If everyone was doing <insert your favorite bad activity>, would you do it too? How many times were you asked that as a kid? Or maybe you were the asker. Don't make me stop this car!
I have been reading for a year or so how, thanks to the great video capabilities that are now available in DSLRs, still photographers really need to do video. I guess my reaction was, I don't NEED to do anything. The comments made were to the effect that we needed to do this, or else give it up. I have a visceral reaction to statements like that. All television will be in 3D pretty soon. Um, no. I'm all set in the glasses department, and I generally don't watch "action" shows. So my feeling was no, I don't need to do video; unless I want to.
So here we are. I have been experimenting with video production. You can see my YouTube channel here. My first attempt was to do a walk-around through the building where my studio is located, taking still shots every few feet, and streaming them all together with the Windows Movie Maker to the strains of Flight of the Bumblebee. Wee! It's kind of entertaining, but probably of little practical value. It therefore boasts my biggest hit count. My second was another stop-action video, this time telling the story of an in-studio portrait shoot. While not the blockbuster that my first one was, it is pretty cool and well liked. The music is better too!
Well finally, a real "motion" picture to my credits! I was doing an environmental portrait shoot for a client of mine who happens to be a marketing and branding professional, Anya Downing of Engage Marketing and Design, of Georgetown, Massachusetts. We started to talk about possibly leveraging her photos for more than just her own professional branding, creating a video and a white-paper. So off we went. The shoot was actually months ago, and I have held back showing the photos until now. We worked on the video during the Christmas/New Year break, with Linda Williamson, who did the actual videography for us. I played Cecil B. DeMille.
The video is a presentation in interview format, by Anya, in which she discusses branding and what she calls, Profile Branding. The latter being the use of the type of imagery that I create, and created for her business, in branding a professional or their business, and how it can be an important element. Please take a look at Profile Branding.
While I have no intention of being "the video guy", because my passion is for great still photography, this is something that I will continue to do, to perfect and to offer clients.
While not originally part of the set that Anya chose from the shoot, I really liked this shot and have been really anxious to share it. These were shot at The Space, in Lowell, Massachusetts, and the art in the background is by David LeBlanc.
