Oahu, Hawaii Family Videographer | Holiday Video Card for Alex

How do you make a US Marine cry you ask?

You send him a surprise holiday video card from his beautiful wife and one year old daughter while he is deployed overseas for the holidays.

We filmed the sweetest family a few weeks ago as part of our Holiday Video Card Giveaway.  I had never met Ashley and her daughter Maci and her mother in law Michelle before I arrived at their home, but before I left that afternoon, we had laughed and cried and shared our life stories and I felt like we had known one another for years.  

Ashley's husband Alex is a United States Marine and is deployed overseas for the holidays. Ashley entered our giveaway and won this video.

Out of all the entires for the giveaway, Ashley's story stood out from the rest.  I was once a young mother with a baby girl in a town far away from my family while my husband was deployed overseas, so her story tugged at my heart when I read it. The Bowman's were recently stationed in Hawaii and like most of us military families here, she doesn't have family here so she was planning to be extremely homesick for the holidays, alone with her daughter and without her husband. That was until her mother in law Michelle showed up in Hawaii a few days before Alex deployed with a plane ticket home for her and Maci to go home with her to visit family and friends. It wont replace her husband being gone, but I know it sure will help.  

Hopefully this short film made Alex feel a tiny bit closer to his beautiful family.   

She shared it with Alex and said he has watched it every day since and that it just might have made this big tough marine cry (which is my ultimate goal in life LOL).   

Contact us to create your own holiday video card or family film.  

Oahu, Hawaii Videographer | Holiday Video Card GIVEAWAY for ONE SPECIAL MILITARY FAMILY! (A $250 Value)

Do you know a Hawaii family with a deployed service member that will be overseas during the holidays? Maybe YOUR husband or wife is going to be deployed over the holidays this year?

We love to give back and want to help spread some Christmas love for one special Hawaii family. We are searching for the right family to document this holiday season for. As a military family, we know what is like to be separated from loved ones during the holidays. This year, because we aren't available to be a part of the annual Very Merry Military Minis as we have been for the past two years, we will be giving away ONE HOLIDAY VIDEO for ONE special military family whose service member is deployed over the holidays.

Your holiday video card will be filmed in your home. Not sure what a Holiday video card is? . You with your kiddos doing your thing, as well as a message of you and your family talking to your loved one. To give you a better idea, take a look at these two videos : 

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How to Enter
Entering is easy! Fill out this form, be as specific as you can so we know more of your story. Then click ENTER! We'll inform you of the winner by December 1. Must be available for filming between December 1-15, 2016. 

Eligibility
Families with a deployed service member during the 2016 holidays. Must be 18 or older to enter and a resident of Hawaii and available for filming before December 15, 2016.

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Interested in a Holiday Video Card for your family? We're currently running an amazing event you don't want to miss out on—Our Holiday Video Card Mini's! Click here for more information on Holiday Video Mini Sessions!

Have you filmed your HOLIDAY VIDEO CARD yet? | Hawaii Family Videographer

Why send a holiday card when you can send a HOLIDAY VIDEO this holiday season?

This year we are so excited to announce that for the first time ever we'll be filming Holiday Mini-Session VIDEO CARDS!

I know, I know...it's not even Thanksgiving yet! But trust me, you'll be glad to have this checked off your list before December arrives, and the holiday chaos that comes with it!

What exactly IS a holiday video card, you may ask? 

Think of it as your tradition holiday card, only WAY MORE AMAZING.  And, you don't have to lick any stamps or go to the post office.

While sending family and friends a traditional holiday card is nice and all, it doesn't really capture the essence of you and you family...how much the kids have grown, their cute little kiddo voices and all the love and squishes shared between you.

Click below at the Searcy Ohana's day at home baking cookies and snuggling in their jammies!

The Details:

Amount of time:

We come to your home and capture footage of you for 1 hour.  The activity you want to do during that time is your choice.  You can bake cookies, jump on the trampoline, sing karaoke, play board games, or just hang out and play while I capture the essence of your family.  Within a few moments of me arriving, I promise you won't even notice I am there. After awhile, I am like a fly on the wall and the camera continue to roll as the magical fun of your family unfolds. 

What you receive:

You will receive a high definition, digital download of your Holiday Video Card via Dropbox, which can then be shared to any social media platform you choose. It will be 1-2 minutes in length and contain a licensed music track. All films will be ready for delivery by December 15th.

