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"The Amazing Wedding"

Nicole did not want one of those "foo-foo" cute and cudly wedding videos. She was all about the comedy and all about the fun. And since she and her man ("Edge") were big "Amazing Race" fans, we dreamt up this fun and unique wedding movie opening highlights. WARNING: This is not your typical wedding video. This is not something we'd do for every client. It was tailor made for Nicole and Edge. Do not try this at home. :-)

Enjoy!

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Photography by Michelle Walker.
Wedding design and coordination by Taylor Nguyen of Ha Lé Events.
Location Ritz Carlton Half Moon Bay.
DJ Calvin Lathan of Bay Area Entertainment

Ron and Tasra Speak in Vegas

Last week was a whirlwind of a week for the Dawson clan. We drove to Vegas for the Wedding and Event Videographer's Association annual expo. Tasra and I did a presentation on effective blog marketing. We had a terrific turnout and great feedback. (See photo below of our ballroom).

There are still a lot of people in our industry who have not hopped on the blog bandwagon yet, many for fear that it will take up too much time. However, Tasra has a great approach for managing your time. Basically, it's batch processing. Set aside a 1-3 hour block per week to do all your blogging. Most blog software will allow you to time posts so that they publish on future dates. Write three or four posts and have each one post every other day or so for that week.

There's no doubt blogging is here to stay as a valid and effective part of any company's marketing mix. Those of you out there willing to learn now how to utilize this powerful social media tool, will get the jump on your competitors who don't.

As part of our presentation we showed a hilarious video we found on YouTube. For all you fellow bloggers out there, is this what you're doing? :-)

technorati tags: WEVA, Las_Vegas, Ron_Dawson, Tasra, Blogging

Pictage PartnerCon Video Premieres

Pictage is perhaps the largest back-end post production service for professional photographers in the U.S. Chances are if you're a bride whose recently ordered photos from your photographer, you used Pictage to order prints, albums, and more. Every year at their PartnerConference, they gather some of the greatest wedding and portrait photographers in the country to train, network, and fellowship with other photographers. We had the honor of producing their promo video for the 2007 "tour." And the line up of photographers appearing in this video reads like a who's who list, having shot the weddings of such high profile clients as Tom and Katie, Brad and Jen, Eva and Tony, the Kennedy's, and more. As I mentioned when I posted the first video we released for them, what I found interesting was that despite the celebrity clientele many of these artists have had the honor to shoot, it doesn't appear to have gone to their heads. They are fun, down-to-earth, regular folk who like to have a good time and are totally relatable. If you're a professional photographer whose followed the careers of some of these pros, you might be surprised at how accessible and approachable and helpful they are in helping other photographers grow. The L.A. PartnerConference is Sept 12 -13.

Enjoy the video. Click the image to play.

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technorati tags: Pictage, PartnerCon, Photography, Mike_Colon, Denis_Reggie, Bob_Davis, Mike_Larson, Mera_Koh, Jules_Bianchi, Sara_France, Jeff_Jochum, Robert_Evans,Pepper_and_Mitch,

An Oldie but a Goodie

The past few posts I've shown some clips from my own wedding movie in honor of my anniversary. Seeing those old Cinematic Studios productions has left me nostalgic for some of our other older projects. So, as we wait for some of the newer weddings to come online, I thought from time to time I'll share with you some of our early productions. Ones that really helped set the foundation for the company in terms of style and uniqueness.

"Love's Journey Home" - A Momentous Occasion
The first blast from the past I'll share with you is from a wedding we shot back in May of 2004. This wedding was special for a couple of reasons. One, it was the very first wedding where I hired an entirely separate crew to shoot the wedding. We already had a booking for the same date and I knew I wanted to grow the company in such a way where we could handle multiple weddings on the same day (and franky, I just didn't want to lose the business).  The second reason this clip is special is because it's the first time I ever edited a wedding in an edgy, contemporary and avant-garde style. It was so well-received by perspective clients, that it remained on our demo DVD up until just earlier this year. It's still one of my favorites. I think you'll like it too. This is the opening highlights clip.

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A Hot Couple

As you may recall, last Friday was my fifth wedding anniversary. Tasra and I had a great time celebrating in Napa before coming home back to "reality."  Naturally, one of the things we did was reminisce about memories from our wedding day. (Thanks goodness for our wedding video!) Anyway, one of our fondest memories was the little case of the "Infamous 99 cent Candle Incident." To fully appreciate the clip you're about to watch, understand that just the night before, Tasra and I were bragging proudly how we made our own unity candles with a 99 cent candle and some ribbon, instead of paying $30/candle for the ones at the wedding store. I guess the moral of this is "You get what you pay for." (Notice may witty comeback at the end as I point to the totally blackened and burnt candle and the other unscathed candle. It made the day.)

