Those Who Stay will be Champions

Planning a wedding can be a difficult and stressful time in a brides life. Sometimes it is a matter of balancing a perfect wedding with a less than ideal budget. Sometimes it is balancing the wedding dream with all the work that has to go into making the wedding become a reality. I have found that the things we struggle for the hardest in our lives, tend to be the most rewarding.

Life is full of unknowns. At times, we may look to the future, and it may seem impossible for us to reach our dreams. The struggles that we face may seem insurmountable. When we are truly pursuing our dreams, we are closer to the struggle, we are in the fight as it were, and so it is harder to see beyond it and see our dream. Take a wall for example. Say that this wall is seven feet tall and you are six feet tall. If you stand back from this wall, you can see many things that are on the other side of the wall. At the same time though, if you move in closer to the wall so that you are face to face with the wall, many of the things that you could see when you were standing back from the wall, are no longer visible. Have the things that you could see before changed or disappeared? Has the wall gotten any taller? No, in fact, they have not changed at all, you have changed. By changing your position, you have also changed you perspective. If your dream is a two story building on the other side of the the wall, and the wall represents the struggle, the closer you get to the struggle the harder it will be to see your dream.

Many people I talk to dream of their wedding day and have dreamed or it for many years. Some of them are just starting out in their planning and they can clearly see their dream in front of them. Many of them are quite far down the path, planning their wedding, and their dream of one of the most awesome days of their life has been partially obscured by the wall of the struggle. This wall could be representative of stress in the planning. It could represent lack of support from friends and family. It could represent lack of participation or interest on the part of the groom. Whatever it is, it is keeping the bride from being able to see her dream. As a wedding vendor it is really my job to find the brides dream. Doing this helps me, but it also helps me help the bride. In understanding a brides dream wedding it helps me to be able to cater my services to help them reach their dream. Hopefully in understanding a brides dream, I can help her build her dream up, add another story on the building, to help her be able to see the dream over the wall once again.

History is full of examples of men and women who faced great difficulty in the pursuit of their dreams. Many of them lost friends and family members. Many faced great persecution, but they kept their eyes on their dream, and in the end it paid off proving without a doubt that "Those who stay will be champions." Mel Fisher was just such a man. I would encourage you to read his story, I have included a link below. I have read his story many times. It encourages me in the pursuit of my dreams, because it helps me to realize that I have not really struggled all that much yet. I have have not had to make that many sacrifices for my dreams.

Mel's Story

http://www.melfisher.org/melstory.htm

Pier27 Productions

Your story, Our passion

www.pier27productions.com

Give me a vision!

Last week I began telling you about Pier27 Productions. I wanted to take a little time today and go into a little more detail about the vision surrounding Pier27.
Pier27 was started with the idea that I wanted to blow away our clients. I started a quest to determine the best way to provide every couple with a lasting keepsake of what, in most cases, is the most important day of their lives. Many brides begin dreaming of their wedding day from a very young age. They plan every little detail. They know exactly how they want everything to be. My experience with my own wedding was that it passed in such a blur that I barely remember any of it. In speaking with many couples I have found that this is the case for them as well.
Your wedding day is your day to be the star. Throughout the entire day people will be catering to your every need and desire to make sure that you have a perfect day.
You are surrounded by your friends and family, the people who mean the most in your life. These people are so excited about the journey you are setting out on. Many offer words of encouragement and advice. There are tears that are shed; some out of joy, and others in remembrance of times past. Still others are shed over changes that will take place. Stories are told by dear friends. There are countless “remember when’s.” Toasts are given, well-wishes granted, cakes are cut, and suddenly the bride and groom are getting into their car and driving away. So many of the details that were so important have faded from memory, or at the very least they are unclear in your memory. You no longer remember the words spoken to you, the laughter and tears with your attendants as you prepared for your day. You have forgotten how the sound of the music flooded your soul with excitement and anticipation. The smell of the fresh cut flowers in all of their color and beauty evades your memory. Perhaps, even the memory of the exact moment when the doors opened and you saw one another for the first time has started to fade… But then you remember that Pier27 Productions created a lasting cinematic memory of your day that you will be able to see over and over again. You will be able to watch this film with future generations and you will have your memories with you forever.
At Pier27 Productions we will be there to capture every moment of your day. We will capture those important conversations. We will capture all of the details; from a mist of perfume to a tear rolling down a cheek, from the first kiss to the first dance, from the vows to the rings, the flowers, the music, the well-wishes, and the happily ever after. Our promise is to capture every important moment with stunning color, superior audio quality, and deliver it to you in crisp HD.

