Facebook is a great web site.  My wife got me hooked on it a couple of months ago and I have been slowly building my friends list. (Always looking to add more) A lot of my friends on there are very good friends that are non wedding vendors, and a lot are wedding vendors.  I am also lucky enough to catch up with some friends from long ago in high school.  I went to two different high schools, one in South Georgia where I graduated and the other in East Central Indiana.  Indiana is were I grew up and had the most friends as a kid.

Catching up with my friends from Indiana has been fun, seeing them grown up, their families and their jobs.  Most of them like their jobs and are happy with what they are doing.  I am proud of the accomplishments they have achieved.  But, it got me to thinking about my current job and my past employments.  I remember some of my past positions were such that I hated to get up in the morning.  I dreaded that long drive into work or the pang in my stomach as I opened the door knowing I was going to hate the next 8 or more hours ahead of me.

I made the decision back in 2000 to stop the rat race I was in and do something I wanted to do, work in video.  I have not regretted a day since.  Everything I have done since I left advertising sales has been to get me to this point in my life, working at something I love to do and doing it on my own terms.

I found a old saying a couple of years ago and have adopted it as my motto or mission statement if you will, “Find something you love to do and you will never work another day in your life.”.  Never have truer words been spoken.  I love what I do.  I get to work with young couples at the start of their new life together.  As the beginning of their journey into a new world and adventures.

I think the thing that gives me the most enjoyment is knowing that I am providing them with something that they can look at for years to come.  There is an excitement that runs deep inside of me when I think about that. There are couples out there today that can go into their family room and pop in the DVD I made for them 3 or 4 years ago.  They can relive their wedding day all over again.  Or maybe they can see a loved one who’s has passed away recently.  They get to see and hear them again at that most special day in their life.

I love everyday getting up and knowing that I am going to be working on a video for someone.  I love that I get to work from home everyday.  Now that does have its drawbacks from time to time, but I wouldn’t change it for the world.  I have an office at my home that allows me to have a bit of quite from the rest of the house and my wife is great about giving me the time I need to work, even if it means working late into the night.

Most of all, I have a passion for the work that I am doing. This is not work to me, it is fun. The most fun a person can have.  I have a passion to make sure that each and every video is as close to perfect as possible.  Picking the right music, the right shot, the right color, everything.   I am just so very happy with work and my job.  I love what I am doing!

Photography has been around since the 1860’s and ever since weddings have been recorded with photographs.  I’m sure you have looked at photo albums before.  I’m positive you have even seen your parents wedding pictures.  Unanswered by those photos are questions like; “How did mom handle that long train down the aisle?” “Could grandpa move in that starched shirt he had on?”  “What song did they have their first dance to?”  “Did they dance just as strange back then as they do now?”  “What did they say to each other for the vows?”  The list goes on.  In some cases you may be able to get an answer from your parents, but in some cases these questions will never be answered.

The thing missing the most from these photographs is the sights, the sounds and the flurry of activity that only video can capture. Today’s brides have the opportunity to have a lasting memory of the most special day in their life, a memory that can be revisited for years to come.

Creating this memory is best left to a professional videographer.  “Why do I want to hire someone when my cousin can do it for free?”  I have heard this more times that I can count.  The simple answer that there is a lot more to a wedding video than just having a camera pointed at you.  There are things in a wedding video that your cousin doesn’t even know about.  Let me tell you about a few of them.

Must Have Shots:  There are 22 must have shots for every wedding video.  Most people think that the only shot I have to get is the bride and groom kissing at the end of the ceremony.  True, that is one of them, but what about the bride getting ready?  The look on the groom’s face the first time he sees his bride walk down the aisle? The mother of the bride standing by her daughters side as she puts her dress on?  The list goes on and on.  Now I said that there are 22 MUST HAVE, but there are hundreds of other shots that go into the wedding video.

Audio:  You can go to the big box store and get a really nice camcorder.  It will work well for those vacations and other family moments, but it will not work well for a wedding.  Mainly because of the audio.  Most hand held camcorder have a built in microphone that will only pick up sounds about 4 to 5 feet in front of the camera.  That is ok for something like a birthday party, but for your wedding you want to be able to hear everything that is said.  Cousin Linda is not going to be able to stand beside you on the alter as you say your vows, so at best all you will get is a shaky image of you and your groom and the sounds of your guest coughing or the baby crying.  A professional videographer is going to have a good quality wireless microphone that he can send the audio straight to his camera.  This way not only will you get the sights of your vows, but you will hear them as well.

