Here on the Kauai Video Productions blog you’ll see Kauai wedding stories, tips, behind-the-scenes, my life as a Kauai wedding videographer and photographer.
Essence Kauai Wedding Video
In this historic health crisis time, maintaining a six feet social distance is of the utmost importance, I believe. For a wedding photographer, it can be relatively easy. Even before Covid, wedding photographers sought out the shot from an unassuming distance—the fly on the wall that’s never noticed way. For video and professional audio it's not so easy. The videographer uses wireless microphones, and has to place at least one lavalier microphone and an audio receiver on one or more individuals of the wedding party. I typically would mic the groom and the officiant. There is a way to safely do this: whoever wears the mic has to self-serve, which means taking the sterilized mic and receiver from a sealed plastic bag, attach it, check it, and then return it afterwards, while honoring the social distance guideline. The downside to this is, it needs to be done right, and with so much going on at a wedding, that’s easier said than done! There is another way, however, that maintains the social distancing rules. It’s a style of wedding video that I call an essence video. No wireless microphone. No microphone at all because the video is a music wedding video that captures the essence of the event rather than the words, a video that shows what the bride and groom see through their eyes, so that family and friends and future family can feel and see too. When the bride sees the misty mountains, the video shows it. The waves thundering ashore— absolutely. The tears, the holding hands, the kiss. All of it and more! The simple essence video runs 2-3 minutes. It is not a quickie video fixed on a tripod. It is not a handheld iPhone video. It’s pro all the way. And at $550 it is the least expensive wedding video option available.
Open for business again
Oct 16th 2020 —
Kauai island is open to visitors again—no quarantine! Wedding couples, elopers, vow renewers, you can once again travel to our island for that special day.
I still need to shoot
April 10… Passover and Good Friday. Even in the middle of the pandemic, my camera needs a workout. So do I. We (wife and I) leave our house, walk fifteen minutes, staying clear of the few passerby, as we head to the plateau above Hanalei, some of the best scenic views on the island. When this health crisis is over you’ll come and visit. I’d love to shoot for you.
Coronavirus policy
With so many of us staying at home, watching/reading the news that is sometimes so disturbing that we can easily become fearful, doing something creative not only lifts the mind, it can be a breath of fresh air. Compiling a thematic photo album is a very creative endeavor. Going through your old videos, family, wedding, or just plain old goofy things you’ve filmed, and then editing a tight, well-paced video is another. I can help. I can use your photos that are a bit blurry or dark or just lack vibrance and invigorate them. I can edit your videos. Here’s a list of the things I can help with.
•Portrait Editing •Background removal •Family photography Editing •Wedding photography •Retouching •Color Correction •Photo Restoration
•Baby & Newborn Photography •Photo montage on video •Photo beautification •Video Editing
— David Marsh
#conavirusKauai #covid19Kauai
Leap Year Day shoot
The day February 29th occurs only once every four years. On that day, the year of our Olympics 2020, I ventured to the south side for a quickie photo shoot. Here’s a few of the photographs.
The Day After
“The Day After” is a current trend in continuing wedding photography/ video. For couples not immediately embarking on their honeymoon, choosing a second day is really rewarding; it’s like the day after Christmas—Boxing Day in many countries—where the celebration continues without the nerves and the preparation. Couples get to be pampered by the paparazzi, or rather, a polite photographer/videographer. How many times in one’s life do you get to be on a media pedestal? Furthermore, think forward a bunch of years—when your kids see how wild you were, like when you leapt from a cliff fifty feet into the ocean in your wedding gown or how you starred in your very own personal love story movie, like the one below. What a cherished keepsake! For some couples, we incorporate scenes from the wedding day into the “Day After” movie, which, by the way, can be on a day or week or month before or after the wedding. Call me or text me (David)at 808-278-8643 and let’s work on your Day After.
