Captured Productions

A Day in the Life of Kennedy.....

2009-11-07T18:19:38-08:00

You may remember Kennedy from a post last year or her sister from a post last month. Fortunately their parents will have tons of great memories preserved of Kennedy and Madison. Last year their parents Chris & Jessica decided to start yearly Day in the Life photo & video shoots....what a great idea...just think of the great stuff they will have for their graduation open house :-)

Jessica & Chris had us film their wedding several years ago and now capture their daughters' Day in the Life... videos I love their vision and priority to preserve their memories.

Highlights of Steve & Pam's Pefect Wedding Day

2009-11-04T20:02:01-08:00

This summer we had the opportunity to capture Steve & Pam's wedding day in St Joe. The day started with their ceremony downtown St. Joe and their Reception over looking Lake Michigan.

You couldn't ask for a more beautiful day...and of course perfect weddings don't just happen without a lot of forethought and planning, that is where Nancy Dobry of RSVP Events and her team of assistants came in. They allowed Steve and Pam to focus on their guests and enjoying their day, knowing they had all of the details under control.

In the past Trudy Holtz (Trudy Holtz Photography) & I have captured a Trash the Dress together and we were able to create memorable videos of her beautiful daughters (Cassidy & Payton), but up until this point have never shot a wedding side by side. I have to say it is great to work along side a photographer who is passionate, loves what they do, and are great at it, and Trudy is definitely one of those photographers. You definitely have to check out her blog post on Steve & Pam.

What is so important when filming a wedding is the backdrop. Many times we need work on finding the perfect angle to minimize a distraction. Well Steve & Pam had Jenn Ederer of Modern Day Floral create the perfect backdrop for their wedding, if you haven't seen what she can do, it is a must. I could go on an on about the details, but it is probably easier if you just see for yourself in this short highlights piece that we created of Steve & Pam's wedding day.

A Day in the Life of Cassidy.....

2009-10-28T16:25:53-07:00

Producing "Day in the life..." videos have stemmed from my love of creating movies for each of our kids. It started with taking home videos and editing them together and has evolved into every year capturing a day in their life. We think about what the ideal day would be where all of their personality would come out, and then capture it.

Since then we have extended these types of videos to our clients who to want to capture their children before they blink and they are all grown-up. Recently we had a chance to capture a Day in the life.... of Cassidy. Cassidy is the daughter of the talented photographer Trudy Holtz. Leave it to Trudy to plan a day that let Cassidy be herself and show off her true colors...not to mention some pretty cute outfits as well. Ya gotta love this little cutie, I love it that Trudy has made it a priority to capture a "Day in the life..." for both of her girls.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun....A day in the life of....Madison

2009-09-27T06:59:39-07:00

We continue to capture "A day in the life of...." films for families who want to remember their child or family, truly in their element. Several years ago we filmed Jessica & Chris's wedding and love their vision to continue to capture their family year after year. Not only did they have a day in the life of Madison captured on film, but had Renee' capture some amazing images of Madison as well, as you can see below.

As soon as I heard they wanted to use "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" for Madison's video, I knew Renee' & I were going to have tons of fun capturing this super fun little girl. Renee' & I started brain storming the location. We started by asking them to describe the ideal day and setting for their family. The lake and the beach came up so we found the perfect location for this shoot, Sanford Lake which had sand, water, spray park, and a ton of other great locations, including ice cream. It turned out to be perfect. Madison's energy and love for the camera came out. Instead of a stuffy photo shoot, trying to get her to smile, Renee' & I just stood back and let her be herself and captured the fun that she had, and who couldn't have fun at the beach, our kids were pretty bummed that they didn't get to come along. My words don't do this girl justice so watch her "Day in the life..." video and see if you agree, Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

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The Day That Changed My Perspective

2009-06-27T03:21:00-07:00

One year ago Renee' & I were out to dinner with our parents enjoying the evening while the kids were at home with our baby sitter. At dinner we got a call from our babysitter that she saw some smoke coming out of our upstairs bathroom vent and that she got everyone outside and called 911. Needless to say we moved quickly to get back home. On our way down our street we saw 4 fire engines, fire hoses across the street and a lot of fire fighters....reality began to sink in. Unable to get down the street we parked and quickly walked to our home along with half of our neighborhood. There we were met with our kids and babysitter....although we knew they were safe, it was great to see their faces. You can see more about that day on our blog post Counting Our Blessings.

