networking events/groups in the city. Here are some Baltimore area groups I like and attend (not an end-all-be-all list for the area):

Innovate Baltimore - Innovate Baltimore is a social community for creative technology leaders, entrepreneurs, professionals, and enthusiasts in the Baltimore region.
BmoreSmart - Created by and for Baltimore Social Entrepreneurs working to make Baltimore a better city to live, work, and grow in. Creating change in Baltimore made easier.

Resources:
Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi - The networking book to read on how to connect, build your network, help others and help your business.

Links:
http://under30ceo.com/networking-and-social-media-marketing-101
http://under30ceo.com/networking-3-ways-to-give-more-than-you-get/
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/04/tips-for-networking-beyond-just-social-networking.php
http://www.entrepreneur.com/marketing/marketingideas/networkingcolumnistivanmisner/article205904.html
http://under30ceo.com/i-attended-a-networking-event…now-what

27 yr old Teacher vs. 27 yr old Incumbant

2010-06-24T23:31:00.002-04:00

Bill Ferguson: Maryland State Senate 46th District - Images by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

Bill Ferguson, a former Baltimore City public school teacher and former assistant to the CEO of City Schools, is running against George Della of the Maryland 46th District's state senate seat. What makes Bill special isn't really his age or who he is running against, it's his personality. He has a tremendous drive and he genuinely cares about making a positive difference for the city of Baltimore.

Ironically, Bill was at the same BmoreSmart meeting I attended back in May, though I didn't speak with him then. This week, a mutual contact introduced us over the phone and I met him at his office in Canton Square. Within 10 minutes, we were leaving and going to Upper Fells with one of his campaign workers, JD, and going door-to-door. It was amazing to just be able to observe and record his journey.

Bill is the first subject of my new personal project: Baltimore Entrepreneurs. Since May, I've involved myself in two groups: Innovate Baltimore and BmoreSmart to experience Baltimore and network with local business leaders. What I've found is there are many people who want to improve the city. It's a whole different energy with unlimited potential. I hope to capture that with my new project.

I used my new 7D to capture both stills and video, but I don't want to show too much here now, as I hope to have a multimedia piece (my first ever) up shortly. I will be at his office tomorrow to keep recording his story.

My photos ... LIFESIZE

2010-06-17T21:21:00.002-04:00

Photo by Tina LeMay

Last time I went home to South Carolina I got some free time and was able to meet up with one of my mentors at Clemson. I worked for Tina LeMay as a photographer in Student Affairs Publications for most of my college career. She always supported my work and ideas, but more importantly she allowed me to grow as a person and photographer. The last two years I worked with her and other designers to implement Clemson's new brand, Determined Spirit, through photography. The photos have been used in posters, brochures, and websites, but this is by far the coolest use yet.

I had no idea it was happening either until I walked into the office that day and saw my photo blown up to 6 feet tall! She said they would be hung in the atrium of the rec center within a few weeks and send photos when they were up. Thanks to Ben White who worked as the student designer. I was very fortunate to work with Tina and everybody else in SA Publications over those 4 years.

Can't wait to see them in person!

My useful articles

2010-06-10T22:24:00.001-04:00

The best thing about Web 2.0 is the amount of information available on every subject imaginable. I currently browse/read 35 different blogs covering Photography (of course), Entrepreneurship, Business, and Technology.

Google Reader keeps all the articles organized for me and allows me to "star" and "share" articles I like. Here's a link to the public page for my "starred" items, my own personal collection of favorite/useful/interesting articles.

Hope you enjoy: http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/06741971939894624325/state/com.google/starred.

Determination = Mental Toughness

2010-06-06T23:19:00.001-04:00

I feel this goalie's pain, all he can do is watch. He blocked shot after shot, for a couple of minutes before this shot got past him. He shook his head, continued to kneel, and after a shot pause got up, tapped his stick on each side of the cage and focused back on the game.

I thought May was frustrating because I wasn't shooting as much and only a fraction of the tasks of my to-do list were getting done, but the first few days of June, have given May a run for its money. The madness started when Emily and I took a vacation to Connecticut with friends for the Memorial Day weekend. It was supposed to be a few days of relaxation away from work, but that Sunday morning, I was scored upon.