Corporate Rewards Photo Video
Corporate reward programs honor hard-working and talented corporate employees with all-paid trips to exotic locations such as here in Kauai. Along with co-workers (and sometimes a guest) the employees are treated to first class accommodations, given tickets to shows and extravaganzas, spoiled at luncheons and dinners, while talented planners take care of all the fun excursions, the hikes through remote jungle trails to spectacular waterfalls, ocean diving in royal blue waters along the Napali Coast, rubber tubing in the mountains and so on. At Kauai Video Productions, our job is to capture in photo and video the stunning island adventures had by all. Our team seamlessly gets into the mix and bags the perfectly timed photo/video as individuals of the group navigate the river in a kayak, get on the back of a horse for a first-time, shriek while zip-lining. etc, and we even capture those giddy moment at the bar. Then we edit all the photos and video of the trip into a spectacular show reel, ready to view by the entire group before it’s time to depart. Please consider/ recommend Kauai Video Productions for island corporate adventures’ videography and photography. This article was posted on Linkedin.com
Why do I need a professional wedding video?
The new iphone takes amazing 4K video, good enough for the big screen. Samsung also makes a fantastic media producing phone. So why should wedding couples hire a professional videographer when they can easily ask a friend or even their officiant to shoot video with the latest smartphone?
There are actually a few reasons. Sound is one. Tens of thousands of couples get married on our spectacular but blustery Kauai beaches annualy, thundering waves crashing ashore in the background. You’ll definitely hear the wind gusts and the ocean on that friend’s cell phone video. But you won’t hear your service; you won’t hear your vows. The professional videographer treats sound with utmost importance, using a pro audio system with lavalieres to record clean, close-up audio, so that you’ll be hear every word. Professional sound is but one of the advantages of using a pro. Multiple cameras is another. The professional shoots simultaneous angles which adds dimensionality. And the pro’s bag of tools (stabilizers, sliders, video fluid heads) quickly distance her from the point-and-shoot enthusiast. She’s also savvy with the editing and knows she needs to deliver the edited video like yesterday. A professional for your wedding video will likely be one of your best decisions for your destination wedding in Kauai.
One thousand years ago...
Late summer in the year 1011 the Vikings plundered Southern England and proceeded to burn Canterbury Cathedral. In 1011, the Norman conquest of Southern Italy was ongoing and would last another 27 years. In 1011, the rein of emperor Ichijō, the 66th emperor of Japan, came to an abrupt end.
For me, 1011 in the Julian calendar is a remarkable year for another reason. On January 1st that year just 2 numbers appeared on the date. O and 1. The occurrence of just two numbers in a calendar date would not occur for over a thousand years.
Now we are on the cusp of that unusual date, forty generations after the Danes invaded Canterbury.
The date February 2nd 2020 when viewed in a double digit format 02.02.2020 — has only 2 numerals
Feb 2nd was also my dad's birthday.
If you book me for photography or video on this date you will get a 2-digit discount! 20% off - one day offer only!
Kauai Style: Episode 1 - Officiants
Wedding Professional Series. Episode 1 “Officiants” If you are having/ planning a wedding in Kauai, this video might be a valuable tool in your research, as you’ll see in action the best non-religious officiants on Kauai, ideal for elopement weddings, vow renewals, and events that require official services by a licensed officiant.
Kauai wedding photography, Kauai wedding video, Kauai wedding videographer, Kauai weddings, Wedding planners Kauai, Wedding videography,
Family fun at Puu Poa beach
The great thing about Kauai’s north shore Puu Poa beach is the sheer volume of different backgrounds it offers. Walk ten paces and you appear to be in an entirely different place; slosh through a stream, pose at the river, enter the saturated forest or is it a jungle with scores of mangled ironwood and banyan trees? At the end of the beach there’s a roughtrodden trail that leads up an incline to the ruins also known as the ridge above Hanalei. In an hour I can take you through it all.
Sunset photography
As the day comes to a close, as the sun begins to hide its face and the moon begins to show its, as a warm ruddy glow shimmies atop the ocean's weary surface, it's the perfect time to take photos, forsaking brightly illuminated, definable faces in favor of silhouettes freckled with spangles of golden light. — Silhouettes and Spangles
Who be me?
I came across this nifty article on the world’s best known wedding photographers and I thought to myself, how do I compare? Well, I looked at their shots and I certainly saw some fantastic stuff—big budget locations, big budget houses with spreading lawns and stunning brides in designer wedding gowns and more designer wedding gowns and more breathtaking locations. I was impressed. However, I seriously believe my talent and experience keeps me in a level playing field with the best of them. Each photographer in the article was asked some specific questions, so I’ve decided to ask myself similar questions. These are my answers.
