landscaping, volunteering as videographer for a wedding
landscaping
This morning, we woke to the sound of yard-work power tools. Last week "J" had made arrangements with a landscape company to remove a massive blackberry bramble from a space behind our house. A crew of four arrived as scheduled to get the work done.
I didn't get to see the finished work until this evening. We took some time to inspect the work, and they did a very impressive job. I didn't take too close a look, because I was wearing dress shoes and didn't want to get them muddy, but it looks good.
a wedding
The occasion for the dress shoes (and the flowers J bought yesterday) was a wedding. The guests of honor have been a couple for about twenty years, and they decided it was time to formalize it with the state. It was a very nice ceremony, with between ten and twenty people attending. The ceremony itself lasted right about 30 minutes, and was followed by food and social time.
My special role in the wedding was to take video of the event. They asked me because I also took video of a meeting involving many of the same people, as a convenience to those who couldn't attend in person; apparently I managed to do that adequately enough that they figured I could do a wedding too. I told them that I didn't have the skills to do a one-chance-only event without risk of mistakes, but they said someone with good equipment and get-it-right-sometimes skills was good enough for them.
So, I brought my Canon 5D Mark II, three lenses, my Panasonic three-chip DV-tape camera, tripods for each, freshly-charged batteries, two large Compact Flash chips, and a blank DV tape. J brought dessert food, fruit juice, and the flowers. We dressed up for the occasion and headed to the wedding location.
Since it's a digital SLR, the 5D allows a choice of lenses; I used my 17 to 35 mm, f/2.8 "L" zoom, for wide angle coverage, and high resolution. On the other hand, it can't do shots longer than about 12 minutes, and can overheat from heavy use. The DV camera is complementary. Even with the lower resolution, the tighter field of view means higher resolution in the main subject of the shot. It can shoot uninterrupted 60 minute takes, batteries permitting.
I haven't checked the video yet, but I think the shoot went well. The DV camera caught the entire ceremony, and most of the time it was aimed in the right place. The wide lens on the 5D covered the whole room, and I think I cut between shots under its 12-minute limit without missing anything important. I was even able to step away from the cameras during a point in the ceremony where the bride and groom individually greeted each of the wedding guests.
The after party was nice too, and so informal that it hardly felt like a reception. The bride, groom, witnesses, and celebrant signed the documents, then greeted everyone, accepted congratulations, and shared food and juice.
Now I suppose it is time to assemble the two videos onto a DVD and send it to the new couple.
This morning, we woke to the sound of yard-work power tools. Last week "J" had made arrangements with a landscape company to remove a massive blackberry bramble from a space behind our house. A crew of four arrived as scheduled to get the work done.
I didn't get to see the finished work until this evening. We took some time to inspect the work, and they did a very impressive job. I didn't take too close a look, because I was wearing dress shoes and didn't want to get them muddy, but it looks good.
a wedding
The occasion for the dress shoes (and the flowers J bought yesterday) was a wedding. The guests of honor have been a couple for about twenty years, and they decided it was time to formalize it with the state. It was a very nice ceremony, with between ten and twenty people attending. The ceremony itself lasted right about 30 minutes, and was followed by food and social time.
My special role in the wedding was to take video of the event. They asked me because I also took video of a meeting involving many of the same people, as a convenience to those who couldn't attend in person; apparently I managed to do that adequately enough that they figured I could do a wedding too. I told them that I didn't have the skills to do a one-chance-only event without risk of mistakes, but they said someone with good equipment and get-it-right-sometimes skills was good enough for them.
So, I brought my Canon 5D Mark II, three lenses, my Panasonic three-chip DV-tape camera, tripods for each, freshly-charged batteries, two large Compact Flash chips, and a blank DV tape. J brought dessert food, fruit juice, and the flowers. We dressed up for the occasion and headed to the wedding location.
Since it's a digital SLR, the 5D allows a choice of lenses; I used my 17 to 35 mm, f/2.8 "L" zoom, for wide angle coverage, and high resolution. On the other hand, it can't do shots longer than about 12 minutes, and can overheat from heavy use. The DV camera is complementary. Even with the lower resolution, the tighter field of view means higher resolution in the main subject of the shot. It can shoot uninterrupted 60 minute takes, batteries permitting.
I haven't checked the video yet, but I think the shoot went well. The DV camera caught the entire ceremony, and most of the time it was aimed in the right place. The wide lens on the 5D covered the whole room, and I think I cut between shots under its 12-minute limit without missing anything important. I was even able to step away from the cameras during a point in the ceremony where the bride and groom individually greeted each of the wedding guests.
The after party was nice too, and so informal that it hardly felt like a reception. The bride, groom, witnesses, and celebrant signed the documents, then greeted everyone, accepted congratulations, and shared food and juice.
Now I suppose it is time to assemble the two videos onto a DVD and send it to the new couple.