Summer has barely started and yet I feel like it is almost done. Anyone else feel that way?

June was jam-packed with a weekend trip to celebrate my best friend’s 40th birthday, normal activities, extra end-of-year activities, a houseguest, and because I needed one more thing to do, I took a film-making course. The course was The Film Workshop by Emily Mitchell of Everyday Films. It was a 4 week, online, self-paced class that taught me to use my DSLR to shoot video and make a film. It started out pretty slow and I wanted to know more, but as our lives got busier, the course information and pace ramped up.

june 2017 ~ kellie pecoraro from Kellie Pecoraro Photography on Vimeo.

I found that a lot of the principles I am familiar with in photography carried over nicely into film. I also found that lots of what I’m comfortable with in still photography disappeared in film. Like auto-focus. I had to learn to manually focus. On an LCD in the bright sun. Definitely a challenge for someone who is used to looking through the viewfinder or using an LCD to review images in overcast skies. Instead of trying to steady myself and hold still to take an image, I had to learn to steady myself AND move to create visual interest while recording in this new-to-me media format. Throw in trying to record audio that adds to the story you’re creating, trying to expose and choose the proper white balance, and do all of this at the same time was very challenging! Not to mention trying to switch between video and stills because I still wanted some stills of the things we were doing. It was like juggling while riding a bike. Which I can’t do. Yet… but I’m pretty sure I’ll be a far better film-maker than a juggling bike rider. Haha!

We started the month out with a weekend away at a friend’s family lake house at Lake Roesiger. What a treat to stay here with friends! It was a beautiful lake, we had great weather, better company, and the house was fantastic too! I spent most of the weekend playing with video even though we hadn’t really even learned any techniques yet. I am lucky that I had some usable footage at all! It was a good thing we had a nice relaxing weekend because from there, we hopped right into warp speed. Field Day at school, Grandpa’s arrival, dance recital, Father’s Day, swim lessons, preschool graduation/moving up ceremony, my first time second-shooting a wedding and a family session the very next morning, and then the Last Day of School. Throw in a few playdates, a splash park visit, zoo visit, and lots of ice cream, and that was our June. Anyway, I don’t need to keep explaining, you can watch it here! And at the end of the post, a few bonus stills from the same time frame as the video.