CONFIRMED! Empty Cup Media Youth Film Camp: uFilm 2010

Carla and I got a great quote from Camp Samac in Oshawa to hold our uFilm summer video camp for students age 11-17. The dates will be:

July 5- 9. Ages 11-14 years old

July 19-23. Ages 15-17 years old

More info to come!

Sonia & Christopher

This wedding represents us well. The music is funky and fast (not super mainstream), the venues are high-class and the couple was super rad. The ceremony is at Knox College in Toronto, the photo shoot was all over Toronto and the reception was at Liberty Grand on the CNE grounds.

Here are the highlights of their wedding!

Emma & Matt

I had the pleasure of going to Conestoga College with Matt Ruiss. We lost touch after graduating in 2005, but re-aquainted ourselves on his wedding day. He was still the Ruiss that I rememberd him as – smiley, supportive, generous and enthusiastic.

The ceremony was in a huge and beautiful church in Brantford Ontario – almost two hours away from my hometown. Here is a quick snippit from the ceremony from the signing of the registry onwards. Enjoy!

Emily & Jochem

I drove out to Cambridge to meet with Emily & Jochem and to shoot their wedding. Their wedding day was sandwiched between two other shoots in the city so I had a lot of driving to do that weekend! I’m glad that the couple was so chill and easy to work with.
These were clients refered to me by Lindsay Moleirinho of Photos By LAM (www.photosbylam.com). She is fast becoming one of the photographers who I have worked with the most – and it’s a great move. We’re a great photo/video duo since we are so close in age, style and logic towards a wedding shoot.

Wedding days cruise by much easier while working with a friend

This is a video of Emily & Jochem’s highlights. Enjoy!

First wedding photo shoot with all steadicam

This was the first shoot that I wore the steadicam for the entire shoot – as a single angle. I was able to do that simply because the group and I kept moving locations. When a photo shoot takes place all at one spot, a steadicam quickly loses its creativity. All the shots it can get are at eye level and are..well, moving.

When the action is moving a lot, the environment is constantly changing thus giving a steadicam operator more visuals to work with. This shoot was at the Whitby waterfront (which I am very familiar with). The group’s audio definitely makes this video a winner in my mind. You can tell that they are a tight bunch who were all there to have a few laughs (and maybe have a few photos taken while they were at it).

This shoot was also before I bought my HD wide-angle lens adaptor. If this is the calibre of shots I was getting without it, I’m very excited to see what the weddings are like with the extra weight to the steadicam as well as the extra viewing field. Be sure to keep checking my blog to see the fall videos!

“Empty Cup” reference in Avatar

I saw Avatar in 3-D last night. It was awesome. Beautiful graphics (but with a clearly overdone skeleton of a plot). I also sat really close to the screen so I had to get used to a headache 20 minutes into the movie. It was still a mind blowing film. I was already being ‘wow’ed with the 3-D effects and realistic CG, but then I was bowled over when I heard a short dialog about having an Empty Cup!

Not to spoil anything, but when the main character, Jake Sully, is with the natives for the first time, they quaff at him because “his cup was already full”. To which he replied “My cup is empty. Trust me.”

Here’s a link to the direct quote. It’s about 4/5 down the page.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499549/quotes

This isn’t the first time a Hollywood movie made reference to the same story that I coined my business name from. Jackie Chan and Jet Li’s movie “The Forbidden Kingdom” makes a reference in the same context as well. (A fool with a full cup who wants to learn but can’t unless he “empties” it). I even wrote about it in a previous blog posting:
http://emptycupmedia.wordpress.com/2008/05/31/the-empty-cup-story-is-in-a-hollywood-movie/

Hearing the reference in multiple pop culture references only confirms that my company name is catchy. I loved the story, clients enjoy the story, and producers feel the message is visual enough to put up on the silver screen.

I’ve seen a few documentaries involving quantum physics and I find that theory very interesting. I enjoy the idea of collective memory and subconscious thought sharing. If it were true, than millions of people indirectly heard my company name. And I think that’s good for business

Real estate video demo

I’m always trying to find new business avenues to go down. My skills as a steadicam shooter are still improving and I would love to use those skills in as many business areas as I can.
In 2010, I have set goals to shoot steadicam videos and take photos for real estate agents looking to give their property an advantage in a busy online market.

This is a perfect opportunity for a SLR camera with HD video capabilities too! I have been itching to buy one, but I need a project to immediately use it with (and I need the right technology too). There are rumors that Nikon is releasing a new SLR camera in the coming weeks. If that camera is what I am looking for, than I am going to pounce on it! Solid state videography is perfect for gigs like this (that are fast and no need for archiving). So my eyes and ears are peeled in anticipation of the D900.

This new business proposal will include me traveling to the location with my steadicam, my SLR with an ultra wide 11mm lens and my laptop. All on location, I can shoot video and photo and give the agent the final product before we leave. This gives the project a very low PITA factor (pain-in-the-ass).

The photos will be burned to a CD on side (full resolution and web size). A web ready file can also be outputted for the steadicam video while we are there. DVDs with menus to give to clients are also available as an add on. (Which will also take some time to assemble so delivery will be in 1-2 weeks after the shoot day).

Prices will start at $150 for steadicam video. $125 for photo and $200 for both. Prices are subject to change.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has any comments about this new initiative! (Or some client leads too ) I’d also love to hear anyone with news of Nikon’s latest SLR too.

Melody & Shane

This wedding was shot at Parkwood in Oshawa. We stayed on the grounds to take the photos of family and the bridal party. Then it was off to Jubilee for the party. This was a great day because all these venus are close to my home, the sun was shining and everyone there was there to have a great time.

Congratulations Melody & Shane! Thanks for letting me be a part of your day!

Sara & Dave

I got to work with Jeff Marchant of Life Creations on this event. He’s a true pro photographer who knows what he is looking for in an image. So I had the benefit of working along side him artistically on this wedding.  Sara and Dave were great to work with too. They were a cool couple who made the day fun for everyone. I think their shots reflected that!

Walk the length of Queen St. taking photos

Just before Christmas, my Uncle and I took a walking photography adventure from one end of Queen St. to the other. Our journey began at 10:30am where we started at the most eastern side of Queen St. which is close to my Uncle’s house. Then we started to walk. We didn’t have a specific goal in our mind aside from taking lots of photographs. Mannequins became a theme after seeing them displayed in front of several clothing stores.

our journey

It was a crisp, sunny -9 day with no wind on Dec 22. Only my fingers were cold by the end of the trip. Which is expected. With a stop for lunch at the Eaton Centre, we finished walking just a bit after 5:00 at the end of Queen St. (where it becomes the Queensway). The walk added an extra 14.2km to my shoes’ odometer (but they are the type of milage you want to put on your shoes). I had a great time with my Uncle taking pics, chatting about photography and admiring Queen Street’s unique evolution as we walked West. The street car ride back was almost one and a half hours.
I would recommend a similar adventure to any photographer if you have the time. Our next trip will be to walk up Spadina from the waterfront up to Bloor St. But we plan on waiting for the scenery to change enough to make it feel like a totally new adventure. Either with lots of snow, or in the spring time.
I ended up taking about 140 pictures and kept just over 100. Here are some of my favourites.

self portrait

chaos

DVP

berkley church

end of our walk

my uncle