In the last year, I've had to turn down a lot of video inquiries. Doing video for weddings or musicians is much more time consuming and costly than still-photography, from an overhead standpoint. Not to mention that many people asked about it as well as doing still photography for their wedding... kinda hard to do one when I'm already doing the other.
Since Lancaster Photography is a small operation (meaning: myself, and a few part-time affiliates), it's just not doable or profitable at this point.
The thing is, I've been doing video editing for years and am current with the latest software/methods/formats. It's been a strong hobby of mine this entire time, along with audio post-work (see the video page for examples).
So, what to do?
I had this thought. Even if you don't hire a professional camera man with the insanely expensive video rig, you probably have (or will have) a bunch of funny, sweet, silly, stupid, or downright offensive video footage from your wedding/event that you'd like to save, but don't know exactly what to do with. I'm talking video from iPhones, Flip cams, camcorders, etc. that you or your guests filmed throughout the night.
Now, for an hourly editing fee, you can give me all of that priceless footage (I don't judge, trust me) to splice together with music, titles, transitions, captions, video enhancements, and audio enhancements... and voila! ...you have a movie! Once it's finished, I can give you the final product in any format you like, including DVD.
Contact me for rates and ideas, and let's finally do something with all those random video clips that are currently eating up space on your computer's hard drive.
US Capitol. Don't worry, I took this photo. It's not copyright infringement.
This has nothing to do with photography. Well, maybe it does. After all, I am in an industry that is certainly subject to copyright infringement.
That said, I'm growing increasingly concerned over the state of our country, the power of our government, and the things it believes it's capable of controlling.
Most are familiar with SOPA and PIPA by now, thanks to large sites like Google protesting the proposed legislation, and sites like Wikipedia voluntarily going offline for 24 hours to make their point. But today the Federal government has stepped in and shut down Megaupload, one of the world's leading file sharing sites.
This is a big deal because it starts to pave way for our government to not only get you into trouble if you share copyrighted material, but for even having copyrighted material... even if you're unaware that it's sitting on your servers.
It also potentially paves way for government to monitor and view all your private data in order to make sure you don't have any copyrighted material.
I might be naive, but I'd like to think that my grandfather didn't fight in WWII to protect a country that would just turn around and screw its citizens.
This is getting out of hand fast, and rather than go into too much detail here, please read the article I just wrote for theFIVE10.com.
2012 is shaping up to be a busy year, and it starts now I guess!
Hopefully it's a sign of a slight economic recovery, but by January 1st much of my 2012 calendar was already booked. I've had to turn away three weddings this week alone because the dates were taken, so get a hold of me soon if you think you're gonna need me. Great for business, but I hate having to turn people down.
Since the week of New Year's, I've been to Reno, NV - Carson City, NV - San Francisco, CA - Los Angeles, CA... and everywhere in between. That's a lot of driving, especially when the starter on my car is acting like it's 90 years old.
Last week I cruised down to Hollywood to work on a video with the other half of Lancaster Media (my brother Keith Lancaster), then came back to the Bay Area to finish edits on a wedding, had a couple of meetings, and then an engagement shoot here in Walnut Creek on Saturday morning. Here are a few of my favorite photos from that session:
I hope everyone had a great New Year's celebration! I was lucky enough to spend it at one of my favorite venues in San Francisco with many of my favorite people, watching my pals in Happy Body Slow Brain debut a new song and bring down the house. Can't think of many better ways to ring in the new year.
My last wedding of 2011 was for a lovely academic couple, held at Mills College in Oakland, CA. I really enjoy the intimacy of a small wedding, and I think this was the first time I've been served breakfast at one! Not to mention it was the first time I had done a wedding at a college (which apparently have chapels... didn't know that).
The room was super unique... round, with the alter in the center, and a large pipe organ on the back side. Very dimly lit, which was not conducive to photography but sure had a great atmosphere, and I managed to get some cool photos regardless.
This couple is really sweet, and I thoroughly enjoyed that they appreciated my stupid jokes throughout the day.
This has certainly been an interesting holiday season.
I'm headed to my parents' house in a bit for some Xmas eve cocktails and dinner, but I figured I'd wish my pals, clients, acquaintances (and anyone else who happens to stumble across this) a Merry Christmas!
Next week will be a fun one, as we head to Reno, NV to film the third installment of our "Gone Golfing" series... which is basically a movie about our adventures on a crappy golf course as we desperately try to make par. The last movie was 2003, so it's been almost nine years! Very much looking forward to it.
Speaking of Reno, here's a little photo of us sledding on Xmas weekend a couple of years ago. This canyon is our back yard... literally. Of course, the house isn't there anymore (see what happened to it) but that won't stop us from sledding there again! As soon as there's snow, anyway.
Sledding in our back yard in Reno, NV. Before the house burned down.
Be safe, eat food, drink some drinks, open some presents...
OK... what a crazy month. I had a clear calendar for basically all of November, which ended up being the perfect decision.
At the beginning of the month was Angela's birthday, then we headed to Gettysburg, PA for a week of relaxing and historical education with my mom and step-dad, topped off with a few days in Washington DC, then our family's house burned down in the 2,000-acre Caughlin fire up in Reno, then came Thanksgiving, then my birthday, then time to break out the decorations and get a Christmas tree!
With all the activity, it was nice to not have any "work" to do. I say "work" because I love being a photographer, so it never really feels like work to me.
Some fun things coming down the pipeline soon, so I promise more of these posts will be actually related to photography.