It is amazing how something like that can change your perspective on life. As important as our house and all that is in it, including our studio, and decades of memories, it is amazing how it paled in comparison to seeing our children walking down the sidewalk towards us. Those next couple of months were a blur of remote living with 4 kids including a 2 week old, insurance claims, moving out of our house, and moving back in. With all of the stress and inconvenience behind us, we are so grateful that all it was, was inconvenience that would soon be over. With the source of the fire being wiring smoldering in insulation, we were only hours away from going to bed with the unknown burning in the attic above us.

In hindsight it is all like a bad dream...still a little shooken up but our family and life being intact. I am eternally grateful to God for sparing us from so much worse than inconvenience. All's well that ends well, a couple months later we created Lauren's First Video (a tradition for us with all of our kids), we didn't plan the story to play out that way, but it serves as a constant reminder of what God spared us from and what a beautiful gift Lauren was, the calm in the middle of our storm (Lauren's First Video).

Yana + Brannon + St Joe

2009-06-26T07:41:37-07:00

Friends of ours grew up in St. Joseph, MI and always talk about how beautiful it is down there. I have only seen St. Joe from a train on the way to Chicago or stopping by on our way to a vineyard wedding. What a beautiful location for a wedding and of course we couldn't argue with the day...beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds. Of course it didn't hurt that Jessica Pennington of Stella Event Design was there to make Yana & Brannon's wedding day a reality. After watching the amount of work that coordinators do just on the wedding day to ensure all goes perfectly, it is hard to image how couples do it with out a wedding coordinator.

Yana & Brannon got married under Shadowland Pavilion and wanted to give it a warmer feeling so Jessica worked with Michael Angelo's to create an environment out of pink fabric. The ceremony site was right on the chanel and right off of Lake Michigan, a beautiful backdrop to a gorgeous ceremony. We shot along side Cindy Corstange of The Open Shutter. We had a great time walking down the beach and boardwalk looking for the perfect location, which seemed to be at every turn. I loved Cindy's energy and how she took on the day. Later I learned that this was her third wedding that weekend...wow, give me a shot of what she has....impressive.

During the wedding preparation I got a chance to hang out with Brannon while he was waiting...which is a typical preceremony tradition for grooms. Brannon talked about how he wanted to be more than just a wedding day where people came and left. So they planned a weekend with their guests, including a day at the beach, wave runners, food, drinks, and a roof party downtown St. Joe....sign me up....and that was before the wedding day. Brannon & Yana truly enjoyed their wedding day and the time they spent with their closest friends and family, and it truly showed in the footage we captured from the day. Until the release of their wedding movie, here is a sneak peek at Yana & Brannon's wedding movie.

Full Service Event Planning: Stella Event Design
Event Decor: Michael Angelo's
Florist: Bloomie's
Ceremony: Shadowland Pavilion
Photography: The Open Shutter
Reception: The Heritage Center
Catering: Bistro at the Boulevard

My First Wedding....

2009-06-25T20:47:00-07:00

...well okay maybe not my first wedding since we have been filming weddings since 2000, but this was my first wedding where I shot camera two...and it wasn't a video camera. It is a good thing that I was accompanied by my super talented wife of Captured Photography. After shooting weddings with me for the past 9 years and being a photographer since high school, she has finally decided to offer wedding photography as well. This was her third wedding and she has several more on the books for 2009. I have a feeling I will be shooting second camera for her on my "weekends off", especially after the amazing images that I captured. It is hard to tell which ones were mine, but if you like them, I am sure they were mine ;-) I also learned that videographers are used to shooting at 30 frames a second and I shoot near that photographing this wedding....sorry hon for all the extra work....and thanks for letting me steal your blog post. I am a big fan and love your work. If I were to do it all over again, I would have you photography my wedding....okay, maybe that wouldn't work out too well :-|

It was getting so hot and to cool off Lindsay was twirling... I thought she looked so cute!

Look Who is ONE!

