Morningstar Productions

2009-09-13T23:24:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we just like to have fun! A friend competed in the barrel races at the LA County Fair this weekend so we went along. We brought our video camera, and even though making videos isn't really our thing, I had a blast working on one all day Sunday!

A beautiful wedding and gracious giving

2009-03-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

The following entry is from our wedding website blog....

Once in a while we are fortunate to be part of a special wedding celebration. Recently Dave and I were asked t photograph a several day wedding at a beautiful resort in Mexico. That alone is enough to talk about. But the bride and groom did something really special.

They told all of their guests that they really had no need for gifts. Instead they wanted to do something to help the people near the area of the resort. So they setup a Foundation to fund a few of the existing local charities. Guests were asked to make a donation to this charity in lieu of a gift. Something truly remarkable in any time, especially now with so many people in need.

One of the days before the wedding I joined the bride, her mother and the bride's 7 year old daughter to take a tour with one of the charities. It is an organization that helps the migrant farm workers who come to the region once a year but have no place to live. These workers simply set up a camp at the edge of the farms living with whatever scraps they can find. Often they burn pesticide bags to cook their meals. There is no sanitation, no water, no education for the children. the parents lack basic understanding of health issues.

This organization works to provide housing and education with basic heal care for these people who live on the absolute fringe of society in Mexico.

The gifts from this wedding won't be filling shelves, or put in closets or returned at stores. Instead these wedding gifts will be changing people's lives, people who need it most.

Our hats off to Jessica & Tim who did something very special for their wedding celebration. Something very special.

We made a short video of the visit so the guests could see who their donations will help. CLICK HERE to see the video.

If the video doesn't play on your computer, then you can update the QuickTime player on your machine. Download the QuickTime update here.

Fun Times at Pappy & Harriet's

2009-02-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

There is this funky little place called Pappy & Harriet's in Pioneertown about 20 miles north of Palm Springs. Total honky-tonk funky cool. Like something out of a movie. Yes, they did film western movies at the site back in the 50's but now the place really looks like a set for some strange Pulp-Fiction type of movie. Or better yet the biker bar that Pee Wee Herman stumbles into. Makes one want to dance on the bar!

Well, thru the wonders of FaceBook a few of us Palm Springs High School (PSHS) alumni learned that one of our very own was to perform there! Calling all PSHS Indians! Come on out and support our very own! Steve Poltz was in the marching band the same time I was. He played drums and I played saxaphone. I think he was better than I. Now he's a world-traveling music man making some pretty great music! Really great! Amazing great! Me like!

Of course I had to take photos. I don't think I know how to sit still and enjoy a concert without moving around. So I've posted photos on a gallery HERE. All you PSHS alumni feel free to download the images, and you can post your own for others as well. And Steve? If you can use a photo, have at it!

What was my favorite part? When Steve quickly sang our Alma Mater "In the silence of the desert...." I think I heard more than just myself singing along! I've used that song as an ice-breaker before myself. Once I had a group of women executives to photograph and I told them that if they could get organized quick enough to meet the planner's time schedule I would sing my alma mater. So I did. And they smiled. And the photos looked great: powerful female executives being amuzed by a singing photographer.

In the silence of the desert

Where the sands of silver shine,

Stands our glorious Alma Mater

'Tis our haven and our shrine.

Be we humble in her presence,

For her blessings never fail.

Palm Springs is our Alma Mater.

So to her, all hail. All Hail!

Best to you Steve! And thank you Ardee for alerting us all!

With the Design Dawgs at The Special Event

2009-01-27T12:00:00.000-08:00

What a hoot! I was invited to join Dave Merrell and The Design Dawgs as a guest blogger for his presentation at The Special Event in San Diego and it was a blast! They say that people enjoy talking about themselves (hence this phenomenon called Blogging). But talking about oneself in front of other people? What a rush! Here is a photo of me trying to look smart with my new glasses while Dave quizzes me on how to take better event photographs.

I scared Tom Budas when I stood up and showed how to lean against the wall to support the camera when taking an available-light photo. He was afraid I was going to push the fake wall off the stage! Close call.

At one point I did look into the audience and saw a few people eagerly writing down my 4 tips on how to take better photos of events with a point-and-shoot camera. I like it when people are eagerly writing down what I say! Makes me want to stop and make sure I'm saying it right!

So with that thought, I will give this some thought and make a few posts about how you as an event planner can get better photos of your events when you just can't afford to hire a professional photographer. Stay tuned!

Calling in the Marines

2008-11-15T23:35:00.000-08:00

Tonite we did a job that was unusual for us. We took photographs at an officer's ball at the Twenty Nine Palms Marine base. They originally contacted us thru the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort where they had planned to have their event, but it was moved back to the base.

Rather than a sponsored event, we were selling photographs to the individuals. This is something that we don't normally get involved with since we are busy with sponsored events. But this is a different kind of year! And when I thought about it, something in my gut said that we need to offer something for these brave individuals who are doing so much for us. And I'm glad that we did it. If nothing else, I got to take this very sweet photograph. (Check out those dimples!)

Normally we are taking photographs that are given away to people who may or may not appreciate all of the lavishness that is being poured out on them. Tonight was very different. The people we were photographing were paying out of their own pockets. And these are people that I'm already so very indebted to. I'm very glad we could do this. All of the photos are online here.

