Snow Leopard, Tripods & Firewire 800

Well, today was a day of purchasing on the internet.

Was initially intending to buy a new 24" iMac, but decided better of it as my current computer works just fine (knock wood) and aside from being slower than is desirable, I have no reason to ditch it yet (aside from re-sale value, anyone buying?).

So instead, I purchased Snow Leopard, effectively upgrading my operating system (and my wife's, we got the family pack).

Then, I got better tripods. I've needed to upgrade those for a while, and got some reasonably priced Velbon's from Amazon.

And lastly, I got a 4pin to 9pin firewire cable so that I can have the ability to capture and edit on my wife's laptop when necessary.

Needless to say, I'm excited to check the mail in the next few days. :)

TooleArt.com

Just wanted to throw out a link for Mike & Crystal Toole's photography site! A great married photography team from all over Michigan, but right now Holland, who I had the pleasure of working a wedding with at the beginning of this month. Here are their photos from the wedding we worked together: Sheila & Joe's Pictures

So busy!

Hey readers,

If you're thinking of booking for next summer, let's talk soon! I'm quickly locking in many mid-summer dates, and while they're not all gone yet, we're getting close.

I look forward to hearing from you and hopefully working with you!

So much to do, so little time

Usually this is the time of year that slows down for video, so for the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm getting BUSIER as we wind down the summer. And I couldn't be more grateful! Not only weddings, but a corporate client is asking for another video, and a non-profit I edited for last year is asking for a repeat success with their promotional materials. Can't wait to get it all done and share with you what I can!

Ad-no-sense

So I started this blog a while back but never used it until now. Forever I had that Google Adsense stuff on the side. I understand the idea of making money by having people click on the ads...but do YOU ever click on them? I know I don't. And I'm not sure I want to be interfacing with people dumb enough to fall for that. (No offense if you answered 'yes' to the first question).

Anyway, so now my blog is AdSense free. Google was probably smart to create them...but I just can't anymore. I've seen sites weighed down with them, and it's just awful to try and figure out what you're SUPPOSED to be looking at with regards to their site content.

Owen Video is now HD (& more)

So yesterday morning I ordered two HD Canon Vixia HV-40's! I'm pretty psyched about this as I'll be able to offer a higher quality end product. Unfortunately I still can't produce onto Blu-Ray but someday that will come too. So for now it'll just be higher quality standard videos, however online clips will now be in HD, so that's something at least! :)

For the past year my VERY kind friend Mike has lent me his equipment free of charge. In fact, when I first got laid off from the school district I worked at, I didn't consider freelancing really, but Mike was a wedding videographer with a full-time job as a computer tech and didn't really want to finish a couple of weddings he'd committed to. So he asked me if I'd like to finish them for him, but he couldn't pay. So instead he offered me his computer (a PowerMac G5 w/a PowerPC processor) and I jumped at the chance! So I edited his two weddings and it was mine. Then, I started shooting my own weddings and he agreed to let me use his cameras. Finally, I'd worked enough and saved enough, and here we are, I'm self-sufficient. It's an amazing feeling. But please know, I couldn't be more grateful to Mike for helping me get this business off the ground and getting me back on my feet!

Also, you may look at this camera and think how small it is, but know that I attach a Rode microphone on top, and a wide angle converter on the lens. Then that, plus my homemade steadycam (the next item to get upgraded when I have some cash) make it all look much larger than you'd think. Besides, it's not size that matters, it's quality! And this baby has an internal CMOS chip (the replacement for 3CCD chips).