2009-06-12T22:00:00-07:00

My beautiful, sweet, sweet Lauren... is ONE. I really cannot believe how fast this past year flew!! Lauren is such a good baby. She likes to be held... but is very content otherwise! She just sits back and takes in all the activity around her. It was only yesterday that she began crawling!! I haven't minded her laid back nature one bit. She is a joy and we all adore her... it is so sweet to see how the kids fight over who gets to go in her room to get her when she wakes up. She certainly is the center of our little home and we are so excited to celebrate her One Year birthday! We love you little Lauren and are excited to see how God is going to use you for His purposes and His glory. Happy birthday.

Her Splits... crack us up... it is pretty impressive too...

Trashing it on the Farm

2009-06-12T12:26:36-07:00

I remember Stephanie saying at the end of her wedding, as we were walking around downtown getting some great night shots,"I'll give you a call, we're gonna trash the dress this summer". I remember thinking, I like the way she thinks....

Well a couple of weeks ago we did just that. I traveled down to Dowagiac (a fun word to say, but not so much to spell), and we trashed it at Silverstone Farms, Matt's family's farm. There are tons of reasons why brides decide to trash the dress and I could tell Stephanie's reason was just to have fun, and fun we did.

Not sure what we would find on the farm, I was glad we had an assortment of unexpected items to work with; an overturned car, tractors, manure shredder, a derby car, a swamp (I guess 50F ruled that out), and tons of farming equipment. I love how Stephanie was able to be herself and have tons of fun with the shoot, and I love how Matt escorted us around to all of the various locations, he was probably a bit nervous that we would become the next overturned car.

It was great to shoot along side Tim Motley of Motley Cat Studios again. He definitely has a passion for what he does. You can check out his TTD images here.

Stephanie, thanks for having me do this, I had a great time! Matt & Stephanie, you definitely have it "going on".

Captured Productions - Click to play

Jordan Picasso....Coming Soon!

2009-05-31T19:22:19-07:00

One of the biggest holidays are coming up...at least in Jordan's eyes...his birthday. Ever since Christmas, he has been asking me how many more days until his birthday...I am so glad "they have an app for that"...172 more days Jordan.

Ever since I started creating movies for others, I promised Renee' that I would never get too busy to create them of our kids. I can't say I have not gotten too busy to create them, but I have found a way to continue to create them throughout the years...I'm not doing anything from 1AM to 6AM anyways right?

Each year Jordan has a theme for his birthday party, usually chosen 6 months in advance. With every theme we try tie it to his annual birthday video and show it at the party or send it as a DVD invitation. In the past it has been, Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and this year he threw us a curve ball, "Dad, this year I want an art party". Wow, an art party, how do you create a video about art. I gave it a few months to sink in...still nothing...what if it was only 30 seconds long?...still nothing. In his past movies Jordan has played the part of Jordan Skywalker and Indiana Jordan. I asked Jordan, "what should we call this movie", he replied "Jordan Picasso", in his best French accent. At least now we have a title, which was very fitting since that has been Jordan's nick name ever since he was 2 and he colored the neighbor boys entire face blue and his own countless times. Jordan has always loved art, and if you ask him what he is going to be when grows up, he will confidently say, "an artist". Okay, an artist video it is for sure now, but I still don't have a clue what it looks like.

Renee' & I started brainstorming the idea together...and leave it up to Renee' to come up with the most brilliant idea. I can't give away all the details yet but it involves nature, a very creative boy and A LOT of paint. The video will debut right here on this blog on June 3rd, in time for his June 22nd birthday. Until then, here is a shot from behind the scenes of "Jordan Picasso"

Share Your Story - DVD Wedding Invitations

2009-03-11T17:23:22-07:00

Well hats off to Josh and Kaylie for stepping outside the box and working with us to create a truly unique wedding invitation for their upcoming wedding. It started with Kaylie asking..."what do you think about creating a DVD wedding invitation......to this! The amazing photos were shot and edited by none other than Sara from sara anthony photography.

Picture this....you send out 100's of invitations to your big day and instead of getting an expected normal invitation, you open the envelope and pull out this....

...after you untie the bow...... (great colors by the way Kaylie).... there is their engagement photo by sara anthony photography.....

...and the best part (in my opinion) their invitation & DVD....

...pop the DVD into your DVD player or computer....and witness not only Josh's proposal, but also a fun story of how they met, ending with an invite to join them for the rest of their story on their wedding day....

....now sit back and enjoy how Josh & Kaylie met....oh and tell all of your friends getting married about this super cool idea....