I've always thought of myself as a determined person. I played baseball for 15 years, and while I was never the fastest, strongest, or even the most talented, I always prided myself on being the hardest working and toughest player on the field. I was full-speed all the time regardless of if was practice or game, and I still have all the scars to prove it. What baseball really taught me was mental toughness: no matter how many times you made a bad out or an error, you had to get back up, put it behind you, and keep going.

Fast forward back to the present on Sunday when I woke up and the right side of my face was paralyzed. I could still feel it, but I couldn't move any of the muscles on that side and more of my breakfast ended up on my shirt than in my stomach. This was very weird and scary because I normally associate facial paralysis with a stroke. After calling every doctor or Med student we knew and searching WebMD.com, we went to a local urgent care office and I was diagnosed with Bell's palsy. The doctors don't know what prompted it, so they prescribed me medication that can kill random viruses, and steroids.

I've been in and out of work all week with doctors appointments and just not feeling well, but one of the days I was in the office, I caught up with my supervisor about life, projects, and the frustration of both. I was telling him about the diagnosis, side effects of the medication, frustration with the political battles in my office, and wedding expenses and planning. I shared with him that I was nervous about the Bell's palsy becoming permanent, affecting my eye sight, and people's perceptions of my hopefully temporary facial features, then he stopped me.

This was the dialog:
"You can talk, breathe, see, move, and feel, right? You can still physically function, engaged, and not broke?" I said, "Yes, to all of those." "Then, just embrace it," he said. "Your face will probably return to normal and if it doesn't just embrace it. Share it with people, just be yourself and you'll be fine." He went on to share with me how in recent month's his house flooded, one of his cats had to be given away, and he underwent hernia surgery. His point was, you have to just roll with the punches and take things as they come.

I work so hard, that sometimes I just expect the results to be instant. I have developed patience over the years, but there are still moments when it seems I'm blocking every shot, just getting through the flurry, and then Bell's palsy was the shot that got past me. I spent some time this week sick, tired, and frustrated, but now I'm ready to get back up for the next flurry of shots. Now, after embracing that temporary facial paralysis is not the end of the world, I can laugh and joke with my friends about how I would have made a perfect Two-Face in the next Batman movie.

Determination is mental toughness. Determination is the hard work, patience, and self-belief to focus your mind, talents, and skills to overcome the obstacles ahead. It is mental toughness.

Some good links to pick yourself back up:

Photos from May

2010-05-24T23:44:00.000-04:00

Safeway Smokestack in Canton, Baltimore, MD. Photo taken by HTC Hero by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

May is winding down and it has been a very busy month with business, networking, new tech projects, and house projects. Add in a few trips and it's been a while since things have been crossed off the to- do list.

When May started I didn't really know how I felt about staying in Baltimore long term. I wasn't shooting as much as I wanted to and living in the city was becoming frustrating. After becoming involved in BmoreSmart and Innovate Baltimore my opinion has begun to change. Both organizations are social/technology networking groups working to connect entrepreneurs wanting to improve Baltimore life. These groups have tapped into my love of entrepreneurship and has made me more optimistic.

To look on the positive side to being super busy:

All major business organization tasks are done.
Met some good people through the networking groups that I have started working on projects with.
Along with help from friends, I'm working on a new technology project which reminds me why I choose my computer science degree in the first place.
I got a HTC HERO Android smartphone. (More to come about this later)
Major house projects are finally done thanks to Emily's hard work.

Negative side:

Backlogged with a long to-do list and work.
Little shooting time

First are some photos from April (sorry I lied)

Wonsup doing a hand-stand during a shoot in Federal Hill Park, Baltimore, MD. Photo by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider.

Joy meditating during a shoot in Patterson Park, Baltimore, MD. Photo by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider.

Personal Trainer Annie doing squats in her gym in Rockville, MD. Photo by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider.

Boston Red Sox at Baltimore Orioles:

Photos by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

Now some fun photos from May:

Sunrise on I-85 in South Carolina on the drive back to Baltimore.

Sunrise on I-85 in South Carolina on the drive back to Baltimore.