I have been told by more than one mother of the bride (and groom) that the thing they love the most about the wedding video I have given them is the fact that they can hear the vows.  Most of your guest will never hear a word you say on the alter.  First off your going to be too far away for your voice to carry through the church or at the outside ceremony. Second, you are going to be nervous and your voice will be very faint.  Having a professional videographer will ensure you will hear everything. No professional videographer worth using will tell you that they count on the camera microphone alone to pick up the wedding ceremony.

Lighting:  Most videographers use natural light to shoot the weddings.  The down side is this could cause the quality of the image to suffer.  Candle- lit ceremonies are a nightmare to shoot on video.  However, most professional videographers have invested in cameras that will shoot well in low light situations.  They also know how to best use the light they have.  They also carry with them on camera lighting.  This will allow the videographer to shoot the event yet not totally ruin the mood of the event.  I only use on camera lighting for the reception.

Cameras:  How many cameras will the videographer use and will they be manned or unmanned?  An unmanned camera is a camera that is set up on a tripod and pointed at one area of the ceremony.  This may give you some good footage, but there is no variety in the shots.  A manned camera will give you a rich image as they have the ability to move the camera, zoom in or out at the right time.  A manned camera can follow the movement of the ceremony.  You may stand in one spot for the vows, then you may move to the left or right to do the unity candle or unity sand.   When the videographer tells you that he is going to do a “3 camera shoot.” ask how many will be manned or unmanned.

Back-Ups:  It never fails, you want to go out and take some wonderful pictures of your family or friends at an event and just as you start to take that first picture, BAM, the batteries are dead on your camera.  This not something you want to hear from your videographer.  Professional videographers take back ups for EVERYTHING.  I have more camera batteries than I have cameras.  I take 3 times the amount of tape than I think I will need.  I have extra batteries for all my audio equipment, extra cables, tripods,…etc.   You get the idea.  I only have ONE chance to capture your wedding day, I am not going to let an equipment failure ruin that for you.

Turn Around Time:  It take any where from 30-50 hours to edit a typical wedding video so waiting 8 to 14 weeks for you video is not uncommon.  Be very wary of a videographer that tells you he can get your video to you in 2 or 3 weeks.  This will not be a good video and will most likely be just the entire tape he shot just transferred to a DVD.  But, you have a part in this as well.  The videographer can’t start your video until you get him the still shots, the music choices or anything else you wish to have in your video.

Attire:  What are they going to wear?  Most professional videographers are going to want to blend into the background at your wedding.  We are the main attraction, you are.  Most wedding professionals who are working at your wedding are going to wear black.  Black allows us to blend into the background very easily.  I once saw a videographer (I didn’t call him professional you noticed) wear a bright flowered shirt to shoot the wedding.  Every time he moved, every guest took their eyes off the bride and groom and watch to see what he was doing.  So always ask what are they going to wear.

Demo Video:  Don’t ask for a demo video.  I know that sounds strange, but don’t ask for one.  A demo video is only clips of the best shots the videographer got.  It does not show you how he shoots wedding, his camera work, lighting, audio and so on.  Ask for a copy of his last wedding.  A professional will have no problem getting you a copy of his wedding to you.  I am proud of every wedding I have shot, they are like my children, don’t ask me which one I like best.  When you watch the wedding video, watch the camera work, do you like the shots he is getting?  Is the audio good?  Can you see everything?

These are just a few things that you need to look at before choosing a wedding videographer.  In the coming days, I will be giving you more tips on what to look for in a good videographer.  Let Cousin Linda video your birthday party, but get a professional for your wedding day.

We have a wonderful 9 (soon to be 10) year old daughter, KT.  She is a wonderful and sweet little girl with an independent streak a mile long.  Sometimes that is a good thing, but other times…. well, it can be a problem.  This past Saturday morning my wife and I woke up at about 8 am thinking how quiet it was.  Everyone was sleeping a bit late and the air was cool.  A great day to just sleep in.