Until then, get yourself into the holiday spirit with this lovely photo (taken by Keith Lancaster) of me, face-planted into the snow a couple of Christmases ago:
My parents raised me with three main phrases to live by: "Life isn't fair", "Shit Happens", and "No one owes you anything". Those words of wisdom have helped me be a very self-sustaining person, and I'd like to think they also helped be deal well with bad news.
Friday, November 18th I woke up and loaded Facebook to see a friend's post about his family being evacuated in Reno because of wildfires. I thought it was weird because a) I hadn't heard anything about fires going on, and b) it's mid-November... way past fire season.
About 10 minutes later I checked my email as usual, to find a message from my mom saying that our house was gone. Excuse the language, but my only thought was "...what the fuck?"
Immediately I went to news websites in the Reno area, and it only took a few minutes before I found this image:
2410 Pioneer Dr. up in flames on November 18th, 2011.
Our house before the fire.
That's our house, where I spent much of my childhood growing up (and is still my parents' primary residence). At first I was skeptical and thought to myself, "Nah, that can't be our house. Ours has an upstairs deck on the right side". But it didn't take long to notice the unique ski lift pole that we have holding up that upstairs balcony, and I realized that the balcony was already gone.
Needless to say, it's an ordeal. My step-brother and step-sister live in Reno still, I'm in the San Francisco bay area, my younger brother lives in Los Angeles, and my parents were at their 2nd home in Gettysburg, PA at the time, getting ready to come back to Reno for the holiday season and tax season (they're CPAs).
There's nothing we can do, but I still felt restless sitting at my cafe (office) here at home and watching our house in 40-ft flames on the news. So I closed my laptop, walked home, packed a bag, and hit the road to drive the 3.5 hours to Reno just so I can be there for emotional support. As I rolled into town, it occurred to me that no one even knew I was coming, and my parents were on a plane from PA so I couldn't tell them.
Getting off highway 80, I immediately went up the hill to our neighborhood. Police cars blocked every corner and I was asked a series of questions (and had to show my ID) just to be allowed onto our street. I parked the car and got out to see our front walkway, which now leads to open air and a burned canyon behind it (click photos to enlarge):
Our front walkway. Still visible: the wall of my brother's room & our fireplace.
This house was unique. Built in 1972 (approx), the first owners were avid skiers. The design of the house reflected that, with a Tahoe-cabin look and even an authentic ski lift pole that supported our upstairs balcony. Everyone's favorite feature, however, was a bridge inside (yes, inside) the front door. As you walked over it, you could look downstairs to our den before descending into the bedroom wing of the house.
My parents divorced when I was 12, and about 18 years ago my step-dad and his kids moved out of their house in Sparks, NV to this one... where it was our first (and only) house as a combined family.
My mom, Ellen Mann, peering into what remains of our garage and her car.
Everyone has their memories of this house. My parents still lived there half the year (and half in PA) as their business is in Reno, my step-sister lived there throughout middle school & high school (and a while after), my step-brother lived there until he was 18 (but still returned often... he was there doing laundry & playing our grand piano the night before it burned), my younger brother moved there when I went to college & lived there until 2004 when he then moved to Nashville, and I lived there during summers, holidays, school breaks, many weekends, and went up periodically to visit when I could get the time off work. We made numerous silly home movies, and I wrote & recorded over 100 goofy songs with my step-brother throughout the years in this house.
my brother and me in 2009 vs. the same fireplace today
The family is doing fine. Some take it harder than others of course, but everyone is safe (which is all that really matters). Numerous police officers, firefighters, gawking neighbors, news cameras, and family members were around all weekend. My parents were interviewed and on the evening news both Sunday and Monday, and they aired an interview with me on Monday night as well.
The property is blocked off as unsafe (the garage could still collapse more) but firefighters are still people too, so on Saturday they looked the other way and let us roam through the debris for an hour or so and just asked us to be really careful. That was a nice gesture, although some yellow caution tape wasn't going to stop me from checking everything out.
Everyone has been super nice and helpful, and my parents have had about 20 invitations to Thanksgiving dinner. The kind boys of Happy Body Slow Brain even offered donations. Bless their hearts, considering they need that money to tour and live off of.
As my mom said, "It's just stuff. We can replace stuff." Of course, some of that "stuff" are things like all of our baby photos, some home movies, family heirlooms (like our grand piano), and even WWII and Civil War relics that my step-dad has collected over the years. Those can't be replaced.
what's left of the grand piano. Passed to my step-dad from his father.
However I offered my take on it, which my family found comforting as well, that at least no one else will get to live in that house. It'll always be our house. When my parents are ready to retire back East, we won't have to watch some new family living in our old rooms. That made me feel a lot better about the whole thing, as selfish as it sounds.
Anyway, we're making the best of it. My favorite moment this weekend was as we stepped through the wreckage, with news vans and cameras around, my step-brother opens the partially-burned mailbox and courteously shouts "...No mail yet!".
Thanks to everyone who has shown their concern. Enjoy (lol) the rest of the photos below, and everyone have a happy Thanksgiving and Holiday Season!
...oh, and take all your photos and home movies, put them on DVDs, and mail them to your relatives. You'll thank me if you're ever in a similar situation.
-Clay
(more photos by Clay Lancaster):
Caughlin fire in Reno, NV on Pioneer Dr.
Ray and Ellen Mann talk to Channel 4 News in front of their home
Caughlin fire in Reno, NV on Pioneer Dr.
my step-dad with our friends in the front entry, vs. the front entry now
Radiohead's "OK Computer" survived the Caughlin fire on November 18, 2011.