Perfect view of the Chesapeake Bay by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

Emily on the streets of downtown Annapolis by Baltimore Commercial Photographer Brian Schneider

All Google Applications will be in Google Apps

2010-05-12T14:44:00.000-04:00

While it's not a huge deal, it is kinda a hassle to have a Google Apps and a separate Google Account to use the services like Map, Reader, etc that aren't currently in Google Apps. This is all changing by the end of the summer: http://googleenterprise.blogspot.com/2010/05/more-google-applications-coming-for.html.

This is very exciting if you are using Google Apps or thinking about switching. Consolidating all the services you use plus the ability to brand it as your own company. I just hope they have an easy way to import from the Google Applications you are already using.

Hopefully I'll have the ability to switch early in the summer. Does this make you want to switch or start using it?

Photographer's Web sites

2010-05-10T23:11:00.001-04:00

My portfolio web site and back-end of the business is powered by Photoshelter. It hosts my archive as it grows, and helps me deliver images to clients. The Standard account allows me to customize the look and feel of my web site – which is both a portfolio and an archive. My archive is priced using FotoQuote, a Photoshelter feature, to enable an always open store-front for my images. The customized galleries and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) also allow me to standardize my brand. There are numerous other features across the different levels available through Photoshelter. I decided to create one-stop shop for both my portfolio and archive. I decided on this approach for a few reasons:

I couldn’t afford to have a portfolio site (check out Livebooks and Aphotoeditor’s) along with an Archive. At this point in time, I don’t need to have two.
I wanted to use the social media tools – embedded images, slideshows, twitter updates, etc. through one interface.
Photoshelter has some great Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools that have really helped my site become “found” by Google.

Feel free to use my referral code if you are interested in using Photoshelter: http://www.photoshelter.com/referral/BR3SC29W7D. It gives you a discount and gives me a one-time credit for each person to use it to sign-up.

My blog is hosted on Blogger, a free blogging platform provided by Google. On a personal level, it really gives me a chance to market who I am, my brand, out to my clients and to help inform other photographers and clients of my work. In theory, since Google owns Blogger, they should know how to index my blog well, but this hasn’t been confirmed. I choose Blogger because the customization of the free service is very easy. Livebooks is a great open-source platform as well, and if I was hosting my own blog I would most likely use their software. The Livebooks.com platform is great, but didn’t allow me to embed Flash – which would neutralize all the SEO tools from Photoshelter.

What do you use for your web sites and what are the pros and cons of the different sites??

Starting your Marketing effort

2010-05-10T23:01:00.001-04:00

Create your brand - First you have to know who you are and how you want to show it.

Find your uniqueness, that thing which differentiates you from everybody else. This is important because it will become your brand. What makes you different from other photographers out there? Can you execute assignments they can’t? Are you able to effectively use technology to create a different look? What is your look? These are all the questions you will need to answer to find clients who NEED your unique brand. One of the best books to read to help you answer these types of questions is Dane Sanders’ Fast Track Photographer. Dane is a great wedding photographer and while it’s written from that perspective, it applies to all types of photographers. It describes how your brand is really your personal vision of you as an artist and your work.

Set a marketing plan and develop a budget. It will help you set reasonable and attainable goals.

Get your materials together to show your brand off to the world: website, social media, print book, email and direct mail will enable you to connect and communicate the brand to your potential clients. Develop these promotional material yourself or use a professional to help you out.

Start contacting people – calls, email, direct mail, networking events, personal meetings; anyway you can meet other creative professionals and potential clients.

My status – I’ve created my marketing materials and have started my client list to begin sending out promotions this week. I've reached out to some potential clients through email and direct calls as well.

For additional tips, take a look at this great article from the Photoshelter blog – The Marketing Mix.

How to setup your Studio/Office Space

2010-04-29T22:10:00.002-04:00

This should have come out much earlier this week, but due to my car situation I just didn't have the time.

My studio/office space is probably the most important room in my house. It was also the longest to get setup. Finding all the parts, desk, filing cabinet, shelves, organization items, marker board, etc, was fairly easy compared to the planning, setup, installation, and organization of the space. I needed a space I could shoot in when necessary and that would keep me productive for my office tasks.