What’s my signature Aesthetic? I seem to automatically lean toward an impact shot for each location. In Kauai it often means a dramatic background to frame an authentic moment with the couple. Sometimes it means finding a background that doesn’t overshadow or steal from that moment. Light and shadow is never out of my mind.
Specialties: Hybrid photography — a merger of stylish video and photography to tell a more complete story for weddings.
Ideal Client: Unique, a bit quirky, loose, lively, daring, coy—this pretty well sums up virtually every client. We’re all unique and I’ve never met two identical couples. Each has their own special qualities. By identifying at least one of them, I can style my photos to match the best of the client.
How many weddings per year? You might find the number low: 20-25 per year. As a percentage of my other creative endeavors, it’s about 20%.
What makes me different? I hate this question. It makes for a bloated ego. But here it is: I’m game. I’m happy to get into the ocean to get the shot. I’ll hang out of a helicopter—I actually have! I’ll scale the mountain—hopefully won’t lose one of my lenses, which has happened. So there you have it.
"I do…I mean, I don’t!"
Cold feet! You know what it is, right? In the months prior to the wedding it is apparently a common emotional experience. A UCLA survey determined that, at times, in flitting thoughts, 38% of engaged individuals feel some level of panicked uncertainty. In some surveys the number is as high as 82% with a caveat— psychologists agree that it is quite normal. What I was hoping to learn in my research, however, is more than knowing who gets cold feet but a variant of the question; You’ve probably witnessed it in the movies. It’s the scene at the alter where the bride or groom realizes that their other half is not going to show. Maybe you’ve seen an even more dramatic version: the minister asks “Do you take X as your lawfully bla-bla-bla …” and we see the grimace of doubt, a horribly long pause, and suddenly he (groom) or she (bride) leaps off the podium and bolts for the exit. So my question is, does this really happen in real life, and if so how often? As a wedding photographer whose shot several hundred weddings, I’ve never witnessed anything close to it—at one wedding, the bride arrived 3 hours late due to a complication and all the while the groom kept drinking. By the time the ceremony started he was so drunk he needed to be propped up and he slurred his “I do,” and later puked. I figured some have seen worse. So I began asking the question. For my research, I’ve interviewed Kauai’s best known wedding ministers and officiants.
We’ve cancelled our wedding!
The heading should actually read “Dear Guests…we’re sorry but we’ve cancelled our wedding.” A true story! What makes this an even more dramatic announcement is the fact that the wedding is a destination wedding and the guests were already arriving; some had travelled more than six thousand miles, expecting to attend a wedding that had been scheduled for the next day. Ouch!!! Point is: It’s not just one true story! Cancelled weddings are a reality. But is leaping off the podium and dashing for the exit after the minister’s said “Do you take Jane Whatshername as your lawfully wedded… bla-bla-bla” a reality? This subject is explored in my new investigative vlog “I do…I mean, I don’t!” coming to my website and shared on many other websites next month. Stay tuned!
Wedding trends 2020
All indictions point to pastel hues like pistachio green, lavender, and butter yellow will be full blown in 2020 along with minimalist wedding dresses and edible flowers—at least that’s what websites like Weddingwire tell me. Specifically to my profession (photography and video) the overwhelming opinion is this: don’t get boxed in with fad because in 5 years when the bride looks at her wedding photos, chances are those “fad” colored filters will be old news. So the old fashioned brown look and muted colors (big on Instagram in 2019) might not be the best way to go. Admittedly, digital photos are easily modified, but if you’re going to be having a printed wedding album, it’s fodder for thought.
Holiday videography
Mele Kalikimaka
It’s that time of the year again. Boy, did this year fly by. Is time shrinking or is it just me? BTW — I do Xmas portraits, Xmas cards, I do photography and videography for seasonal parties. Call me at 808-212-9742 or use my CONTACT page.
