First Floor Films Wedding Videos | Philadelphia | San Francisco | New York

Ryan Howard of the Philadelphia Phillies Crashes a Wedding

This past Friday First Floor Films was shooting Kim & Micah's wedding at The Waterworks Restaurant in Philadelphia. Kim, Micah and their families are huge Phillies fans. Excitement is definitely in the air this week for both families as Kim & Micah were getting married AND the Phillies just won their 2nd consecutive National League Championship! Kim had made up a "fake" place-card for some of her favorite, famous Philadelphians as if they were attending her wedding. Well.....one of the place-cards had Mr. Ryan Howard's name on it. And he actually showed up!!! Channel 6 Action News contacted me last night to get a copy of some of the raw footage from Ryan Howard's appearance and Kim & Micha's wedding. They aired the story this morning on the 6 AM broadcast. Check it out below. Congratulations to the newlyweds, Kim & Micah! And of course, GO PHILLIES!!!!! (Shooting credit goes out to my dad Andy on this. Thanks for being on top of this and capturing this great moment for Kim & Micha, Dad!)

Thank you for my Thank you

Just the other day I received a surprise package at my front door from Corso's Cookies
I opened the box to find a very sweet (literally) gift from Allison & Tom, one of our recent couples. Thanks you guys. I will definitely enjoy these sugary cervezas!

Thank you from Lauren & Anthony

Just the other day I received a beautiful thank you note from Lauren & Anthony, who Held their wedding last year at Congress Hall in Cape May, NJ. Lauren has been so good to us since we first met her and Anthony almost a year ago. We had such an incredible time with them on their wedding day, mainly because THEY were having such a great day together! Thank you Lauren & Anthony for such a nice card. Dawn and I hope to see you both again soon!
The photography on their thank you cards was done by the lovely and talented Kamila Harris.

The following clip is Lauren & Anthony's "Coming Soon" Trailer. Enjoy!

Smith Family Portait Session

This past Sunday was a gorgeous day for a photo shoot! Dawn and I met up with Jenn Childress and Tom and Beth Smith at Ridley Creek State Park. Jenn had a family portrait session scheduled with Tom, Beth and 9 month old Tommy (who was VERY well behaved all afternoon). I came along because Jenn has a new toy for me to play with!
While Jenn was shooting photos of the Smith family, I borrowed her new Canon 5D Mark II to shoot some HD video of The Smiths.
Being able to use this camera was like opening the Atari 2600 on Christmas morning in 1983. Except I held the jumping and screaming in check this time. And, now that I think about it, I probably would still refuse to let me sister play with the 5D.....so maybe it's exactly like the Atari 2600. But I digress.
The footage from this camera just looks sooooo good! Shooting with top notch still photo lenses and their superior image quality was a real treat to a gear nerd like me.
Onto the video! This clip mixes some of Jenn's beautiful images with video footage into a unique look at a moment in time with the Smith Family and their young son, Tommy. These types of videos only get better with time. As Tommy grows up, he and his family will have this one afternoon frozen in time to look back on for years to come. I know that ALL of the photos and film/video that my family has are some of the most treasured items in our homes. I hope Tommy will feel that way about this short clip in the years to come....after the teenage years of course when he will be embarrassed at the very existence of the video! Enjoy.

PS: To see this clip in all of it's true HD glory click here.

Test Footage from the new Canon 5D MarkII

My friend and wedding photographer Jenn Childress recently purchased a new Canon 5D MarkII. I took it for a test run around Jenn's office while she was doing some work. This is the first bit of video that I have shot with a DSLR. The shallow DOF is incredible. I love the look of video shot with a wide open aperture. However, hand holding a DSLR while shooting video makes for some shaky footage.
I am well aware that this may be the absolute nerdiest post I have ever made to this blog. And many brides/brides to be will probably not share my enthusiasm for this clip. But, because I am a closeted huge nerd, I found it very interesting! Anyway, here is the first test. You can see it in HD here.

Phun with Philly Photogs

Earlier this winter a few local area wedding photographers and I met up and headed into the cold streets of Philadelphia to shoot some photos, video and super-8 film....kinda just for fun. I put this video together of our exploits. The featured Philadelphia based wedding photographers including myself are: Sofia Negron, Ryan Estes, Joy Moody and Jenn Childress.
Yes, we are all that dorky.
Yes, it was a lot of fun.
No, I don't regularly take my pants off in public.

Our Cats (Pomey & Bella) on Super-8 Film

I have been shooting more and more Super-8mm film during weddings (ours included), our honeymoon and just overall in general. I absolutely love this stuff! It's so nostalgic looking and it really gives a wedding video a truly unique and retro feel.
I recently tested out a film stock that I had never used before. I was putting some Kodak Vission2 200T film through some lighting and exposure tests in our home and I needed some models. Luckily our cats were willing to work for peanuts....well catnip to be specific. But, once I gave them some of the "good stuff" they were happy to work with me. The following clip is their screen test. I am currently acting as their manager too. So, anyone interested in booking the kitties for commercials and/or magazine shoots can call me directly:)

Personal - Plastic - Photos

Happy 2009 everyone! Now that the LOOONNNGG Christmas break is over, it is back to work in a major way. This means no time for blogging right? Wrong!! Well, sorta....no time for a wedding related entry. Instead I've decided to post just a few pics from the most recent rolls of film I had developed. All of these were taken with my lovely point and click of a camera.....the Holga. Put simply, this camera is a black plastic box that you load 120mm film into and snap away. Very easy and lots of fun.....with unpredictable results! Enjoy.

Downtown San Francisco from Coit Tower.

North Beach.

St. Peter and Paul's in North beach. I've shot many a wedding in this church.

Sonoma.

Dawn and Gammy.

A Christmas Carol from me in 1977

We are very fortunate in our family to have had my dad be so conscientious with his record keeping of my sister and I as little children. While we were growing up my dad was NEVER without a camera in his hand. This is probably why today, I am NEVER without a camera in MY hand. Because of all of the photos and film/video that my dad captured from years ago, we now have such gems as the following Super-8 film clip on hand in the vaults of our family archives.
This is but one clip from one Christmas. There are many, many more like this one....some even more embarrassing and telling of who I really am. This is from my grandparent's house on Christmas day in 1977. I was 2 and a half. My sister, Meredith was just about 4 months old. Merry Christmas. Enjoy!

Dawn's Last game

Tonight is Dawn's last field hockey game of the season.  Her Truman Tigers made some big improvements from last season and the girls will finish out a hard fought and successful season tonight at home.  As always, I will be there shooting!

Dawn and I have barely even seen each other since our honeymoon in July (photos are coming soon....I promise Baby).  She teaches and coaches all week long, and I am out shooting weddings all weekend long.  So we sometimes get to say hello and goodbye to each other as we pass in the house.  But, hopefully as my wedding season winds down and her nights will now be freed up a bit, we will get to see just a bit more of each other!