Must haves of a home office/studio space:

Have a completely separate space where you can close the door and there are no distractions - other than the Internet! This will also help you out come tax time. Just make sure you use it ONLY for business purposes and you should be good to go. (Check with your tax advisor first of course.)
Keep a professional appearance, especially if you are going to have clients visit. I try to keep my desk relatively clean - it is a work environment after all - and I hung my various photo awards on my wall. My bookshelf has some personality but I try to keep it as professional as possible. (Yes, design-wise the bookshelf needs to become black, it's on the mile-long list.)

Creation of this space:

Decide the purpose of the room - office or studio or both? Mine is doubling as both
Get the dimensions and start planning out the space both on paper and physically. We measured and taped off to plan the staging. This was important with our room because it is a fairly small space 10.5'x10.5'.
Plan out your organization. Have an idea of what supplies, equipment and workspace you want and how organized it needs to be. Emily convinced me to go for a highly-organized space with lots of vertical storage, which works well in small areas.
Go to your favorite furniture store and start the purchasing. Most of mine is from Ikea - desk, black shelf, table leg, dry-erase board, and under shelf light. Ikea is a good store for fairly cheap organization items. I had the filing cabinet and the bookshelf. The desk is positioned on an Ikea adjustable table leg and the filing cabinet which takes up less space. My desk chair is from Office Depot - I got it on sale for $80.
Put all the big items together first, keeping in mind where you might put some of the personal touches like plaques, photos, etc. Ikea has a ton of parts which can take forever. The chair also took a fair amount of time to put together.
Hang up your plaques, frames, diplomas, etc.
Move all your stuff in and start organizing it in pieces right away. Put your files in the cabinet the way you want if you never had to move them again. That way you get it right the first time, at least to a certain extent.
Make your space neat and presentable.

Other notes about my office:

I use Comcast/Xfinity internet with no cable service, so it's the direct connection and I had them wire it to the 2nd floor office.
It has a closet where I can store and lock the equipment, along with some property security.
NO MACS ALLOWED, just kidding, but I do run an all-PC office. They all sit in the office: 2 laptops and a server.

The server is a classic - 1 Ghz, 1 gb of Ram, but it runs Ubuntu, but gives me a central location and access to my externals and printer.
My old laptop - IBM Thinkpad - doubles as a jukebox for Pandora and to back-up to my Sony for both processing and business tasks. It is also my connection hub with all my Google apps up and running for immediate view.
Sony Laptop - the workhouse, runs Windows 7 professional and it gets the job done
Making these items stay in the office, means I have to go up there and do work instead of sitting in front of the TV or do other meaningless things

It has a door that I can close to the world, which is great at helping me focus.
It still needs a backdrop on the open wall to the left (on the list)

If money was no object I would have a plush studio in the historic neighborhood with the classic charm of Baltimore. Original brick and an open layout, with a livable upstairs or additional unit, with parking.

If you are an artist in Baltimore looking for this type of space, know a space like this, or have one, let me know. I have a few ideas.

Insurance

2010-04-26T10:56:00.000-04:00

Insurance not only protects your possessions, but it is an essential part of your business. All of us have auto insurance and home/renters insurance, but if you are running a business you need to have commercial insurance to be fully covered.

When I'm on location I'm always aware of my surroundings: are my electrical cords where somebody can trip, is my light stand stable, is my model doing something dangerous, etc. Since most of my work is fitness based, I have models run, lift weights, etc, and they could be injured performing actions under my direction. I also shoot in crowded gyms or in public places where someone could trip over a cord and be injured. I'm protected from all of these situations. My photo and other business equipment is also covered if it is lost, stolen, or broken. This cost should be added into your Cost of Doing Business, which you should use to help price your services.

Insurance also protects you from any unforseen events, for example this morning when my car was involved in a hit and run accident in the middle of the night. The diriver ran the intersection where my car was parked, half-a-block from my house/studio. The driver pushed my car about 8 feet where I hit a Mustang GT, who smashed his front into the hitch of a 4Runner. Everyone in the neighborhood has been extremely helpful and noone was hurt, which is even more reassuring.

My car, located in Canton, after being hit by a driver in the middle of the night. If you have any info feel free to email or call me.

Insurance protects you from the unknown, and while this is a major inconvenience, it could be much worse. If you aren't covered, look around your studio and see what you might lose if a client trips over a wire or someone breaks in. Hill & Usher, my insurance company, was easy to setup and works with photographers often.

