Playing around with my first video - Seattle Hempfest 2011 in Three and A Half Minutes...

Well this was fun...

I guess I never really announced it, but about two months ago I decided to get myself a license and turn my photography into a proper business. It doesn't sound like a bad idea, but I didn't realize how much work and paperwork there was involved just to keep doing what I was already doing.

In addition to landscape photos, I have taken on a few new things - I've always loved shooting events, and I'm starting to do so formally; things like couples/engagement photos, family portraits, etc. As I've said many times, I love shooting people and I'm thrilled to have an official capacity to do it in now! So... I'm really loving taking on clients, but it's a lot of work as well.

I've been enjoying myself a lot, but I've been struggling to make time for everything. I haven't published a new picture to my blog in two full weeks and it just doesn't feel right. So today, I intended to get up and just process a picture or two this morning before I got my day going. Instead, 16 hours later, I have a photo video montage of Seattle Hempfest 2011. I guess I was in need of a creative outlet...

I got this video idea from photographer Trey Ratcliff last year just before I shot Hempfest and I knew I wanted to try it. I specifically took series of photos instead of just single shots so that I could do a quick-play video like this without making anyone completely nauseous. :)

This is the first time I've put together a video like this and I made plenty of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons. I have a whole list of improvements - everything from how I shoot to how I process and upload, to how I edit the video - for next time. But for being something I was just playing around with, and for being done all by hand and with no instruction, I'm kinda proud of the result.

This time around I used almost entirely unprocessed photos that haven't been touched since I downloaded them from my camera. I think for Hempfest 2012 I'm going to make a real nice pro-looking video with all processed and properly exposed/cropped/colored/etc shots. Wish me luck!

Lastly, I'll just note because I was happy with it... I fit the super-amazing SuperSonicSoulPimps in there for the musical break in the second half. Yay!

(Plus, my Photography Director, Dave, makes a cameo or two. And Dave, you can let Katie know I caught here in here dancing also. :)