In spite of our growing business over the past 11 years, I have always promised to create movies of our own kids. With Lauren turning 3, I just had to capture her in her element. Lauren has such a unique personality. She takes life straight on and makes sure she is heard, given that she is the youngest of four. I just love this Beautiful girl and as bittersweet as it is, I look forward to watching her grow up and become what God has created her to become.
Take some time to enjoy Lauren as she turns 3...{and then stop back and check out the outtakes to truely understand what Lauren is all about ;-) }
If you would like to see more "Day in the LIfe" films, check them out here, and let us know if we can create one for you.
Other Recent Deckrow Videos:
I love weddings that have a theme. Meghan & Erik's definitely did that. Their wedding took place in front of an old school house in Frankenmuth, where Meghan arrived by horse and carriage and they both drove off in a Model T. Their reception was in their hanger with a Paris theme (later to find out that was where Erik was going to take Meghan on their honeymoon). We had the chance to shoot along side Marek Dziekonski of Dziekonski Photography. We love to work with creative photographers. Marek was great to work with and capture their wedding day. With Meghan being a photographer, you know she did her homework and with much research came across Marek....no pressure Marek :-) You can see what Marek captured of Meghan & Erik on his blog.
Not only was it a beautiful day but I Meghan & Erik had to be the nicest couple. The first time meeting Erik, I thought he was a family member or something. He walked around calm and relaxed, like he wasn't getting married that day. He walked up to me and asked if he could get me anything...you have a good man Meghan. Yes, Meghan had that great smile on all day, you could tell that she truely enjoyed her wedding day. She never go stressed and yet everything fell into place pefectly. What a great couple.
Take a step back in time and enjoy some highlights from Erik & Meghan's wedding day.
10 years after the start of Captured Productions and 3 years after the launch of Captured Photography, we have opened our studio. This was a long time coming and is a must to support the growth and our plans for the future of Captured Productions and Captured Photography. I love the opportunity to get creative, to start with a blank canvas and create a mood, look, and feel. I loved seeing all of my ideas come together, and now I have a place outside of my in home studio to bring clients and offer them more in the way of photography, options, and ambiance.
You can find our new studio in the Ashman Plaza (Map), Downtown Midland. Until you get a chance to visit us, take a sneak peek at our new space.
Sure you can learn a lot about us on our website, our blog, Facebook, Twitter....and on and on.... This week you can learn more about Captured Productions on Modern Day Floral's Blog. You may recognize their work from a wedding we were both a part of this summer, Steve & Pam's wedding day. Be sure to check out our post as well as Modern Day Floral's beautiful work.
That is the question this week...and the answer is "yes". Renee' & I will be heading down to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic to photograph and film a wedding...no I didn't complain...or give it too much consideration. Needless to say we are pretty excited to shoot against this backdrop. Don't get me wrong we will be heading down a little early and staying a few days after to enjoy some time just the two of us & no kids...sure hope we don't get bored ;-)
What better way to come back from a beautiful trip than to come back to Grand Rapids to see our kids and visit family for Thanksgiving...plenty to be thankful for.
In case you are like me and you hear any place outside of the United States you have to Google it, Punta Cana is in the Caribbean South West of Florida. Good thing for Google Maps so I know where we are headed.
We will be back in the studio Tuesday, December 1st....wow! next up Christmas...what a great time of the year :-)
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!
Well, I know I have already posted Tianna & Williams wedding day on our blog....at least their wedding trailer, but I can't help but show off Renee's work as well. I love that she shoots weddings and that we got to shoot along side each other. What great images. You can check out more of her work on her blog, or learn more about Captured Photography on her website.
Great work Renee!!!
I loved the glow in this room... and it was really special to sneak up on Will & Tianna as they were practicing their first dance...
Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your wonderful day! Enjoy!
It is always nice to shoot a wedding close to home, in this case only 6 miles round trip. Nick & Joelle could have been a more perfect couple. It was hard to catch Joelle not smiling and Nick having a great time with his groomsmen...sometime too good of a time :-) It made for great video and made the telling of their story easy.
For the first time I got the chance to shoot along side of Ryan Collier of Ryan Collier Studios. Ryan was great to work with, not only did he help Nick & Joelle relax and enjoy their day, he got some pretty great images as well. Below is a personal favorite of mine. I even have to give him credit for on of the opening shots in the video below, where the bridal party is moving around Nick & Joelle.
photo by Ryan Collier Studios
After a beautiful wedding at St Brigid's in Midland and walking through Dow Gardens. We headed over to The Great Hall. I love the footage that we got from that day and I can't wait to show more, but until then here is a sneak peak at Nick & Joelle's wedding day.
I have always loved sports montages ever since I was young and had no way of producing them. Since the start of Captured Productions 9 years ago, I have had the opportunity to create many sports highlights and promo videos, from football to cheerleading. You can check out some of the past sports videos in the archives of our blog. I love the way that this turned out and I can't take any credit for it. Amanda who has worked for Captured Productions for the past 7 years, produced, shot, & edited this video for R-Athletics. I love that I have a great team working with me. Sit back and be inspired by the amazing feats of these young gymnasts. Great work Amanda!
