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Being a Videographer for a Christian Camp

                 Sonlight Christian Camp has come a long way from showing photo slide shows on hand cranked projectors to showing high definition highlight films. While being a videographer at Sonlight you not only experience one side of camp as a counselor or as a support staff member, but you experience the entire camp as a whole. Not only are you capturing memories, but you’re doing work in every part of camp from washing dishes to being upfront with the campers telling them about God. You’re the one that’s staying up the latest, waking up earliest, stressing a lot, and also the one that feels like you’re the  most involved at camp knowing what happens from every aspect.

                Of course the people, the food, the relationships, and the overall experience of being at Sonlight is amazing, but the best part about being a videographer specifically and exclusively is experiencing the feelings of when an audience views your work. When the campers, and their parents laugh, and tell each other about how amazing their weeks were while watching your highlight film gives you the most amazing feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. After the applause when your video is finished and you’re packing up, everyone from parents, to campers, to staff members always tell you how great your work is. Finally, the last part in this trip of feelings is knowing when parents and campers purchased your videos and that when they watch your videos again at home memories can spark a conversation and God could come alive at home through the highlight videos. It feels like you have butterflies in your stomach mixed in with warmth of endless happiness. It puts a huge smile on your face and puts you in the best mood ever.

Rom 8:28: And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

                Being a videographer at camp is not about the money, it’s about the amazing experience of capturing the experiences and memories at camp and being able to share them with everybody so that those memories can live on forever. 

Demo Reel Update, Video List Update, and more

It’s been a while since I updated my video list tab, so I updated it with all the films and visual effect videos that I made in the end of 2012 and beginning of 2013. Lots of gems both good and bad, and a lot of stuff that has been unlisted on my youtube channel. I also uploaded and posted a demo reel from 2012 to 2013 that I made for a class at the bottom of this blog post.

I also would like to apologize that I haven’t been true to my audience. I know that many of you have subscribed to my channel and website thinking that you were going to be seeing a load of amazing visual effects and be able to learn how to do them. I’m greatly sorry for my YouTube leave of absence. A new school year is upon me and I have been granted a very special opportunity again to reignite the flame and blow the minds that have watched my videos. Stay tuned because there’s some good stuff in store.

How to Change the Color of Your Campfire

About 4 months ago, I made this video to present to someone interested in changing the color of a campfire. It’s been sort of a family tradition and because there isn’t any videos similar to this already on Youtube, I decided to publicly uploaded so any can change the color of their campfire.

Things you’ll need:
-3/16ths sized drill bit
-a copper pipe about an inch wide and a foot long.
-some gardening hose about a foot long.
-a metal coat hanger
-a marker
-a drill
-safety glasses.
-a vice to hold your pipe( optional)
-a pair of pliers to help bend the metal (optional)

Steps:
-Mark alongside your pipe every 2 inches.
-Rotate your pipe 90 degrees and mark every other inch.
-Drill holes all the way through the pipe from where each of the marks are at.
-Use a drill bit to scrap out the sharp edges.
-Bend the coat hanger and put it through the top holes of the pipe, create a small handle.
-(Optional) Shrink the end of the pipe down with some pliers so that the garden hose doesn’t fall out.
-Insert the garden hose and place inside the fire.

I apologize for the camera shake. The 50mm f/1.4 lens would be great if it had IS. More regularly reoccurring videos to come of visual effects, tutorials and more.

UPDATED THE BLOG

I took an evening and updated the entire blog, minus the header, and the demo reel. When I return to Michigan, I will have the demo reel replaced with a 2012-2013 version. Everything else, information wise, has been reviewed and updated. 

If you see any spelling mistakes or anything please tell me so I can fix it. I’m not an error free human, I do make mistakes. 

John Mayer Unreleased Songs

There’s probably a ton more unreleased John Mayer songs out there on the internet. If you find any let me know: 

http://youtu.be/xSNE3tw0Nao
http://youtu.be/Qwzo1klbIyY
http://youtu.be/rDi1pa3TWAw
http://youtu.be/lXByinFmjYU
http://youtu.be/romLxA7NEyQ
http://youtu.be/SMaNgeB66Es
http://youtu.be/fkvkST67kFM
http://youtu.be/gTsBaIgE4Ts
http://youtu.be/L4TRP8PJKoc
http://youtu.be/Z7EirzYiiIQ
http://youtu.be/HGC0U6Gb760
http://youtu.be/m9VEAwvU19Y
http://youtu.be/Om9HMlswZoo
http://youtu.be/r77Uv5au1r0
http://youtu.be/6aGWEKaYATk
http://youtu.be/z0oHle0lSGs
http://youtu.be/anfz8CGS_Bg
http://youtu.be/_IB79rKQ5dw

NEW VIDEO: DSLR Short Film- The Image of the Setting Sun

Here’s the final project that Taylor Robida and I had to do for our basic image and sound class. Our simple task was to show an emotional tone shift from grief to ecstasy through the use of images and sounds. Nothing too extreme here.

Music: On Forgetting by Jeff Pianki