All hail…here comes royalty
A BIT WEIRD YET REAL WEDDING TRADITIONS
When you get married in Hawaii, ukulele music might fill your ears, or maybe your musician will play the ukeke or maybe even the pahu. You’ll probably have a lei placed around your neck. Leis are tokens of love and aloha. Grooms often wear a garland of green leaves (manly) rather than Kika or jasmine blossoms. At the beginning of your ceremony, the conch might be blown, especially if it’s a beach elopement—a Hawaiian tradition that dates back to the time when the conch was blown to announce the arrival of Alii or Royalty. Your officiant might smash open a coconut and spill the milk on the sand, and then ask you to rest your forehead on your partner’s forehead. But you’re unlikely to experience a wedding tradition in Hawaii that will shock you. If your breath is taken away, it’s probably because you’re standing on the most dramatic beach you’ve ever seen, not because you’ve been punched in the gut for good luck or because your guests have suddenly gone berserk, yelling and laughing and banging and rattling pots and pans. This pot banging business is an actual wedding ritual that was once commonplace in parts of Europe, especially in the middle ages. It’s still practiced today at some weddings. They call it Charivari in France, In Northern England, skimmington. Family and friends gather outside the house of the newly weds and make pot-and-pan music or the din of a lifetime. The wedding couple has to bring out food and drinks and endure the racket.
How about this tradition: in some parts of Korea a groom can expect to be slapped about with a dead fish, apparently to prepare him for his first night of marriage. The connotation is darn right unspeakable. In Scotland, there’s the old Scots blackening ritual. Wedding gatherers throw all sorts of black and brown vile things at the couple before the wedding—if they can accept the disgusting, stinky mess they can endure anything. Then there’s Chinese tears training — the bride-to-be spends a month before the wedding learning how to weep like a professional. They smash dishes in Germany and Swedes aren’t just noted for their meatballs, they’re known for kissing and spitting on the bride and groom—yup, a very Swedish thing, I’m told. So if a young man places a whale’s tooth in your palm, I’m guessing that you’re a father, and the young man is asking for your daughter’s hand in marriage—a Fiji thing!
If you know of other slightly strange wedding traditions, I’d love to hear from you—Mahalo— David.
Featured video Dec 2019
The wedding video I’m featuring today is from a few years ago but because it’s one of my favorites (it’s got some very wacky guests) I wanted to revisit it. Craig and Erin came all the way from Sydney Australia to get married here in Hanalei—not as an elopement but with all of their family and friends in tow. The reason: Erin is an American; her family lives on the mainland; Craig is an Aussie, who doesn’t play cricket, and his family lives in Australia. Craig has a platoon of close friends, most from his neck of the woods, and Erin’s family-and-friend circle is not exactly small either. Kauai just so happens to be the halfway point between the USA mainland and Australia. So the friends and family came all the way from there and they came all the way from the other there. The planning took over a year. What you see here in the video is a testimonial sequence lifted from the full length feature, which runs over an hour long, which is not typical but Erin wanted a very full documentation of her wedding day. Just so you know, this is a premium package video. We filmed for six hours. It was a lot of fun.
Lots of laughs, Champagne, and church bells.
Why edit photographs
What your eyes see is not what a camera sees. A camera approximates eyesight vision based on the photographer’s light and back focus settings. We call this the exposure—a term that is basically meaningless to our eyes. To our eyes, if it’s bright outside it’s bright; when it’s almost night, it’s dark. If we’re inside a candlelit room it probably looks moody, and when we’re sitting on the beach staring at the ocean as the sun sets it’s glorious and if we’re wise we won’t stare directly into the sun. In photography, it’s not that straightforward. Imagine it’s noontime and you’re in the middle of a sweeping grassy field fringed by lofty trees to your left and several dramatic gray clouds above. I’m taking photos of you strolling along, the lofty trees sitting in shade are in the background. My camera's exposure settings would show you in the best light so that you don’t appear excessively underexposed or greatly overexposed. I could give you the photos right out of the camera and you might say, “Good enough; you love the pose, and you don’t need the photo edited.” But in the photo the sky is white and you cannot discern the dramatic cloud formations like you can with your eyes. The lofty trees on your left are kind of dark without much detail, but, well, you can’t see much detail over there with your eyes anyway. So let me talk about editing. When I edit photos I work two tracks. The first track is basic editing. The second is creative. On the basic track, the first thing I do is adjust the photograph’s light, not as an overall photo adjustment, which you could do yourself with just about any photo application, but in seperate areas of the photo. I typically increase light in the shadows, often bringing up more detail than your eyes could discern. I then reduce the exposure of the highlight areas, which might include a modification called dehazing, so the details of the clouds, so dramatic to your eyes, reappear. This might be all that’s required In basic editing. However, on some photos additional basic editing maybe required, such as straightening the photo’s horizon, cropping and or recomposing, maybe simple object removal. Then I move onto creative photo editing. This is a very time consuming process, but it’s an art that can elevate enormously the look of each photograph. I might use image filters and matte techniques to add a mood or a particular theme if it’s appropriate for the photo sequence. Sometimes I’ll stretch the photo’s background to make the image more dramatic, or I’ll replace the background. Sometimes I’ll move onto beautifying the subject/s by removing blemishes and wrinkles, dark rings and puffiness under the eyes, making thinner, younger, more energetic looking. Occasionally, I add rain or more rain than what shows in the natural photo. I might add lightning, stormy clouds or a shaft of sunlight streaming out of the clouds, or a flaming sunset entering the velvety blue ocean. I make composites. In the images below there’s a before the edit and after. The before (top photo) shows that the day was bleak, rainy, a bit drab. In the second image you can see that I added warmth, a shaft of sunlight (left), and some subtle color to the sky. I got rid of the stick sticking out of the sand. I streched the background to the left and right of the couple making a more dramatic, wider photograph without altering the dimensions of the couple; in other words the second image is NOT a blow up. There was nothing wrong with the original shot. But the finished edited photo, that I also cropped at the bottom, is just so much better.