About 10 minutes later we heard our KT open the door to her room and come out.  My wife and I played like we were asleep to just see what she would do.  She has in the past gone downstairs and fixed herself something to eat.  She knows how to open the freezer door and get a pancake stick and nuke it for a minute. No big deal.  So, we laid in bed and listen to her open the freezer door and then close it.  We both thought the same thing, “she got a pancake stick” and were were just waiting for the microwave to start up.  But there was a long delay and no microwave sound.  We lay there thinking, “what is she doing down there?”.  Just as we were about to get up and so see what she was doing we heard a loud “SSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHSSS”.  The sound a can of whip cream makes when you squirt it out.

Well, I hit the kitchen just in time to see our little KT pick up a small glass of chocolate ice cream with whipped topping on it. She looked up at me with those sweet little eyes and said “What?”.  You couldn’t help but laugh.

It never fails, one of the first things I am asked by someone calling about wedding video is “How much do you cost?” or “What do you charge for shooting a wedding?”.  I don’t mind this question and it is a valid one to ask, but it should not be the first question.

There are two items you are getting in your wedding, cost items and investment items.  Whats the difference?  Very simple, one will provide you with a lifetime of memories and the other is something you will forget about the next morning.

Cost Item:  These are generally something you get that you will use one time only.  Flowers, cake, food, venue and even your dress are examples of cost items.  Some of you may save a couple of the flowers, dry them out and press them in a photo album, but that is a small number.  The cake and food are gone at the end of the night.  Most brides and groom only get a small taste of their cake when they feed it to each other.  The food at the reception usually gets cold by the time you get to eat it because everyone wants to talk to you and wish you the best of luck and so on.  Thus, most brides and grooms never eat but a few bites of their food at the reception. Plus, will you remember what you ate that night 5 years later?

The venue is another cost item. The church and the reception hall are mostly one time only things.  Many brides go to that church they get married in, but many brides choose to get married outside.  Especially in the spring and fall.  There are so many beautiful places in the East Tennessee area to get married at it would take a very long blog to list them all. Needless to say, most of you would never go back to the place you got married.  It just doesn’t hold the same feelings for you 15 years later.  The reception hall will have another reception the next week (in some cases, the same day) and most are designed just as a reception hall.  Not exactly someplace you want to show your kids in 10 years.  “This is where mommy and daddy had our 1st dance.”  I can hear them now, “wow, what fun.”

Did you know that even your dress is a cost item.  Think about it, will you be wearing your wedding dress to any other occasion?  Not excatly something you wear to tea party or a night out with friends. And don’t even try to wear it to another wedding, not a pretty picture.   These are all cost items, things you buy one time and use one time.  Things that don’t tell the story of your day, of your special moment in the sun.  They are things that for the most part, are gone at the end of the day.

Investment Items:  These are items that help you go back to that special day.  Photographs are most commonly thought of as an investment item.  The photographs are great to have, you can sit and look at them and go back in your memory to that moment you were dancing with your new husband.  You can look at the pictures of you walking up the aisle with your dad.  Photographs let you do that when ever you want to.  There are some truly very talented photographers in the East Tennessee area.  Any one of them will give you an album of photographs that you will keep forever.

Your ring is even an investment item. I wear the ring my wife gave me 18 years ago.  Every time I look at it, feel it, put it on, I think of her. It is a visible affirmation to others of the love I have for my wife.  I get complements on the ring all the time, and I smile when I do because I think of my wife each and every time.

However, one investment item is unlike any other.  One investment item will do something no other will do.  A video of your wedding is the only way to really go back and relive your day.  To relive all the sights, sounds, emotions and feelings from the most special day in your life.  A professionally done video will be something you can share with family today and family in the future.  How great would it be to see your grandparents wedding day?  The video is the only item that can take you back to flowers, the venues, and to the vows you shared.  Video is the only item that will let you see family members that are no longer here with us.  Video is an investment like no other.  I always ask this question of brides thinking about video, but I want you to really put your self in this question:  if you had to miss your best friends wedding, would you want to look at her pictures or her video?

Now think of it this way:  If you wanted to relive your wedding day, would you look at your pictures or would you want to look at your video?

When you call for information about getting your wedding video done, don’t let the first question be “how much does it cost?”.  You can’t put a price on memories.