Protect yourself from the unknown and minimize any "surprises" that come up.

Essential Technology to run my Business

2010-04-22T06:50:00.003-04:00

Ever since I can remember, I have used Microsoft Office to keep a little bit of organization in my life, school, business, and work responsibilities. I even got an opportunity to interview with Microsoft, and I still remember two questions from the interview:

What is your favorite Microsoft product? - Outlook
Can you please recite the algorithm for Quick Sort? - Which is something you look up, not memorize!

We'll discuss only the first one, and leave the second one for you to read about on Wikipedia. I had used Outlook since 2005 has held all email, calendar, and major tasks in my life. Most people who know me well, know that if it's not on the Outlook calendar, it doesn't exist in my life.

The only problem with my Outlook setup is that I had to have my laptop with me at ALL times to be able to open use those features. Most of the time this isn't an issue, but driving with a laptop open to a shoot or checking email on a friend's phone was not an ideal option.

Usher in Google's services. I've used GMail and Google Docs for my work at The Tiger, group project collaboration, and critical file access over the last few years, but hadn't adopted it full-time. It just didn't seem as clean, sophisticated, and user-friendly as Office. After researching Google Apps Standard, I decided to take a chance and try it. I can't say how happy I am I made the switch.

The reason I switched was because it allowed me to keep an online store of my business life that I can access 24/7 from anywhere in the world.

Think about this for a second and consider the possibilities this has for your business.

Google Apps Standard includes the following and is FREE:

50 Users and the ability to use your own domain name - like www.ebrianschneider.com in my case
Gmail

25 GB of storage
Outlook and BlackBerry syncing
My take on Gmail: It's easy to use and allows a level of organization with Labels (their word for folders) I could never achieve with Outlook. Plus it has tasks and contacts integrated in as well. Tasks is probably my favorite feature as it gives me a notepad with my random thoughts, new ideas, research, stuff to do, etc, and I can open it anywhere instead of carrying around a paper pad; which is so last decade.

Google Calendar

Syncs well with Outlook through separate program
Integrates nicely with Gmail
Not as polished as Outlook graphically, but get's the job done.
Can send you SMS and email reminders for appointments
MS Exchange like features - availability of others in the domain, share calendars, etc
My take on Calendar: While not as easy to make an appointment at first, because you can't use the keyboard like Outlook can, it is easily overcome by using it the first day. Can also easily search for popular calendars of sports teams-good for finding potential clients, holidays, etc. The SMS reminder is amazing as well. While it doesn't have as many options to customizing viewing and default calendar options, it really does a great job

Google Docs

MS Office compatibility
Online store house for documents - any type of files from .doc to .exe
Real-time collaborating on documents
Not the prettiest formating
My take on Docs: You still have to have basic MS Office for Word, and Powerpoint because the interface and formating is not always the prettiest when it comes out of Google Docs. But it beats Office Live with the ease to collaborate on a document and organize them in an easy fashion. Spreadsheet can even look up NCAA tournament data through function calls! On a more serious note, it's great to be able to pull up my contract to send when on the road, or to just back-up important files.

Google Sites

Intranet or Internet site for your company
Easy collaboration for teams and projects
My take on Sites: Since I have my own site, www.ebrianschneider.com and this blog, I haven't yet found a use for the Sites features. Maybe once the operation grows from 2 people it will become useful as an Intranet dashboard type site.

Missing Features:

No RSS reader in Gmail - the only thing that held me back from switching for awhile. But, I use my email address, brian@ebrianschneider.com, as a Google account so I can use other services:

Reader - RSS reader and viewer, my information resource from my favorite blogs.
Voice - I'll talk more about this later
Blogger - How I provide you with this wonderful information.
Analytics - Tracking the usage of my portfolio, blog, and social media
Local Business Center - Google's equivalent of Yellow Pages.
Maps - Personal organization of places for myself, especially helpful here in a new city

Other Random Notes:

The apps seem to lag a bit behind the full-blown Google services. For example there's no Buzz.
You can customize it to have your logo and branding to a certain extent.