Hollywood production protocol for weddings
"Give me a cutaway, a reversal, and don’t cross the line.” Language that makes complete sense to you, right? How about “Roll sound?” Maybe you’re familiar with that one, where the movie sound guy is told to start the recorder, and the slate person places the slate in front of the camera and the AD says “Mark it! “ But I bet you’ve never witnessed it at a wedding. If you think I’m going to tell you I do all of this at weddings and events, well, no. But I do follow the most intrinsic protocols, the stuff taught to me many years ago when I was a supernumerary at Pinewood Film Studios in England. I was seventeen and I’d quit school early because I hated school. My initial training started with knowing the difference between emulsion and celluloid, key numbers and reel numbers, how to recognize fogged film, to know what butterflies, HMI's and scrims are and how and when to use them—a training that lasted ten years, as I worked my way up the ladder, becoming a film and TV editor, a director of independent art films, before I decided to DP and write. After three decades in the film and TV business i decided that I wanted to be a writer of fiction. To this day, I get really excited to go out and shoot. For photography, I typically use 2 cameras, one strapped over each shoulder, so that I can easily switch focal lengths without changing lenses. For video, I mostly shoot with 3 cameras, plus specialized cameras for aerial or underwater.
At Shipwreck Beach
Destination Elope I hour of coverage. See options
She walked slowly, her thin shoes not completely shielding her feet from the hot sand. She was nervous and excited in the same breath. Shore waves, about three feet tall, crashed along the shoreline, and misty sea-spray made her aubern hair glisten. She took a deep breath, tasting the briny Pacific ocean elixir on her lips. She squinted. There wasn’t a shipwreck in sight. But she could see her man, faced away from her, waiting for her. Her heart began to beat even faster.
Not that I really knew what was going on in the bride’s mind at that moment; I just guessed. I had been hired to capture these moments on video. It’s a typical scene experienced by thousands of wedding couples at this particular beach: Shipwrecks Beach. My mind drifted and I wondered how many ‘shipwreck beaches’ are there? I know that in Greece there’s a Shipwreck Beach that some call Smuggler’s Cove. And I’ve heard that Oregon has a Shipwrecks beach, as does Washington State. In Hawaii there are at least two that I know of, the one at Lanai, aptly named Shipwrecks because it really does have mangled sea vessels littering its shore, and the one that I was on at that very moment: Shipwreck Beach, Poipu, Kauai. But here you wont actually find a shipwreck, not anywhere along the beach or along the spectacular coast. You will, however, see the iconic rock face—Makawehi Point—a sandstone landmark which the bride was presently heading to, and where her groom was waiting. You might have heard about this particular beach for another reason: This is where locals (and some brave tourists) leap thirty-five feet off the rock into the turbulent Pacific. Notably, Harrison Ford and Anne Heche jumped from it for the movie, “6 Days and 7 Nights.” It’s just a short walk along the sand from the Hyatt Regency and other Poipu resorts, which might also be why so many wedding couples choose this location. Waves smash again the cliff and when it’s really hot, wedding couples can move twenty feet from the water’s edge and find shade under the canopy of lush ironwood trees. It’s idyllic for dramatic photography and videography. The image below is pulled directly from the video, filmed by me at Shipwreck’s on November 11th 2019.