Filming Dates in 2016:

We are taking holiday video card clients on the following weekend dates.

November 12 - 13, November 19-20, December 3-4, December 9-10.  

Price: $250

click below and Select your filming date & let's get started planning your holiday card!

Midwest Summer Tour - Sweet Deal | Minnesota and Wisconsin Videographer

RESERVE YOUR SESSION TODAY THROUGH MIDNIGHT MAY 31st

AND RECEIVE OUR

SWEET SUMMER DEAL

30% OFF

Summertime Films!  

Now booking July 1st-30th Minnesota and Wisconsin filming sessions. 

Promo code: midwestsummerdeal

Click here to book your Summertime Film

What's YOUR favorite summer activity?  

Summers in the midwest are way too short so you have to soak in as much of it as you can before it slips away.  

Growing up in Minnesota, I have fond memories of summer, but they are only that...distant memories. I have very few pictures and absolutely no home videos of my childhood.  I often reflect back on this and wonder if its the very thing that beckoned me to become a photographer, now filmmaker.

I so desperately wish I could sit down and watch a home video of my childhood.  And as my parents age and I age, the stories and memories are becoming more and more faint with each passing year.  

I wish I could go back in time and have somebody film my favorite summertime activities and the joy the brought me year after year.  

Here are a few of my favorites.  Are they yours too?

• Canoeing, tubing and white water rafting down the Cannon Falls River
• spending the day at Valleyfair
• visiting the Minnesota Zoo
• splashing around at the waterpark
• enjoying a weekend at the lake cabin with friends
• going to the Minnesota Childrens Museum and the Science Museum of Minnesota 
• camping at Boundary Waters
• hiking at Oxbow Park
• listening to local bands at First Avenue Concerts
• enjoying outdoor concerts
• exploring the Uptown Art Fair
• eating anything and everything on a stick at the Minnesota State Fair
• people watching and listening to local bands at the Basilica Block Party
• attending the Aquatennial Torchlight Parade
• enjoying the Loring Park Art Festival
• riding bikes and feeding the geese at Silver Lake
• riding horses at Ironwood Springs
• looking at art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
• watching horse races at Canterbury Park
• walking around and taking pictures of the sculpture garden exhibits at the Walker Art Center
• exploring the caves at Niagara Caves
• apple picking at Apple Ridge Orchard
• racing go-karts at Skylne Raceway
• shopping at the Mall of America and riding roller coasters at the indoor amusement park Nikelodeon Universe
• or just enjoying a typical midwestern summer at home running through the backyard sprinkler or swimming at the local pool.

I'd love to tag along, camera in hand and capture YOUR midwest summer activities in a video.  You get to have a super fun family day and a home video to cherish and relive for years to come, and I get the joy of capturing it all on film for you.  Family films capture the essence of your sweet summer moments that are all too soon forgotten as the kiddos grow up.  

Planning a trip to the lake cabin this summer? Awesome, my floatie and underwater camera are ready to go.  

Special plans for 4th of July? Cool, I will bring the sparklers and a case of my favorite strawberry Spring Grove Soda Pop. My parents both grew up in Spring Grove!  Our family has a lot of history there.  I am pretty much related to everybody in that town one way or another.  

Camping and canoe trip planned?  Have sleeping bag...will travel. Who's bringing the s'mores?

Have a trip to Valleyfair planned?  I LOVE me a scary rollercoaster, and getting soaked on the flume.  Let's do this!

Want to capture a day in the life of your summer?  Blow up the backyard pool and slip-n-slide.  Living in Hawaii with sun 365 I always have plenty of sunscreen on hand.  

I would love nothing more than to tag along with you this summer and capture all those sweet family moments for you before they slip away. 

Summer flies by so quickly.  And childhood flies by EVEN FASTER so make sure to CAPTURE IT ON FILM. so you have those precious home videos to watch for years to come.  Just think you can relive the sound of your child's squeal with delight as they jump into the lake/pool, twirl around with a sparkler on the 4th of July, run through the sprinkler in the backyard, slide down the waterslide or jump on the trampoline.

Allow Sweet Rain to be a fly on the wall this summer and capture those sweet summer memories. 

What do you get when you book a family film with us ?  

