Life At The Beach Timelapse

I shot these clips in an afternoon while we had offsite meetings about upcoming work projects. The images were captured on a 5D Mark II with a Vello Shutterboss. I shot RAW and edited the images in Lighroom and assembled them in FCPX. I took Richard Harrington’s NAB time-lapse workshop and have been hooked on time-lapse video since. I’m still playing around with settings and finding out what works best. I don’t have any de-flicker software yet, so I decided to enhance the look with flash frames during the edit process.

And if creating a cool Timelapse video isn’t enough for you to try it yourself, you have the added bonus of hundreds of images to pick through to find still frames you like.

Airport Photo Inspiration.

Part of my job is to travel around the world capture stories of people Operation Blessing helps on behalf of their supporters. This means I spend quite a bit of time in airports. Airports have a lot of interesting vehicles, tools, architecture, movement, and serve as an interesting place to people watch. Needless to say, I take a lot of pictures before I even get to my final destination. This photo was taken in Detroit McNamara airport as I came out of the neon tunnel that connects the different terminals. I loved the light, color, and movement of people riding the escalators. It was captured using my iPhone 4S with the SloPro app and edited with Snapseed and Instagram.

IMAGinE CHANGE

An image has the power to promote change. Harness that power and use it for good.
(Digital drawing created with 53′s Paper app for iPad)

It is almost 2am, but I’ve had a lot of thoughts bouncing around in my head as I look forward to attending Regent University’s “Seeking Justice for the Least of These” symposium tomorrow. Part of me was thinking about how great it is to hear people speaking about the great work they are doing to help child welfare systems and combat child trafficking, but another part of me wished I was doing something to make a difference. I know, it’s funny to hear that from a guy working at an NGO. Hear me out. What I was longing for was a chance to be working directly with programming that offers hope and changes lives. Then I stopped to remember the important role photographers and journalists play as communicators. We are able to help fund the programs and directly impact lives. Our stories and images are agents of change. I am blessed to be able to use my camera to bring about positive change in a way that engages strangers to act on behalf of someone they have never met – all because of a picture, story, or video. We are able to imagine change and use an image to start it. How cool is that?

Creating An Overview Video For Non-Profits and NGOs

The Global Impact of Operation Blessing from Operation Blessing International on Vimeo.

As a non-profit or NGO it is really important to have videos that describe who you are, what you do, how you do it, and why people should invest in the work you do. There are several different ways that you can accomplish this, but a popular way is an overview video that highlights all of your goals and efforts. I just finished putting together a comprehensive overview video for the NGO I work for, Operation Blessing. It has been in the works for over a year now because it is pretty easy for priorities to change on a dime when one of your core competencies is disaster relief.

My goal with this video wasn’t to make a short video, because Operation Blessing already has a lot of great videos that show the impact of our individual programs and the lives that have been changed around the world. I wanted this video to really let the viewer see the magnitude of our efforts and the life-change that comes as a result of the people, churches, and organizations that support Operation Blessing – without it feeling long and drawn out. It is carefully crafted and weaves our programs together at a pace that allows viewers to engage and forget about their time investment. The music is a core part of the structure because of the relationship between the footage and music styling as it builds, adds impact, and changes to enhance the emotion of the video. These elements are very important if you want build a corporate video like this but still make it feel personal and intimate for the viewer.

Have you created an overview video that you’d like to share with other readers of this blog? Do you need an overview video and have questions that we can help answer? Leave a comment below.

34th Birthday Self-Portrait

I turned 34 today and on my Facebook wall, a friend said I should post a birthday self-portrait so that people could “like” it. In many ways, this is a pretty accurate account for most of my online storytelling – photos. That’s how I see and share the world and how people interact with me. So it was a fitting request and an idea that spawned a self-portrait with that in mind. An image of me as many people see me. It has my two of my favorite lenses – my iPhone and a Canon 50mm f/1.4.

Below is me and my boys blowing out the candles on my delicious home-made birthday cake.

