First HV-20 Test Footage

Test footage with JES Deinterlacing Applied from Stephen on Vimeo.

Here is some test footage that I threw together last night from my new HV-20 camera. Hopefully this helps for those of you wanting to see examples. Two items to note: 1) Please click on the title to go to Vimeo and watch the full HD version- the version listed in the blog is not as high quality as the source one is. You can download the source footage by clicking here. 2) I have not yet mastered all of the export features here at home, consequently, this Vimeo clip is not a completely accurate depiction of what the camera can do... yet. You'll notice that (especially in full-screen mode) there is some artifacting and 'lining' occuring in some of the footage. This is a result of my export settings, and not from the camera itself. I am working on fixing this and setting up an HD video worflow that will allow me to upload seamless HD videos to Vimeo in the future. Enjoy the random test footage!

Have a small fortune burning in your pocket?

Then why not buy your very own man-made island? In fact, while you're at it, why don't you buy one that is a chain of islands designed to look like the world. Located off the coast of oil-rich Dubai, 'The World' is the perfect place to blow all that extra money that you just happen to have laying around...

Okay, so seriously- this is a pretty crazy concept. Celeste and I had a lot of fun loooking at this site and viewing the videos they have posted. I still can't believe that this is actually real. What a concept- and I thought terraforming to this degree only existed in sci-fi world.

An Unprompted Update on Life in General

Tomorrow I will have officially been married for three weeks. Can I wear the hat of the old married man now? These post-wedding days have been filled with cleaning, organizing, and preparing to move to a new home yet again. The contractor that is building our cozy, little condo has moved up the production time a whopping four months; that puts our projected move-in date at March 27th. I am excited to finally own a place- no more rental fees and upkeep to a house/apartment that you have no monetary investment in. We couldn’t ask for a better location too. Once there, we’ll be 2-3 minutes from our church, my gym, our bank, and a host of other very convenient places. God has been so good to provide us with this opportunity and we look forward to using this blessing for his glory.

Work has been busy recently with a host of projects coming down the proverbial design pipeline. I’m pulling double duty as a print and web designer right now which offers unique challenges, but also great pay-off in the end. I think the work that is being created in conjunction with the web and creative service teams are deliverables that we can really stand behind. I’m especially excited about Food for the Hungry’s new website which should be launching in the not too distant future. I have been recruited to do all of the conceptual/development design work for this goliath of a project and am looking forward to the challenges it will provide me with. We are really hoping to deliver something here that will blow people’s expectations away. It’s exciting to be working for an organization that you completely believe and support- it makes the drive for excellence and desire to further the reach of the organization that much more personal. I’m really praying that this new website, as well as the accompanying print materials, will do just that.

We were able to get ‘back in the groove’ with church activities this last week, which was wonderful. The wedding planning had taken up much of our free time and we hadn’t been able to participate in ministries or extra church activities too frequently during that time. However, this week I was able to jump back in the saddle by giving my first devotional in awhile to our college and career group (thank you so much David for covering during our wedding planning!). I did a talk on legalism in the church… more specifically though, what a Biblical definition of legalism is. It was a somewhat weighty issue to touch on, but the Lord taught me a lot through the experience. We also had a men’s group this past Tuesday; this was an edifying time for me. It was great to be surrounded by good, encouraging Christian brothers.

April will see many new experiences as well. I have back-to-back conferences scheduled at the beginning of the month (Photoshop World in Orlando, FL and a Creative Services Retreat in Strawberry, AZ). I’ve also promised my wife that we would begin a search for the first addition to our family… a cat (I had you going there at first didn't I!). Truth be told, I’m a dog person, but there are certain cats that seem to have a ‘dog-like’ personality about them- I’m hoping for one of those. At any rate, it should be a really fun month and I’m looking forward to what the Lord has in store for us.

Post Wedding Update #1

Life continues to be a trip for me! I've now been enjoying the married life for almost two full weeks. I am exceedingly thankful to the Lord for what he has done in my life and I am so very happy to have my best friend and helpmate by my side (I love you Celeste!). I still have yet to get a copy of the audio feed from ceremony from our sound guy, but my friend Elgin sent me over a small snippet yesterday of us leaving the wedding reception that he had edited. He also was kind enough to give me his raw video footage and tapes so that I can edit and arrange video later on.

Elizabeth (our dear friend and official wedding photographer) snapped a terrific shot of Elgin at the wedding which I think looks great and really captures him in the moment. Both her and Vicente (her husband) did such a great job with our engagement photos and I know the wedding ones are going to be absolutely amazing too. Celeste and I will be going to Orlando, Florida with them during the first week of April to attend the Photoshop World Conference. Once or twice a year my work will pay for me to attend conferences like these so that I can continue taking courses to hone my skillset as a graphic designer. This is a huge blessing to us, because much of Celeste's family lives in Orlando and we are going to be able to have another mini-reception there for those who were unable to attend our original one while we are there.

My great friend Darryl Poenisch was our official videographer for the big day and I know he's been hard at work editing video (Darryl you are incredible!). Between people like Darryl and Elgin, as well as our photographers Vicente and Elizabeth, we just feel so very blessed to have extensive documentation of our wedding day.

At last!

At last, I am a married man! The ceremony was beautiful, the reception went great, and the honeymoon has been extremely blessed thus far. We are enjoying the quiet shores of Maui and hope to return with lots of photos and videos to share. We went to a magic nightclub last night (Warren & Annabelle's) which was alot of fun. We ended up sitting in the very front row which is, to say the least, an experience in and of itself. The front row ends up taking part in almost every aspect of Warren's show... and also ends up getting to be the punchline of most of Warren's jokes. I was lovingly refered to as 'Gomer' for the duration of the show and definitely got ribbed more than anyone else... it was awesome! :) We have some hilarious footage on video that I may be able to upload later on.

Thank you all for your prayers and support- God is so good! Celeste and I are rejoicing greatly and marvel at what He has done in our lives.