• A super fun filming session with Sweet Rain.  You decide the activity, location and duration and I show up with camera in hand ready to capture it in all its wonderfulness.  You wont even know I am there, I am like a ninja with a camera...inconspicuous like a fly on the wall. 
• A digital link and thumb drive of your film.  Just as soon the leaves on the trees are turning colors and you are getting the kids ready for a new school year you will receive (1) a digital version of your film, a link you can use to share with friends and family online, (2) a pretty little package from Hawaii which will be filled with lots of love and aloha, including some traditional Hawaii favorite goodies and a custom thumb drive including your film in which you can play on your computer or TV.  

CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR SUMMERTIME FILM

 

Summertime Films

"Capturing the Essence Your Summer"

Getting back to MY WHY....Introducing Sweet Rain Summertime Films

Have you ever heard the saying "the cobbler's children have no shoes”?  I refer to it often when I tell people I am a filmmaker and get the comment “you must have a million amazing films of your own family”. I always have to take a second to respond and come up with a really good excuse why I don’t have a million, gosh probably not even ten actual films (5 second iPhone video snippets don't count!), I am talking actual edited films.  

How embarrassing right?

The saying refers to those people who are successful at a particular craft or profession but don't demonstrate that same passion in their own personal lives.

I am so guilty of this. 

Since my youngest was born, I have been building my business and have somehow gotten away from capturing my very own precious memories.  I have been so busy capturing them for my clients that by the time I am done working for the day, the last thing I want to do is work on my own projects.  

So sad right?

A few weeks ago I sat down with a business coach and she asked me a few simple questions that really got me thinking.  She had me jot down every minute I spent during an entire week.  Doing this forced me to take a good hard look at my daily workflow and find the areas where I needed to scale back, things I needed to cut out completely and areas that I needed to spend more time on. 

In doing this I realized I was wasting precious time while my kids are in school on things that don’t promote my business or benefit my home-family-life balance.  AT ALL.

I put myself a strict “work diet”.

I immediately turned of ALL notifications on my iPhone and my computer, logged out of Facebook, closed the 28 internet browser tabs, made a plan to check and respond to emails only twice a day and forced myself to close the door to my office at 5pm and not go back in there until the next morning.  

And after the kids went to bed, instead of working late into the night (often until 3am), I forced myself to relax (this meant NO working on my laptop on the couch), got a good nights sleep and finally realized that the "urgent" email, text or phone call that I used to jump up and respond to ASAP could wait until the morning.  The planet wasn't going to starting turning if I didn't answer that email or text within 3 minutes.  

I created boundaries.  Man, was that liberating!

For the first time in over five years, I was finally PRESENT in my own life.  And I was running my business, not my business running me. 

The following week I increased my productivity, had more energy and felt 100% more focused.  And all this extra free time that I wasn't glued to my phone and computer freed up quality time with my kids.  So instead of picking them up from school and getting back to work, I decided to "be present" in my own life for the first time in a long time.  

And most importantly, I got back to MY WHY....the whole reason behind why I am passionate about filmmaking and started my business in the first place.

In being so busy working on my clients projects, I lost sight of my own passion for my craft.  And I realized while I preach to my clients about getting their digital images and videos off their phone and onto their walls or edited into a film, I wasn't taking any of my own medicine.  I was the cobbler whose children didn't have any shoes, so to speak.  I had completely neglected capturing and creating MY OWN family films.    

With this renewed sense of passion and purpose I took the kids to the beach and the park once a week after school. And I took my camera and captured MY OWN life in video.  I began creating short 30 second to 1 minute films of MY OWN family.  

I cried as I sat back and watched them. I had to forgive myself and give myself grace for being so "busy".  

So going forward, I promised my kids that I would be more present in their lives, all the while capturing those special moments and creating treasured family films for them to cherish for years to come.  

The way Silas loves to run and dance. His sweet little voice and giggle.  

Raina’s sweet demeanor as she blossoms into a beautiful young woman.  

A simple hour at the beach after school one afternoon. But oh such precious memories to me that will soon be forgotten had it not be for this film.  

So, without further ado, the first in a series of many “Summertime Films” of MY OWN family.  

Ok, I know its not officially summer here yet, but let's be honest, in Hawaii its pretty much summer 24/7/365.  More info on Summertime Films to come in a future blog post.