25 Days Of Christmas (Photos)

Christmas is past, but I have a fun idea that you can use next year.  My wife decided to start getting our Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving this year.  At first I thought it was crazy, but it really helped bring back some of the childhood excitement that surrounds Christmas.  That isn’t the idea, this is —> Create a Christmas countdown calendar with photos for the following year.  This year I decided to create a new image every day of December and post them on Instagram, culminating on Christmas Day – 25 days total.  It was a fun creative exercise that helped me get into the Christmas spirit.  I love the twinkle of Christmas from the lights, garland,  glitter, ornaments, to sun shining through falling snow (unfortunately I don’t see that very often since moving to VA) and wanted to capture it.

Digital Christmas Card

Merry Christmas from my family to yours. As a creative person, I like to explore new ways to be creative with digital Christmas cards and thought I would do something a little different this year. Instead of a photo, I decided to try my hand with a digital art project. I hope you it blesses you. A version of the card can be found below to save, print, use as a desktop, etc.

Tip: Timing is Everything

If I could tell someone just learning photography one thing, it would probably be: Timing is everything. Well, maybe “everything” is a bit strong, but it plays a huge role and separates the best photos from the good ones. From the time of day, to the amount of time the shutter stays open, to the time when you actually commit to an image and press the shutter. Be mindful of the timing of elements around you.

This basic shot of a couple shops in Niger is much more interesting because I saw a car approaching and waited until its headlights lit the street and foreground objects. It is subtle, but it adds more warmth and one more layer of interest to this image. This is a basic example of the impact that timing can make in an image. It takes focus on your part to be aware and to be in the moment and aware of your environment – not just seeing it through the barrel of a lens. That is when magic starts to happen.

Meet The Stones

I had the pleasure of creating this fun love story video for Justin and Paula to use at their wedding reception. They were a lot of fun to work with because they really do love each other and let their personalities shine in front of the camera – that’s not easy to do. Congratulations Stones’! Your wedding was beautiful and I’m excited to let you sit back and watch the video of it soon – to relive it without all the pressure.

Music: “The First Time” by Michael Castro
Licensed from http://themusicbed.com

Finding Freedom In Other Forms Of Creativity

Misty Morning Lake, 2012

There is something freeing about expressing yourself creatively outside of the realms where you feel comfortable.  Tonight I pulled out my plastic bin of paint supplies to find a creative release on a rainy day.  I had a photography session scheduled today that was cancelled by the weather.  Like most photo sessions, I stress out about all the details that I want to accomplish until the shoot is behind me.  I know that I am expected to pull out all the stops for every shoot because it is my profession and something that I understand really well.  I cannot say that about painting, but  that is also what I find freeing about working with paint – I have no expectations of doing it well.  Why?  Because I know nothing about the techniques involved and can create without knowing the bounds I am supposed to work in.  I have the freedom to try whatever I want.  The more we know about techniques and the “proper way” to use our equipment and tool, the less we try to find creative new ways to use the tools we have and we begin to keep doing the same things over and over – our knowledge actually begins to limit our creativity.

In an effort to release the stress and preparation from the cancelled shoot, I went to the garage and pulled out my bin of art supplies that have not found a home since we moved.  After thinking about ideas that I wanted to accomplish with my limited Acrylic paint supplies, I realize that I need to create texture on the canvas with something more than the paint.  As I opened the bin of paint supplies, I found my wife’s embroidery thread inside and had an idea – glue the thread to the canvas before applying paint.  I couldn’t find a good way to adhere the thread, so I used some spray adhesive to affix it and a piece of a magazine I had crumpled for more texture.  For good measure, I sprayed a few globs of paint hoping that it would create another element of texture to the canvas and it did.  From there, I just had fun blending color and trying to create movement with the strokes of the brush.  It felt great to have freedom to create and I cannot wait to get it on a wall.

Let me encourage you to try something outside of your usual creative sphere to free yourself to have fun and break free from the walls are built when we rely too much on techniques we’ve become accustomed to using.  The more I learn about photography, the more I begin to feel like I have to stay within the bounds of those techniques.  Allow an exercise like this to remind you that you can be creative when you know nothing about technique or limits and take that freedom back with you to your normal creative sphere and start to create again.