A footnote: there used to be an old weather-beaten boat lying at the water’s edge. It sat there for many years, and that’s where the name, I guess, came from.
If you know of another Shipwrecks Beach, I’d love to hear about it. Shoot me an email at davidm617@me.com
Elopement at Tunnels
Early morning intimate wedding on Kauai’s north shore, Tunnels Beach. Photographer David Marsh, officiant Julie Wirtz, the lucky couple Tracy and Jeff. Here’s a few of the photos. Note: Tune;s Beach was just recently reopened to te bublic after being closed for fifteen months due to the devastating thunderstorms of April 2018. See MORE
Golden Vow Renewal Kauai
50 years and going strong! They’re from Irvine, California, and decided to repeat their vow at the Japanese Gardens, Kalaheao, Kauai. To memoriaize the occassion, they chose the tripod video and photography package. MORE
If you choose the tripod video, you’ll have your wedding video right after the ceremony on the SD camera card. Professionally shot, a wide angle view sometimes zoomed into a medium shot (as seen above). The audio is suberb, recorded with a lavalier microphone feeding the camera wirelessly. Select the tropod video with the simple photo package and you’ll have photographs and video of your special occasion for just $500.
Wedding at the bay
An esscence wedding video — seeing, hearing and feeling the special day but without the wordiness. Just the very best ingredients.
Kauai photography locations
I’m known for saying “there isn’t a bad photo-op place anywhere in Kauai.” It’s true. In fact, the perfect photo-op location is usually no more than a hundred yards away. Many years ago, in the middle of a very arduous film shoot, we found ourselves falling behind schedule. It was late afternoon and the entire crew had stopped off at the Princeville Center for some refreshments. We still had to get 3 shots in the can before nightfall or we’d fall behind schedule, and the shots needed to be in a jungle location. We’d chosen Kilauea but as I looked up from my water bottle my eyes fell on a banana bush next to a palm tree and some rough-trodden sugarcane grass. "Long lens. Tight shot. Jungle,” I said to myself. Sure enough, we shot the sequence right there, a stone’s throw from Foodland. You’d never know it when looking at the sequence in the movie. It was perfect. Dense unihabited jungle, thousands of miles from civilization. The north shore has so many great areas for your photo session. Beaches of course, but everyone expects that. I think the mountains are even more spectacular. And the forests are breathtaking. Here’s a few shots from my back yard, well, not exactly, but truly walking distance from my home.
The day after wedding photo sessions
The day after photo sessions have been a big wedding thing in 2019. Wedding website One Fab Day predicted the trend and they were right. I’ve been doing the day after wedding shoots for years. The advantage of having a 2nd day of wedding photography is going to multiple locations;here in Kauai it’s a different beach, the rain forest, perhaps one of the sparkling turquoise lakes or cascading waterfalls, all of this creating an added dimension to your wedding album. The day after wedding shots here are from a 90-minute session, and we covered 6 locations on the north shore, another 100 stunning photographs for the album.
Film tools added dimension
The film crane and its junior partner the jib arm are perhaps the most used film tools in professional film and television production. These styling tools elevate the look of the production. It’s a must have for anyone desiring the very best look for their video.
Film tools add-on package $300
(includes)
★ Operator/ grip for up to 2 hrs
★ Jib arm - level plane low shots to above head.
★ Video slider - for the finest short sliding motion
★ 3-axis video stablizer for buttery-smooth hand held shots.
Dreamy
Looking off into the distance, thinking, imagining, wondering. Subtle but oh so good.
Photographs by Kauai photographer David Marsh…
Kids
Always a pleasure to photograph kids. I never know what I’m going to get cuz they just do their thing, and that’s fine by me!
—David Marsh, author, videographer, cinematographer
Wanted - Literary Agent
Are you a literary agent that represents YA authors? ? Do you know a literary agent that represents YA, well enough to call her/him on my behalf? If so, I’d be happy to talk to you about potentially doing your photography or video session at no charge. Put in another way: if you are able to get a lit agent to read one of my manuscripts, I will absolutely shoot your session at no charge.
Email me at davidm617@me.com — See David’s YA fiction HERE
What is a wedding video?