Ron's 5-Year Wedding Anniversary

Today is a big day! Five years ago today, somewhere between 2 and 2:30 pm PST, in the little old chapel of Saratoga Federated Church, Tasra and I publicly proclaimed our love for one another and became husband and wife. (And no, I'm not blogging on my anniversary. I wrote this two days ago and had it timed to post today. I'm chillin' in Napa right now with my woman.) What an amazing day that was. It was a simple wedding. Just about 50 guests. The ceremony was in the old chapel and the dessert buffet reception was in the courtyard. Wow! It seems so long ago. Naturally, I had it video taped. We were a young company then. The business had only started three months earlier. I couldn't operate the camera myself so I hired another company to shoot it. I edited it later. I want to share part of it with you today. It may not be as cool and cutting edge as our current work but I still think it's pretty special. And after five years, I still think it holds up pretty well even against new stuff that's out there.

A special part of the ceremony for me was when I said vows to my step daughter Imahni (seven at the time). To get the full power and meaning, you have to know that Tasra was a single mom for seven years. And, as you can tell from the video, Imahni is half African-American. It's hard enough being a single mom. But it must be harder when you're blond with green eyes and your daughter is black. But Tasra was a trooper and the best mom in the world. Part of what made me fall in love with her was seeing how amazing her daughter was. And now, when people see us together as a family, their natural assumption is that I'm Imahni's biological dad. How cool is that. I know that God planned it that way. I am truly blessed. It just gets you all verklempt. (Tito...can you pass a tissue.)

Tasra, I love you even more today than I did five years ago (if that's even possible). Thank you so much for being an amazing mom, a best friend, a loving wife, an awesome business partner, a woman of God, and a soulmate. Te quiero muchisimo mi Chiquitita.

Enjoy!

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technorati tags: Saratoga_Federated, Wedding_Anniversary, Ron_Dawson, Tasra_Dawson, Cinematic_Studios

Girls Gone "Mild"

As the father of a 12 year old girl, I often have to play fashion police.  Call me old fashioned, but it seems like clothing for both women and girls is getting skimpier and skimpier. It's totally ridiculous what I see some of these young girls wearing. But how can you blame them? Everywhere they turn, society tells  them "less is more." Less clothing. More skin. Even in one of the local malls here, there's a Victoria's Secret store that often has large billboard sized posters of half naked women all on top of each other pouting for the camera and sticking their chests out. I kid you not. One of the posters had about four or five women, all pressed against each other, each wearing nothing but sheer panties. And I have to walk my little girl and son by this whenever we head to the food court. I'm no prude, but come on, can't they keep those billboards INSIDE? (Not to be outdone, across the way, Ambercrombie & Fitch has a floor-to-ceiling sized billoard of a half-naked man. So, this mall has both sexes covered for the tintilation factor. Geeze!)

A NEW FACE IN FASHION

Well, I'm glad to say there's a breath of fresh air out there. This week my wife interviewed an incredible young woman who has started a rather unique line of clothing. Her name is Christa Taylor, and the inspiring 20 year-old has started a line of very chic, fashionable clothing that's modest, elegant, and fun. Her designs are inspired by the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Jacqueline Kennedy Onasis, and I think she's on to something. There's actually a whole movement going on where young girls and women, tired of the sex-crazed society we live in, are redifining what it means to be "sexy," and it doesn't involve showing a bunch of T&A. At the same time, they care about fashion and looking good. I love it.

GIVING BACK TO PEOPLE IN NEED

To top it all off, Christa Taylor donates 30% of their profits to worthy causes that address issues of the poor and social injustice throughout the world. This month they are helping out an orphanage in Ta Lam, Cambodia. The organization is Warmblankets.org.

Christa is starting to get a lot of buzz and I want to help her out. Check out Christa-Taylor.com and see for yourself. I'm inspired! I hope you are too.

technorati tags: Christa_Taylor, Fashion, Modesty, Victoria's_Secret, Ambercrombie_Fitch

Funny Video Starring World's Top Wedding Photographers

I don't know what it is, but it seems like we just have a knack for getting to make hilarious videos starring the nation's top wedding photographers. First, there was the Joe Photo skit we did for WPPI this past March. Now, we had the honor of producing the video for the annual Pictage PartnerCon Tour. Pictage is one of, if not the top post-production service for wedding and portrait photographers. Many of you brides out there purchase your wedding photos via Pictage. Well, every year they gather the créme de la créme of the wedding photography world to teach and fellowship with other photographers. Such celebrated names as Denis Reggie, Mike Colon, David Jay, Bob Davis, Sara France, Robert Evans, and many, many more give of their time and talent to help promote their industry. Even my good buddies Dane Sanders and Jules Bianchi will be teaching this Septemer in L.A. And what's amazing is that they do it for free. It's all part of their way to give back to the industry.

Well, this past May was the Chicago leg of the tour and we made this little video to get people pumped up for Los Angeles. You see, something happened in Chicago that nobody wants to talk specifically about. Something that the top brass at Pictage apparently doesn't want to happen again (or do they?), but all the attendees DO want it to happen. Or, maybe nothing really happened. Who knows? You be the judge. Anyways, enjoy.

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technorati tags: Denis_Reggie, Mike_Colon, David_Jay, Me_Ra_Koh, Bob_Davis, Robert_Evans, Joe_Photo, Jules_Bianchi, Sara_France, Dane_Sanders, Pictage, WPPI, Comedy, Wedding_Photography