Pier27 Productions

I know it has been a really long time since I have blogged on here. As of today this blog is going to take a new direction. I will be using this blog to talk about my new company Pier27 Productions. Pier27 is a premiere video company. We specialize in HD wedding videos that are customized to meet each couples specific needs and vision for their wedding video.
The idea behind Pier27 is to really go above and beyond anything that our clients could dream of and create a last memory that can be passed on to future generations. When couples hire Pier27 it isn't about the number of cameras or the number of hours, it is all about doing whatever has do be done. No matter how many hours, no matter how many revisions. The goal is complete and total customer satisfaction.
Sabeen and Samir were the first Pier27 clients. When I am satisfied that they ar 100% satisfied, then we will put their video to rest. Satisfaction is our promise and we will keep it.
I will endevour to keep this more up to date than it has been in the past. In the meantime, check out Pier27's website @ www.pier27productions.com.

Weekend

Monday morning is here again. It was a good weekend even if it was not as productive as it could have been. I did not really do much editing this weekend. I guess I did some editing Friday evening. I was just not feeling it Saturday and for the piece that I am working on right now I need to be feeling it because it requires intense creativity. So I decided instead of working on it and producing something that would be mediocre I would wait and do something else and come back to it later. I think I will spend some time on it this evening. Even last night I started to see where I need to go with it and how to get there.
The funny thing about creativity is that it is not just enough to know where you need to go. You have to really know how to get there. In my line of work, getting there can present huge obstacles because the path I am able to take is restricted to the footage that I have on hand. This can leave one needing to be "creative", no pun intended. Anyway, it is always a journey.
I am happy to have another contract signed. That is how this business is going to be build, one contract at a time.
My brother Jonathan got his cell phone back last night. He is officially done with his advanced training and is moving into some training that is very specific to where he is going to be stationed. I was very happy when I received his phone call last night. I was the first person that he called. That made me fell pretty special. I am driving up to Kentucky in two weeks to pick him up and bring him back to Dallas. It is going to be pretty awesome. I feel like we will be able to have a lot of good conversation in the car and just have an overall good time. He is going to be back here in Dallas for two weeks before he has to go to where he will be stationed. I plan on spending a good amount of time with him while he is here.
Thats all for now!

Big New Project

Well here I am. I realize that it has been a long time since I have written anything. It is not because I have not wanted to write, it is just that it has been crazy busy over the last month or so.
Life is good though. I have so much to be thankful. As a company Black and White has a ton to be thankful for as well. God is continuing to bless us and is providing many opportunities to do wedding videography for people. In addition to that, we have started on a very big new project that we are very excited about. Hopefully we will unveil this project next weekend. There are a few little pieces that need to fall into place.
I hope to have some new exclusive footage up on the website this weekend. If not on the website, I will definitely get it up on Facebook. I have been working on the concept for this new video for a while. I have gotten stuck a few times. I am hoping to wrap it up this evening. We shall see what happens.
Next week Jonathan graduates from his advanced training. That is pretty exciting. It is weird because the time has gone by really fast. I still miss him a ton and I can't wait to see him, but it has gone by really quickly and I am thankful for that. In two weeks I will be in Kentucky again to pick him up and head back to Texas with him. I believe he is going to be down here for two weeks before he ships out. It will be awesome to see him and spend some time with him over those two weeks. Then he will be deployed for the next three years. At least once he is done with his training he will be able to have a computer and phone. I am going to get a webcam so that we can stay in touch that way. Technology is pretty awesome. Just think, twenty years ago people in the military might have gotten to call home every once in a while, but the primary way of communication would have been by mail. Now we have all kinds of technology that makes communication over great distances available instantly. It is great.
I love Michigan in the fall. I will be heading north on September 3rd. It should be a lot of fun. It will be nice to get away from some of this Texas heat. I am looking forward to seeing family and some friends that I haven't seen in a while. I hope to do some photography while I am up there. Maybe get a few good images that I can put up in a gallery. Help pay for the trip and all that. I will of course go out to Grand Haven, because how can you not. I may head up the coast one day and see if I can get some good pictures. It should be beautiful.
Well that is enough for now. I will be on hear next week I am sure to talk about the new project.