Google Voice:

A local number you pick out for free and rings ALL of your phones
Free SMS
Block calls
Record calls
Conference calls
Screen all callers
Voicemail

Transcribed and sent as SMS and/or email
Custom greetings
Ability to share voicemails
Consolidation from all numbers into one place

My take on Voice: It's really a great service, but has a few kinks. My greetings aren't setup yet, but the ability to have a local Baltimore number ring my cell phone and Emily's phone at the same time is just amazing. Allows me to be "local" without having to pay for a phone line. The downfall is you have to pay $10 to change the number, so make it a good one. It would be even better if Voice integrated directly in with Gmail like Buzz does currently.

Google Reader:

Your basic RSS reader. Similar interface to Gmail.
My take on Reader: Nothing really special other than it makes recommendations based on other users. I subscribe to a lot of blogs and I am always marking interesting, inspirational, or reference posts for later reading or to find easily. It does an alright job at replacing the RSS reader in Outlook, would be better if it integrated with Gmail.

Overall Impression of Google Services:
While it was surprisingly tricky to setup the apps at first, the level of customization is great, they work well, are easy to use, ability to find add-ons in the Marketplace, and even create your own if you are ambitious. Their apps already rival the ability of MS Office/Exchange, but no hassle, less costs, and easier to secure.

My Situation
Emily is my business manager and when not dealing with school work she helps me with PR, business organization, graphic design and finances. She's still in Clemson so we needed a way to share documents and calendar space to be able to keep up with each other. Google Apps has basically become our virtual office with messaging, calendars, white boards, and filing cabinets, accessible from any device with Internet access.
Google Apps and other services are the technological backbone. It's a Google world now and we are just living in it.

Business Week

2010-04-21T21:33:00.000-04:00

I've finally recovered from a busy weekend including a visit from Emily and a full schedule of fitness shooting. I would like to focus this week's posts on a variety of business topics with an extensive blog post about my experiences with the following:

Technology: Business Services
Commercial Insurance
Workspace: Studio/Office
Marketing
Websites: Portfolios, Blogs, and SEO options
Social Media: Facebook, Twitter

Most of these topics will apply to all business, but some will only apply to photographers and other creative professionals.

Adapting to Changing Times

2010-04-14T22:50:00.001-04:00

I just discovered this blog because of Twitter. So I've now started going back and watching old interviews and they are just inspirational to say the least. Just wanted to share some thoughts from Dane Sanders' great interview with Vincent Laforet. You should watch the video multiple times to really let it sink in.

Vincent's perspective on the industry is amazing.

My take-away from the video:

Everything is changing and you can't "specialize" and you can't just become a _____ photographer. You have to adapt and become a visual communicator with a wide variety of skills.
The ability to broadcast yourself in this new media age is amazing.

At the 13 min mark where he discusses the making of Reverie. He spent $5000 on the making of the movie. The ability to broadcast it by himself to a wide audience, brought more promotion than he could have ever imagined, and shows how much the game has changed.

"Think young, think different, and embrace new technologies." It's all about story and how you tell it.

Hopefully the content here will keep you coming back for more.

Dane Sanders - www.askdane.com
Vincent Laforet - blog.vincentlaforet.com

Opening Day

2010-04-11T20:36:00.003-04:00

Opening Day
There's always something special about the tradition behind Opening Day. I played baseball for 15 years, from little league to high school, and each year was a different experience. From a parade through town for Little League opening day in Orchard Park, NY to a bright, sunny afternoon at Spartanburg Day School in Spartanburg, SC, there was always something special and unique to each one. Baseball was one of the driving factors that led me to photography.

Clemson Baseball
I knew it would be my last year of shooting Clemson baseball, where I got to see some absolutely great players - Tyler Colvin, Jason Berken, Taylor Harbin, Daniel Moskos, Brad Chalk, and a home Super Regional game. It is a Clemson tradition to see head coach Jack Leggett run into the team huddle and be mobbed by his players before every game. Last year's Opening Day huddle/mosh-pit was the most memorable one for me.

The Orioles
On Friday afternoon, I had the opportunity to cover the Baltimore Orioles Opening Day at Camden Yards. It was also a special day for another reason, as Oriole favorite, Miguel Tejada, returned home to Baltimore. It was his first home game as an Oriole, and he didn't disappoint going 3-5, 4 RBIs, 1 run. The city was excited and set an opening day record for attendance with over 48,000 fans in Birdland! The city loves this team, and hopefully they will turn it around this year. They have the talent to do so.