I have been so excited to tell all of you about a new service for all Knoxville area brides.  The Lounge is a great location for brides to plan their wedding.  There is no pressure to do anything but relax and plan your wedding in peace and quite.  The Lounge is run by some really great gals, Brenda Kelly, Rachel Duke & Christley Chambers.

The main purpose behind The Lounge is to provide brides with a place to plan their weddings other than the kitchen table or the busy dress shop.  You, as a bride, have enough going on without feeling like you are pressured into putting your wedding together in a hurry or without being able to get as much information as possible.  The Lounge provides you with a huge amount of resources for planning your wedding.  Current wedding books and magazines are just a few things they have for you.

There are also portfolios of wedding vendors that will help you with your wedding needs. Need a good photographer, caterer, cake designer, or even special lighting you can find it all at The Lounge.  The portfolios give you information about each vendor and also some examples of their work. Why spend hours on line or in the yellow pages trying to find that perfect wedding vendor when all the information is right there for you to look at.  Think of all the phone calls you will save yourself from by just spending at hour at The Lounge looking at the portfolios?

There are also private meeting rooms for you to use.  This is a great way for you and your bridesmaids to meet to do party favors.  A great place to meet with vendors.  How many times have vendors asked you to meet them at Starbucks or Panera Bread?  As a wedding vendor that has the prilvidge of working from home, I know I have asked many a bride to meet me at Starbucks. While it is a nice place to meet, it is almost impossible to have a good conservation with a bride or show a video to anyone with that much noise in the background.

One of the best parts of The Lounge for the bride is that all the vendors are hand picked by the staff.  The vendors are picked because they are the best of the best in the Knoxville area.  As a vendor we can’t just go in and ask to be a member.  You have to be invited to be a part of The Lounge vendor list.  So when you look at the list of vendors you know that they are the best and you will not go wrong with any one you choose.

As a special to brides who visit The Lounge and book Midnight Magic Studios for their wedding I am giving a 20% discount on your entire video package.  Please visit The Lounge at 1645 Down Town West Blvd., Suite 6 in the West Knoxville area.   I look forward to hearing from new brides at The Lounge.

This past Saturday I was able to shoot the wedding Sara & Neal.  The wedding was wonderful, the weather was not.  It rained all day long, but to look at the bride, Sara, you would have never known anything was wrong.  As I was going through the video yesterday and today I noticed one thing about Sara.  She smiled the entire day.  Nothing, I mean nothing, was going to take her mind of marring the man of her dreams, Neal.

The service was at Second Presbyterian Church here in Knoxville and the minster told a wonderful tale about how the wedding was not all about them (the bride and groom), how the wedding was really all about their love for each other and their love of God.

I worked with a really great photography team as well.  I had heard about these two, but never had the chance to work with them.  They were great and I can’t wait to see their pictures.   I have attached below a trailer of the up coming video, I hope you all enjoy.

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Just a quick post to tell you about the wonderful wedding I had the pleasure of working on tonight.  Sara & Neal had a blast at their wedding tonight, lots of dancing, lots of laughs and lots of fun.  I worked with a great couple who did a great job with the photography.  I will tell you about them later as well.  I wish Sara & Neal the best of luck in their future.  I will post a teaser clip in a couple of days, be on the look out for it.

One of the hottest new trends in weddings today is having a photo slide show played at the rehearsal or the reception.  I have done a number of these and I have to say, it is one of the most fun things I get do for the bride and her family.  The slide shows can include any type of photos, but the most popular are pictures of the bride and groom growing up.  I have yet to do one of these slide shows or photo montage, without the mothers crying at the end of it.  What a great way for families to remember all those special moments of you growing up.

However, I have seen a lot of these slide shows done for the bride by friends or family members.  Most of these photo montages are done on PowerPoint or Keynote.  There is nothing wrong with using any one of those programs, they work well for giving presentations to business and group meetings, but they are not designed to do photo montages.  I have even seen a photo montage that was done on video.  The video only showed a hand holding a group of pictures and the other hand was moving the top photo to show the next photo. They had music for the photo montage, but it was playing in the background and it was the same song over and over for 10 minutes.  Would you want to watch that?