Wow what a great weekend! Beautiful day...beautiful wedding...beautiful couple...beautiful photographer.... Renee' & I were at the Henry Ford, Lovett Hall this weekend. We had the opportunity to capture Tianna & William's wedding day with both photography and videography. We were joined by Amanda of Captured Productions and Sara Anthony of Sara Anthony Photography, from Atlanta (thanks Sara for making the trip). I have to admit I am lov'n Renee's wedding work. As I post this, I am watching her edit images from this weekend and look forward to what she comes up with. Great work hon! Stay tuned to her blog for some great images from the day.
Tianna & William's wedding was a classic theme, which fit perfect with her silk dress and wedding ceremony and reception at The Henry Ford. They were married in front of a back drop of six foot flowered cherry trees and gorgeous flowers from Lil' Pear Tree. Christina from the Henry Ford helped Tianna & William make their day what it was. In the words of Tianna, "she was terrific".
The day couldn't have cooperated more perfectly, beautiful dramatic clouds all day without a drop of rain...and 70 degrees in July....sign me up! The evening concluded with Royce and his band who rocked it and kept the dance floor jump'n.
Tianna & William, thank you so much for entrusting the memories of your day with us, we definitely don't take that lightly and are excited about the footage and images that we were able to capture. We can't wait to share them with you. Until then here is a sneak peek at your wedding day movie.
How will you remember your wedding day? A very important question every couple should ask themselves. Photography?...there is no better way to grab an emotion and freeze it in time...a must and a great way to have beautiful art from your wedding day that will live on for generations. Cinematography?...there is no better way to relive the sight and sounds from one of the most important days of your life and then be able to share it with your kids years down the road. I often tell my potential clients to imagine if they were able to watch the wedding day of their parents or even grand parents, and hear their vows and watch them so young and in love...how great would that be?
Well a couple weeks ago I got the privilege to edit together a short montage of a wedding day filmed in 1959. Watching the couple in motion I was again struck with the power of video. Imagine if they opted to not have their wedding day filmed to later watch at their 50th anniversary party, sitting with their kids and grand kids.
Fortunately, due to the amazing talent that is available as well as the publicity wedding cinematography has received on blogs and the web, we are seeing more and more couples understand the power of video. Here is the montage that was created for this couple for their 50th anniversary...we love that we create a wedding movie every week that 50 years down the road will be viewed by the couples kids and grand kids to watch how it all got started.
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).
...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!
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...
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".
I am so excited with the way that Jordan's video turned out. I have to say I had my doubts at first, but with Renee's brilliant idea and an amazingly cute boy who loves to ham it up for the camera, we have success! Jordan's movie was also inspired by the movie "August Rush", which is fitting since music is another one of Jordan's passions. In the words of Jordan, "this is AWESOME!"...I couldn't agree more.
Jordan, you are truly one unique kid, to quote your grandpa Deckrow, "I am not sure what makes you tick". Like you have said many times, Jesus has a big plan for my life, all I have to do is ask him what it is and he will show me. Well, I can't wait to see all that He has in store for you my little buddy, and I am excited to be a part of that journey with you. Your humility and love for life is evident. You are definitely one of a kind...and you rock! Thanks for producing your movie with me, you definitely had A LOT of input. You are the coolest 7 year old around. Happy Birthday "Jordan Picasso". I love you! -Dad
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"
Other Recent Deckrow Videos:
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....
If something happens and you don't blog about it....did it really happen? Well in our case it did. Early this year we have been working with Michael of Holy Cow Creative on a new look and logo for Captured Productions, and we are just now blogging about it. We have been able to incorporate it into our multiple lines of Captured Productions. Shown here is our new logo for CP Wedding Films. I have to admit I love the new look and look forward to showing it off. We have already started on our website, facebook page, and now our blog.
So Josh & Kaylie are getting getting married this April. They not only had their proposal captured on video, but they wanted to share their story with their guests, not at the reception like often is the case, but as part of their invitation. Yes, we created our first DVD invitation. I have to admit, I was nervous at first because I didn't want it to be corny.....you know you don't just mess with a brides invitation that is going to hundreds of her closest friends and family. Well the good news is that it turned out great and the presentation was better than I could have ever hoped for......the bad news is that I have not received the green light to show it online until the official invitations go out, which I hear is this week. So stay tuned for more on this super cool idea to use video to share your story with your friends and family in a unique way that is sure to stand out.
We are all about telling stories....most of the time they are wedding stories but from time to time we get to tell a little more of the story, no not their "Love Story", their engagement story. All good engagements begin with "The Proposal". If you are like Amanda you see the importance of having that part of the story captured. Amanda went as far as making it a requirement of engagement. Yes, you heard me, Matt ran the risk of rejection on one knee if there was not photo and video documentation of the big question. Well, Matt not only lived up to having it all captured, but you raised the bar for any guy.
So any of you brides to be out there with engagement around the corner, take a tip from Amanda and make sure your engagement story is captured as well as your wedding story.
Well enough of my introduction....Matt says it all in his proposal to Amanda at the Grand Traverse Resort in Traverse City, MI....
This post wouldn't be complete without showing off the images captured by my very talented wife Renee' of Captured Photography. Check out more of her work at http://www.capturedphotographyart.com or her blog at http://capturedproductions.typepad.com/cp_photography.
Recent Comments