The fans got a little rowdy, and even umpire Joe West made an appearance to try and shorten the game time.

There was great light for photos with the 3:05 p.m. start, and you could feel the excitement in the air. I hope to have the opportunity to cover more Oriole's games this summer and hopefully this is only the beginning of many Opening Day's to come.

Slideshow of some select images below:

BLOG: Toronto Blue Jays at Baltimore Orioles 4/9/10 - Images by Brian Schneider

Baltimore Photographer Brian Schneider's full gallery.

First Shoot in Baltimore

2010-04-11T14:15:00.007-04:00

Introduction
The creating, setup, and marketing as been taking all of my time. The house and studio are now setup, along with all my business related items. I've also been able to branch out and start networking with local photographers and models.

A couple of weekends ago I finally had the time to shoot a self-made assignment. The assignment was simple: A fitness routine in Patterson Park, showing the model's fitness and the park's features.

I started shooting sports commercial advertising when I was a student at Clemson. I helped implement their new Determined Spirit brand in brochures, posters, web sites, and other promotional material. This campaign taught me to strive for more and to try new techniques.

To stay in business and be successful, I need to execute these shoots as well and efficiently as possible. These types of shoots allow me to scout locations, work with models, develop a concept, and craft the perfect shot.

Scouting
Since the park is less than a half-block from the studio and I run there everyday, I know it pretty well. The day before the shoot, I took a walk around the park at the scheduled start time, 3:30pm. It helped give me a sense of what the light will most likely be like during the shoot. On the day of the shoot, I had enough time to go scout around again, which was helpful because the weather went from sunny and beautiful the day before to cloudy and cold.

Concept
In addition to showing the model's fitness and Patterson Park's beautiful scenery, I wanted it the shoot to have minimal lighting with a happy feel. The clouds on shoot day hurt that idea, but I an audible and decided to practice minimal lighting with a tougher look.

Execution
I personally think I did a great job with the shoot. I didn't try to over-light the model and when some sun did shine through, Kareema was great and able to change her whole look to work with it. Since Kareema didn't have any specific sport experience, I tailored a shoot around her general fitness ability.

It was also the first time I got a chance to work with a Hair and Make-up Artist. Her name is Liz Martin and she did a great job. I have been wanting to try a "sweat shot", where sweat is running down the model's face/body after a hard work-out. The product of that concept is above. The Hair and Make-up was done extremely well, and Liz even went above and beyond and by holding the light stand and attending to Kareema while shooting.

Take Away from Shoot
Steps to a successful shoot:

Develop a concept
Find a good general location with multiple specific areas to create interesting backdrops
Develop a plan and shot list - I personally need to start drawing out lighting diagrams for specific shots
Be able to call an audible: adapt to changes in the environment
Take the shot

If all the other steps are executed well, then the last step is fairly easy and comes down to your ability to work well with the talent.

BLOG: Kareema Shoot - Images by Baltimore Photographer Brian Schneider

Talent: Baltimore Model Kareema G

MUA: Wilmington, DE MUA Liz Martin

Oliver Purnell leaves Clemson

2010-04-07T00:42:00.004-04:00

Clemson: Oliver Purnell - Images by Baltimore Photographer Brian Schneider

Clemson Tigers basketball coach Oliver Purnell left to take the job opening at DePaul University. Purnell was a great coach and did a lot for Clemson. It is sad to see a good coach leave. No more, "You down with OPP" chants; OPP = Oliver Purnell's Posse.
I was fortunate during my time at Clemson to be able to follow and cover a transition time of Clemson athletics. Men's basketball was one of these transitions. From the perennial loser in the ACC to the top half of the conference was not only fun to cover, but fun to watch. I really enjoyed being able to cover and see the changes from year-to-year. One of my main goals is to become a team photographer. I built a relationship with Clemson Sports Information, that provided me access I can only dream-of. It allowed me to make images I never could have made at another school or venue, and provide an insightful glimpse behind-the-scenes for readers of The Tiger for 4.5 years. It also helped me nab this great tear-sheet from ESPN the Magazine a couple years back.

