So I've decided to start blogging and thought I would start with how I ended up shooting VIDEO for my sister-in-law's wedding last fall.  First you ought to know I'm the person in the family that is always carrying a camera or three (lol) around at most family get togethers and this particular day was no exception.  Each July 4th for over ten years my wife's family has ridden bicycles into Washington DC together to watch the fireworks and then visit 7-11 afterwards on the way home for slurpees!  Last July 4th, we had arrived a hour or two early as usual and were throwing a frisbee around but this time I had my first little gimbal made for cell phones so I could get steadier videos while moving which I had gotten because I was interested in possibly starting a YouTube Channel and wanted to get smoother camera footage.  I showed a few of my family some of the shots which looked awesome compared to me just handholding my iPhone and my sister-in-law asked if I might be willing to video some at her wedding that fall and without hesitation I agreed!!!

Little did I realize at the time how passionate I would become about videography and getting the best quality I could get with the limited time I had to educate myself on the best gear I could afford to invest in, acquire that gear, and then practice with it so I could make best use of it on their big day.  My studies began immediately and for two months I educated myself and practiced as much as I could to improve my brand new skill set so I wouldn't botch up capturing beautiful moments for them that could be memorable for a lifetime.

The day before the wedding arrived and I was feeling pretty confident especially knowing I would get to practice one last time at the reception. After the reception was over I went home to get some rest and my brother said "Hey, do you want to go out to Shenandoah with me now because I've heard that we may be able to see part of the Aurora Borealis?"  I told him that it didn't seem remotely possible to see the Northern Lights from Virginia but I quickly double checked what he had heard and sure enough there was a small chance but a chance nonetheless that we could see them and if not we still might get some long exposures of them with our cameras so off we went!  Now we didn't end up seeing or capturing any images of the Northern Lights but we did have fun getting some awesome shots of the night sky and I did a long time lapse of the stars which I would end up using as the intro into Nicole & Peanut's Wedding Highlights Film. 

The wedding day arrived and went wonderfully well despite it being my first wedding as a videographer, thankfully all of the research and preparation I had done in the previous months allowed me to trouble shoot a MULTITUDE of issues that popped up from the audio to the camera angles to the lighting and beyond.  In the end not only was my sister-in-law and her newly wed husband Phil super pleased and surprised at the quality of the video since this was something brand new for me to do but my father-in-law even called me to say thank-you and that he really enjoyed the video himself which means more to me than he will probably ever know.  I've embedded the video here for you to enjoy and while I look back and see opportunities that I could have improved on I am so happy to know that my family is more than pleased with the end result and that I was able to exceed their expectations!