Call Me Ed

I love the new Sprint commercial. If you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen it, watch the first video below.

What's incredible is that the entire commercial was created using still photography and flashlight animation. Sprint was cool enough to upload a behind-the-scenes video (2nd video below).

It's extremely impressive.

We're still collecting customer surveys through the end of the month, but its been interesting sorting through the submissions.

One question we asked was:

What type of photography (or other services) do you provide? (select all that apply)

The graph below shows a breakdown of the results. It was created with Apple's new Numbers application (part of iWork '08 and very sweet).

I'll post some more stats later this week.

Cheri and Kevin

Venue: Sea Venture Resort (Lauren McIntyre coordinating)

Flowers: Lori Boe

Food: Sea Venture Restaurant

My two weeks back in California started with PartnerCon and ended last weekend with a wonderful wedding on the sand in Pismo Beach. Cheri and Kevin are from the Phoenix area and I had a great time getting to know them earlier in the week. We did a last minute engagement session on Wednesday and it was a blast.

A bit of anxiety filled the air all week. A 60% chance of rain for Friday. Not good for a bride from Phoenix who's always wanted a beach wedding.

Come Friday morning, however, the skies were clear and the sun shone. As morning turned to afternoon, storm clouds rolled in. But the skies stayed dry and the 4pm ceremony went off without a hitch. At 4:30pm I was standing on a ladder in the sand–taking a group picture of Cheri and Kevin's 50 closest friends. I looked down at my 5D. Splat. A drop of rain hit my camera. "It's raining. Can we go inside?" someone asked. "It's not raining until I say it's raining." I quipped. Everyone laughed. I grabbed another frame. Splat. Splat. Splat. "Ok, now its raining. Go eat."

It's not often you see clouds like that in Pismo Beach. It's also not often I see a wedding day actually transpire on time from start to finish. I have to tip my hat to Lauren McIntyre from the Sea Venture. She did a great job coordinating.

Thank you Cheri and Kevin–I had a great time. Thank you Lauren and Lori–you guys make my job easy. Thank you Judi and Barry–It was a pleasure meeting you. Thank you Lord–for holding the rain off until 4:30.

Enjoy the images.

Cheri's dress hanging in the Sea Venture balcony window.

Getting ready.

Cheri in that same window. It's hard to take a bad picture with window light like this.

They were excited to see each other

I think their kiss lasted about 10 minutes. The pastor got a kick out of that.

Did I mention the clouds?

Lori Boe did a great job with the flowers.

The cake.

Grammar Girl is one of my favorite podcasts. Listeners now have a Flickr pool and contribute pictures of signs and marketing pieces with poor grammar. It's quite funny.

I'm tempted to submit screen shots of some photography websites, but I'm not that cruel. Well, maybe I am.

I'm occasionally baffled by the poor writing I see on some sites. I'm more forgiving with blogs. But your site is the face of your business online. Grade-school grammar mistakes tell me you're either sloppy or need to go back to school. Or both. Perhaps some discerning brides (or their moms) feel the same way.

Maybe you think it doesn't matter. Well, I do. Listen to Grammar Girl, read On Writing Well, and go through your site one more time.

PartnerCon is over and I'm back in the 805 for a week. I have a wedding to shoot next Friday but Kenneth asked me to help him shoot some getting ready images at his wedding today in Paso Robles.

I brought along my FlipVideo camera and took some action clips of Kenneth shooting the bride. I think you can learn a lot from this little clip. In just a few minutes–in the midst of chaos–Kenneth is able to grab a great series of images.

Adobe released some very exciting news recently. On August 21, Adobe announced that the next Flash Player (version 9) will support H.264 video. Flash Player 9 is currently in beta and can be installed from Adobe Labs.

What do you mean you're not excited? Well, let me tell you why you should be.

If you are a photographer, you most likely have a Flash website. Even though you take still pictures, videos–in the form of interviews, testimonials, or actual wedding clips–can add a whole new dimension to a site. Flash has supported embedded video for several versions–making the combination ideal for photographers. No additional plugins are necessary.

We've already developed some great sites with integrated video support (example and we have some more cool stuff on the way (in just a few days, actually). There's just one small hurdle remaining with Flash Player 8 and older: videos must be converted to FLV format using a proprietary codec. Translation: its a PITB for lay-people to create quality FLV videos.

That's going to change with Flash Player 9. With H.264 (aka MPEG-4 Part 10) support, making FLV files will no longer be necessary. This means you can output video files using something as simple as QuickTime Pro ($30) or as complex as Final Cut. Did I mention it supports high-definition video? Did I mention it supports full-screen video?

Imagine it. Using a sub-$1000 video camera you can record a powerful customer testimonial, upload it to your BIG Folio site, and embed it in a page. Get in touch with that videographer from your last wedding, get a clip of yourself in action and let visitors view it in full screen.

Excited yet? Get ready.

After a bit of thought and prayer, I've decided to stop participating in the OSP forum. My account has not been removed, but I will no longer be accepting personal messages or participating in discussions.

I have numerous friends and customers who are members of OSP and I value their relationship immensely. Most of you already keep in touch via email. For those who are used to PM'ing me, feel free to email me any time or contact me through Facebook. I know I've had the opportunity to answer questions regarding BIG Folio's services in the past. While I can no longer answer such questions, many of our customers frequent the forum and you are always welcome to contact us directly.

I wont leave you completely in the dark–the decision primarily comes down to time and my desire to avoid conflicts (both personal conflicts and conflicts of interest). We have wonderful things planned for BIG Folio over the next 6 months and as such I'm devoting a great deal of time to our products and customers.

What little time I do have for photography will be spent–get this–taking pictures.