(Posted by Rand)

The right tool for the job.

2008-11-09T18:10:00.000-08:00

PAWS of Palm Springs, a boutique pet supply store, hosted a fund-raiser tonight. It was to raise money for the local Animal Samaritans shelter. They asked us to provide a photo booth where the people could take their photo with their dog. They key is that people were dressing up their pooches for a contest! Being dog lovers, and owners of several pound puppies we were happy to participate!

But neither Dave nor I have ever photographed pets before. I had read that it's helpful to have a squeaky toy. The understatement of the evening!

No matter what the owner did, nothing compared to the sound of the little rubber octopus! Curious to see the photos? CLICK HERE to see some funny-dressed dogs and their owners all being entranced by a little squeaky toy!

A Lesson Learned

2008-11-08T22:00:00.000-08:00

Tonight I was hired to follow Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra lookalikes to take photos with guests at a corporate event after-dinner party. The goal was to have the photos ready for the guests immediately during the event. As usual, people loved getting their photographs taken with Frank and Marilyn, who are excellent celebrity look-alikes. People also love that their photographs are ready right away, and that they look so good. Technology can be sweet. We used our instant print system with wireless transmission during the event.

At the end of the photography time, when I was printing the photos I was mobbed by people looking for their photograph. Quite the mob scene! But there was one problem, and that leads to the lesson I learned.

The production company had their photographer at the event as well. He was taking photographs sometimes with me, and sometimes on his own. So the guests were all wondering where those photographs were. They didn't want to hear me say that "the other photographer" was not with me. They don't care. It doesn't make sense to the guests at all.

My lesson is that I should have either offered to print his photographs, or I should have made sure that we stuck together and took the same photos. I really should have been on my toes, I should have put myself in the position of the guests. They don't know what's going on, they just get very dissapointed when that great photo with Marilyn Monroe is not printed out with all the others.

In the future, I'm going to do my best to be proactive about this!

(Submitted by Rand Larson)

Immediate uploading images to a remote client

2008-10-29T22:55:00.000-07:00

We have a very good corporate event client who had an unusual request. They needed photographs and video of an event of theirs to be uploaded to the internet so that their client could view the progress as it happened. They asked us what we could do.

We love a technical challenge!

We used a WiFi transmitter on our Canon cameras to immediately send the still images to a MacBook Pro laptop that was nearby. This laptop was in a vehicle with the motor running since the event was on public streets and we needed constant power. The laptop was also connected to the internet using a Verizon air card. As the images arrived in the laptop, an operator added them to a web gallery. This part was really quite easy.

At the same time, Dave was taking video footage of the event. When he thought he had something good, he would go over to the laptop to transfer the footage to the laptop. Then the operator looked for 20-30 second clips that "told a story" and he uploaded that video clip to the internet. Uploading the video clips was the slowest part, it took about 3-5 minutes to upload the clips versus a few seconds to upload the still images.

Everything was connected to one webpage so that the remote client simply refreshed their browser to see the new content as it was added. The event started at 7am, and by 7:15 there were stills and video clips posted online with constant updates during the event.

The end client was very happy. And we had a blast!

I am the kind of computer-geek that really enjoys catching life blog updates of various events online, in particular whenever Steve Jobs gives a keynote I am at my computer hitting the refresh button every 15 seconds. This time Dave, Colin & I were the ones uploading constant updates. It gave a strange feeling of communicating with someone, but not being able to talk to them. Really very fun. I hope we can do this again!

Of course, our client and the end-client need to remain anonymous so I can't link to the work.

A very creative video of a very creative party!

2008-10-17T23:15:00.000-07:00

Recently I was at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to photograph a very large event that was produced by Extraordinary Events of Los Angeles. The even was gigantic! They put large video projections along the perimeter of the event, over 300 feet on one wall. The video was seamless and rolling throughout the night.

After I took the photographs of the setup and decor I started wondering what it would look like if I were to hold down the shutter and let the camera take as many photos as it could. These new cameras can take over 30 images per second for as long as there is room on the memory card. So I let the camera fired away for about 2-3 minutes at a time.

I shared these images with Greg Russell of Tandem Digital who produced the video. He incorporated those sequences into an amazing followup video. Take a peek at the video and find some inspiration for a fun idea on how to use video in an event. If your computer can handle it, watch this in the Large setting. It's really quite amazing to watch.

CLICK HERE to see the video

Take note that much of the video is footage shot by Greg, then portions of the video were created by the still images that I shot. I think the effect is quite interesting.

-Rand Larson

Old Posts

2008-10-01T18:03:00.000-07:00

We are moving our blog to a new system hosted by Blogger. But there's some great stuff from the last few years on our old blog!

It's going to take me some time to enter all of the old posts into Blogger, so if you are curious about old entries, CLICK HERE to read previous entries.

And what is so special about the old entries? It's all amazing stuff, of course!

We talk about taking photos at Cirque du Soliel in Las Vegas, photography on the Orient Express, photos from London and Venice, custom photo books, photo kiosks, and my favorite entry: Food Fight at the Ritz-Carlton! If you are looking for ideas for your event, take a peek!