A professional wedding videographer with a top of the line editing program will be able to provide you a photo montage you will want to watch for years to come.  While it is true that most new computers come with an editing program preloaded and ready to use, they are not going to give you a very good montage.  These programs (iMovie & VideoMaker) have a pre set effect that are applied to photos you are using.  It’s called the Ken Burns effect.  If you don’t know, Ken Burns is one of the top documentary directors in the world today.  He has done some really great work for PBS on films like “Baseball” and  “Jazz” just to name a couple.  If you watch any of his documentaries you will notice one thing right off the bat (pun intended), he doesn’t use much video to tell his story, instead he uses pictures.  Most of these pictures do two things, zoom in and out, or slide to the left or right.  You might even see them doing both at the same time.  Thus, the Ken Burns effect.

A professional editor is going to do some great things with your pictures.  Using a professional editing software we can not only move your pictures back and forth, we can make them spin around, make them blend from one picture to the next, we can even make them look like the photos are laying on top of each other.  The things we can do are only limited by your imagination.  The PowerPoint slide show will only play on a computer, so you have to take your laptop with you, hope the venue has a computer hook up to their video equipment to be able to play it back.  A professional videographer with put it on a DVD for you so all you have to do is give it to the venue and they can play it on their DVD player.

Music is the most important part of the photo montage.  The pictures only tell a part of the story, the proper music can tell the whole story.  Music is a powerful thing.  It can make you laugh, it can make you cry, it can even take you back to a special moment in your life.  The right music with your photos will take you, and your family back in time to those moments you have forgotten.

Having your photo montage done by a professional videographer who knows how to use a professional editing program will make difference between just some pictures on the screen or sharing a lifetime of memories with families and friends.  Below you will find a photo montage I did for a couple that married this past August.  I have talked to both their mothers recently and they both told me that the photo montage was the most cherished part of the video for them.  One mom, Brenda, told me she cries every time she watches because she can see her baby grow up all over again.

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Shangri-La Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR) holds a very important place in my heart.  STAR provide horse riding therapy to kids and adults with special needs.  The facility depends on a full time staff of professionals and an army of volunteers to provide a warm and friendly environment for all those who participate. The riders participate one time per week for each session. Spring and Fall sessions last for ten weeks. Summer is an eight week session and Winter is a six week session. There is a maximum of four riders in each group lesson. The one hour lessons are divided into two sections: 30 minutes of ground work which includes grooming, tacking, and mounting and 30 minutes of mounted work which includes exercises, riding skills, and games/activities. Grooming and tacking (putting the saddle and equipment on) address the following developmental areas: fine and gross motor skills, spatial awareness, vocabulary, motor planning, sequencing, memory, endurance, attention span, hand/eye coordination, bilateral involvement, balance, crossing midline and muscle strengthening.

Some of the benefits of the therapy include balance, coordination and muscle tone improve through exercises done on horseback. Psychological benefits include increased independence, motivation and self-control. Vocabulary development and sequential learning contribute to cognitive gains, and self-esteem soars as the riders learn to control their horse. The recreational aspect of STAR’s program proves invaluable for these special persons who normally cannot participate in conventional
sports.

STAR has been providing riding lessons and therapy to our KT for the past couple of years now and I can tell you that the results are amazing.  Her balance and coordination have improved dramatically.  KT’s gym teacher has even noticed how much better she is doing in running, throwing and other activities.

I have been trying for some time now to find a way to give something back to STAR for all the great work they have done, not only for us, but for the community as well.  Today, I found a way to help;  a couple of weeks ago the volunteer coordinator contacted me and asked if I could help them make some changes to a training video for their volunteers.  I was more than glad to help.  They gave me a copy of the video they had done and asked me to look it over and then we would meet about the changes.  After watching the video, I noticed a few things that really needed to be corrected.  After a meeting with the volunteer coordinator and the executive director it was decided to just completely re-shoot the video.

I have also been asked to provide a video testimonial DVD for their annual fund raiser, “Bridles & Blue Jeans”.  This is going to be a short video where some of the riders and their families talk about what STAR has meant to them.  I am really looking forward to working on this video.  I love doing weddings and other special events, but to be able to provide a very special video for families with children and family members who have challenges that many of us will never understand.  I believe that we all have the ability to give back, or as they say now, to pay it forward.