He really raised Clemson's basketball standards and I wish him all the best at DePaul. Hopefully we'll bring in a great coach. Enjoy the slideshow of his career at Clemson.

Starting a Business

2010-03-15T21:55:00.000-04:00

First, there is a form for EVERYTHING! This is not an end-all-be-all checklist on how to start a business. This is what I did and how I did it. Feel free to let me know steps I missed or should add. Also please consult a tax advisor with your decision.

Read a general business book - Start Your Own Business by Rieva Lesonsky, 4th Ed. It was a great and easy read providing a lot of general information on structures, business plans, marketing, funding, and succeeding. Hopefully you’ll read more than one. If you are photographer or other creative professional you MUST read this book – Better Business Practices For Photographers by John Harrington, 2nd Ed. John is a successful commercial photographer in Washington, DC and writes a great photography business blog
Decide your structure. Sole proprietorship, LLC, partnership, etc. I choose a sole proprietorship due to its ease of setup. For the last 4 years I’ve had a variety of income sources – 2 “full-time” staff photography positions so I received at least one W2 and multiple 1099s. Now that I’m starting in Baltimore full-time for ease of start I decided on the sole proprietorship, but I will evaluate switching to a LLC at the end of the year. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Google, "how to start a business in ___" to find all the right forms and even a check list. Maryland's forms are located here: http://www.blis.state.md.us/BusinessStartup.aspx
Decide on your name - you'll want to use it on the web so make sure a domain name is available and that you can register it below.
Get an Employer Identification Number from the IRS. It’s the Social Security Number for your business. You need it when you hire employees and it allows you to separate your personal and business financial lives. Takes only 10 min too! Go here: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98350,00.html.
Fill out a Trade Name Application or Doing Business As name application for your specific state with the Secretary of State’s office. For Maryland, go here and select the right form for you business: http://www.dat.state.md.us/sdatweb/sdatforms.html#entity
Separate your financial life. Get separate checking and credit accounts for you business using your new EIN number.
Figure out if you need a business license or any other legal paperwork for your city, county, or state to operate.
Setup your technology - will save that for another post. I'll talk about some of the new and exciting technologies you should at least take a look at.
Figure out your Cost of Doing Business - for a start check-out NPPA's CODB calculator
Create a business plan and start implementing it!

Add whatever you think I missed to the comments.

Snow and Moving

2010-02-14T21:47:00.003-05:00

I woke up on the morning of my drive up to Baltimore from Clemson to this lovely scene. It was already bad enough driving the day before Valentine's Day, but my girlfriend, Emily, and family helped me get all packed. The movers did a great job the day before and I was now already to go. Emily and I celebrated by seeing her favorite play, Wicked, the week before so no big deal I wasn't actually there on the big day.

Before living in South Carolina, I lived in Buffalo where we saw plenty of snow. The last 10 years in South Carolina, I've probably seen a combined 2 feet of snow. We got about 2-3 inches, enough to look pretty, especially around Clemson, but enough to have ice on the roads - not so much fun. I was already dreading the weather due to record snow falls in Baltimore. I've really enjoyed the weather in SC the last 10 years, so I'm not the biggest fan of snow.

The drive Saturday ended up being a bit longer, but I got there safe and my stuff got there later this week into my new house/studio. Tune into another post soon about the studio. Enjoy the photos from the rare snow in South Carolina.

South Carolina Snow - Images by Baltimore Photographer Brian Schneider

Introduction

2010-02-10T21:28:00.002-05:00

I just graduated from Clemson University in SC and I am now in the real world. I am starting my photography studio in the heart of Baltimore south of Patterson Park in Canton. This blog will start as I go through the fun, hard-work, trials, successes and failures of starting my commercial studio. It will also cover photography news, business tips/strategies, technology, and even a personal note or two. My hope is for this blog to become a destination for others who are starting out.

Thank you to all those who helped me over the years (in no particular order): Emily, my family, Tina LeMay, Vern Verna, Bart Boatwright, Rex Brown, Clemson Sports Information - Tim Bourrett
Thanks for stopping by and feel free to pass along any comments/suggestions.

Brian

Check out the portfolio and archive of Baltimore sports and commercial photographer.
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