As a film and video teacher, I’ve asked dozens of eager-to-learn videographers over the years what they strive for in a wedding video. The most common answer is a story. I’ve even been told, ”a story with a begining, a middle and an end.” Fancy that! I’ve also been told: "make it entertaining,” and "to capture the emotion,” like it’s a rodent on the run, bagged and tagged.
Let’s face it, every videographer loves it when the bride or groom cries, especially during personal vows. Camera is rolling and emotion gushes. Captured! But this isn’t story-telling. Fancy video editing and well timed music to the wedding video is not story-telling either. But to be candid, most couples don’t want more—the wedding is THEIR STORY. They just need it to be well shot, to show off the location, and to have good sound, as long as they can proudly show it to their family and friends back home, and recognize it as the perfect keepsake for future family, then that’s plenty good enough. BUT ... for the few who want more of a wedding video, who want real story-telling, know this: It all begins with pre-planning, collaberation, and it requires a blueprint. This is where I excel. As a filmmaker who has lived and breathed Hollywood for thirty years, on hundreds of TV shows and movies, I just love story-telling, and I’d like to craft your story as a Kauai wedding video.
, and want to know about pre-imagined and drafted and real digital cinematography for weddings, well, the first step is a shot list. It might look something like this:
It doesn’t come from a blueprint, it’s not pre-imagined and executed. Put a home camera in front of a wedding ceremony at the beach, you’ll have a wedding video. Set up 2 or 3 cameras, one on a Steadicam, another with a wireless lavalier recording clean audio, and then edit with titles, “Julia and Mark” over Hawaiian music or a song, you’ll have an elaborate wedding video.
1. A wave crashing ashore on a deserted beach
2. Man’s foot - close up, on that deserted beach—not deserted after all.
3. Sand ripples blowing across the beach - the sound of the breeze.
4. Palm tree fronds high up, with sun glints, almost blinding.
5. Man’s foot again - pacing.
6. A sand crab runs into the water.
7. Bride’s feet. She’s walking. She pauses, hesitates…after all, it’s a big decision.
8. Bride’s veil - close up, blowing in the breeze. We have yet to see her face.
9. Groom's hand. Nervous fingers.
10. Close up: his eyes, pan down his chest. We HEAR his heartbeat, thumping loudly.
11. Full shot of bride; she’s made up her mind; her eyes are bright, she resumes walking, her expression full of hope and excitement,
12. Groom looks up, sees her, and beams.
CONTINUED ….
Below are three wedding video samples. The first, traditional video, nicely shot and edited, I think you’ll agree; under a thousand dollars. The other two are “designer-crafted.” However in video #3 we used artificial lights, reflectors and modifiers. Technically, it is digital cinematography.
Anini beach sunset shoot
Sunset hour wedding with a quickie tripod video + photography.
Sept 1st - the first couple to take advantage of my Fall special tripod video and photo package.
Hanalei Family Shoot
I loved filming Ryan, Heather and Heath, sunset hour at Hanelei Bay. Heath wasn’t particulary interested having his picture taken, but every once in a while he would look up, especially when I placed a sand crab on my head—whatever it takes to get the shot!
—David Marsh, photographer
Kauai baby bump shoot
Hanalei Bay, the pier, sunset hour, cloudy with gaps where the sun peaks through, sprinkels on and off. In a word: spectacular.
Photographer: David Marsh, Kauai
I so happened to have my 135mm on my camera
My 135mm prime is a lens I rarely use. Not that I don’t like it; I like it a lot, but for portraits for the longest time I’ve been using my 85mm and sometimes my 50mm. If I’ve needed wider, I would usually put on the 35mm 1.4 that I own, or my 24-105, as I no longer own the 24-70. But today I had my 135mm F2 prime on my camera. It was late in the afternoon, and my wife and I went for a walk . Than we sat down at the pond, and I took a few shots. I’ve posted them because I fell in love with the 135 all over again. I think I might even use it on my next portaiture shoot. I’ll just have to get used to backing up if a need head-to-feet shots with scenic. Looking for a Princeville photographer? Hey there! https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/portraits-canon-135mm-david-marsh/
Blue wedding gown
A stunning blue wedding gown…it’s not everyday that we see a Kauai beach wedding where the bride wears a gown so beautifully different. I was lucky enough to film bride Lara in her stunning turquoise blue wedding gown. Mitchell, the groom, was stunned as he didn’t know about the gown. Just a quick note: These shots are video frames, pulled from the wedding video, as the photographer that day was the delightful Naomie.