My best friend

I know that I have not been as great at keeping this page up lately as I should be. Life has been really busy lately. Work has been extremely busy and I have also been busy with wedding work as well. It is good to be busy. At times it can be slightly overwhelming. This weekend was no exception.
After work on Thursday I met up with Josh Parker and Chad Newton and we headed out to Fort Knox Kentucky. I don’t think that any of us new just how awesome of a trip this was going to be. It was a long 800 mile trek. At times it was touch and go with the staying awake, but God was watching over us the entire way. As the sun was coming up Friday morning we had a little jam session, rocking out to the Newsboys. It was really cool. Pulling into Fort Knox Kentucky the excitement was building. We were here to see my best friend Jonathan Rhoads graduate from his basic training. It was completely awesome. When we arrived on post we were a little lost and tired, but we knew that in just a few minute we were going to see our friend and brother. It was so awesome. As we walked through the doors into the theatre, we rounded a corner and there he stood. He looked good there in his uniform. I could tell that he was really happy to see us as well. It was really hard not to run up to him and give him a big old bear hug, but we restrained ourselves because we didn’t want to get him in trouble.
The ceremony was really pretty short, then we went outside and waited for Jonathan to be released. The reunion was just so awesome. The first thing that he wanted was to get in the car and get off the base, but then as soon as we got in the car he wanted a Mountain Dew. We spent time eating and getting him some food that he had not had in a while, then we went over to the campground where his sister and brother in law were staying. Chad and Josh decided that it was more important to take a nap. Even though I had been up since 6:30 Thursday morning, there was no way that I was going to take a nap while Jonathan was around. So Jonathan and hung out with his family. We went swimming, we talked, it was really fun.
Friday evening we went out for pizza at Pizza Hut. Let me just say this, if you thought that the any size any toppings for just ten bucks was a great deal, that is nothing compared to the deal that we got. We realized that we need more military people in our lives because they get awesome discounts. Ten of us ate Four Pizza’s, cheese sticks, bread sticks, and drinks for $36.00. That is pretty awesome right? It was a good time around the table talking about things and telling stories. We all went back to our hotel room afterwards and just had a sweet time of fellowship.
Late Friday night we went to see “The A-Team”. Funny story about that. The post where Jonathan is at is in the Eastern time zone. So first thing when we got up there we all changed our watches and the like. Well apparently the hotel that we were staying at in Cave City was in the Central time zone. So we showed up to the movie about an hour early. It all worked out ok for us in the end though. I was doing pretty good on no sleep right up till this point. I think if I had not already seen the movie the week before I would have been ok, but since I already knew what was going to happen I really struggled to stay awake. It is an awesome movie though.
I slept so good Friday night. I was just so tired. It was great. We woke up very refreshed on Saturday and fully utilized the continental breakfast. Josh and Chad went to see another friend of theirs in Kentucky on Saturday and they were gone all day. Jonathan and I hung out with Scott and Christine and the kids all day. We had good food, great conversation, some swimming, and some fun putt putt. Jonathan and I went geo-caching, sort of. It was leading us through a field of quite tall grass and since they have a pretty big issue with ticks in Kentucky we decided not to proceed further. We had a good walk and a good talk as well. It was pretty crazy because I knew that I had missed him, but I don’t think that I knew quite just how much I missed him until this weekend.
We bought some crickets and had fun eating those with the kids. Very interesting. We bought a half gallon of chocolate milk and Scott, Jonathan and I sat around talking and drinking it. It was awesome. About this time Josh and Chad arrived back. We had smores and played cards and talked. It was a lot of fun. Then we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
We woke up bright and early Sunday morning because we did not want to waste any time with Jonathan on the last day that we were going to be together. After all of us guys had showered we sat down and just spent some quality time in prayer. We were able to lift one another up before the throne of grace. It was a very encouraging time. After that we went down to breakfast.
Then came the part of the weekend that was not so fun. We met up with Scott and Christine to hand over Jonathan for them to take him back to his post. It was very hard to say goodbye. We said our goodbyes, gave hugs all around and hit the road headed south. We had gone about 10 miles when we got a call that Scott and Christine were having vehicle troubles and needed us to head back up there to pick Jonathan up and make sure he got back to base on time and would not be AWOL. We all agreed that this was awesome. I don’t think that we were really ready to say goodbye. Anyway, we met up with them, grabbed some lunch together and just enjoyed some more fellowship. Then we brought Jonathan back to the base. Once again we said goodbye. This time though it seemed like there was some closure. We left Fort Knox and headed south. And the rest is history.

Kentucky

Tomorrow my best friend graduates from Army Basic Training. I am so proud of the man that Jonathan is and I am so glad that I can call him my friend.
I was not originally going to be able to see Jonathan graduate, but then my plans for the weekend changed and I felt God calling me to go to Kentucky to see him. It is going to be an awesome weekend. We leave tonight after work and we are going to drive straight through the night. It is going to be pretty awesome. Josh Parker will be my travel companion this weekend. Both of us are really excited to see Jonathan.
I am excited to be going on a road trip. It has been quite a while since I have gone on a road trip anywhere. In fact the last road trip that I went on I blew an engine, so that was not so good. This is going to be awesome.