Light
When i place a bride and groom in front of verdant shrubbery, lit softly by the natural light of the golden hour, I am breath stripped. When I stare at wavestops awash in a patch of sunlight, while two or three torchlit rainshafts stream out of the lazy mists that always caress the sides of the mountain, I am lost —how can I not be spellbound? Click, click, click, I work my camera. Sometimes I tell the person I’m photographing to move this way or that, chin up a bit, slight turn to your left, etc, etc. but mostly I let the moments flow. I chat beforehand; we discuss moods, attitudes. needless to say, certain set pieces require some coordination. I try my hardest to make sure that my clients really enjoy the photography session.
A Holocaust Survivor’s Story
Two weeks ago (early Nov, 2018) I was asked to film a very special event here in Kauai, Dr. Jacob Eisenbach live - one of the few living survivors of the Auschwitz death camps in Nazi Germany. Here’s a glimpse.
South side hybrid photography
Here are a few of the photographs from the “Love is in the air” photo shoot. And see the video. Trust me. It’s good! For the photographs I though bright and colorful would be nice, rather than muted tones, which I’ve been doing a lot of lately.
Best photographers Baltimore
Aloha Megapixels Media Photography
Meet Megan and Garrett Pitts, an extrordinarly talented husband and wife team passionate about photographing couples who are deeply in love. Megan and Garrett are from Baltimore, Maryland, however they love to travel, meet new people, and share extraordinary stories. I’m hoping to see them here in Kauai. Megapixel Media’s website.
Hybrid Elopement wedding video
The 0ne-K (Hybrid Elope). 1-hr photo and video mixed session, with a portraiture photo session following the ceremony. 50 edited photographs $1000
Planning wedding videography
- Pre wedding cinematography - when you want a wedding video that shows more than your ceremony. It can mean communicating with your wedding cinematographer ahead of the big day, and discussing the types of scenes you think might be great. This might be traditional type scenes, like getting ready, and guests arriving and or giving testimonials, and a montage of the reception. Or it can mean something completely and utterly different, like having the cinamtographer create a mini movie about your Kauai trip.
- Pre wedding film ideas: this can include themes for the video, such as romantic, adventurous, dangerous, going for laughs, or just about anything you can think of. It can even mean filming scenes that match the lyrics in a particular song.
- Pre wedding photography - this is when you have specific ideas that you’d like to share with your photographer, to make sure that she / he includes the types of shots that you want in your wedding photography album / slideshow.
Princeville
I was hired to film aerials of land owned by Princeville. Views that one only dreams of. Imagine, not too long ago it would have been prohibitively expensive to get these kinds of shots—a helicopter and a harness to lean out of the chopper’s open door. Many moons ago I did that. I leaned out of the open door of a chopper to film the Napali coast. But these shots were taken with my buddy Steven Rodger’s quad. Thanks to Steven for stepping up at the last moment, as my drone was in the shop.
Kauai High School Photo Shoot
Photography session: September 27th 2017 — purpose - new website for the school.
Happy to have completed another HDR real estate project. HDR is high dynamic range photography. I do not use strobes (camera flash) I use the house lights. I turn on as many as I can and wait until it’s dark enough for them to appear decorative. HDR can be used on any photo shoot, even a wedding portrait session, for a completely different kind of look.
Walking the drone
I’m in the shot ...
August 29th 2017 — So the day I got this new drone, my wife was worried that I'd do something silly, like try to piggy-back ride on it. Candidly, I’m not a complete novice. My other drone was almost as big as me, and it scared everyone who saw it, especially with me piloting. So to appease the wife, we took a stroll. We could have just as easily been walking the dog, or the cat. We strolled, the drone kept pace, but after a while the drone begged to be cut loose.
If you’re ready for the cinematic aerial look in your video, let me know. Drone aerial photography/ videography adds a higher dimension to your story.
Wedding videographer Kauai
Hanalei Ridge
Put up a small canopy on the left side, the couple should be standing roughly where Zenovia is … what a master shot! This is the ruins at Princeville, above Hanalei Bay. The video BELOW was filmed without sound, just so that you can get an idea of what the ruins are like, photographically and cinematically.
Wedding videographer Kauai
Kauai videographer Difraser
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