Several years ago, around 2004 I'd say, I became interested in shooting video. I had a mid to low-end Sony camcorder that wrote to a digital Mini-DV tape. At the time, I think I paid ~ $1000 for it which is interesting to think about what features you'd get in a camcorder now for the same $1000. I bought the camcorder mostly to play around with until I came across a work project that challenged me to think differently about what I'm capturing and how to get your message across to your audience.
This work project was a part of an annual event that challenged all of the IT community to present something fun, creative and entertaining. At the time, "The Apprentice" was just becoming popular so we did a spoof on the show. It was the first time I was filming, directing, editing - all for the same project. In addition, this project allowed forme to work with several others on the writing and logistics. We had multiple cameras, sound equipment and not surprisingly some that were less than motivated than others to participate. All in all, I can say that I spent many, many hours diving in and learning about how to story-tell.
Back to the point, when this interest started to take off for me, I wanted to learn more about the industry and the people in it. National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) is the largest video related conference in the US each year. It covers about 5 million square feet of the Las Vegas Convention Center and has ~ 100,000 attendees. Its huge! And I've been wanting to attend this show since around 2004. This year, because of the work that I'm doing with Shutterstock, I was able to attend to represent the efforts Shutterstock as a vendor at the NAB. Shutterstock is a marketplace for buying and selling stock photos and video and I was there, along with several of my co-workers, working the booth. It was the first time being an Exhibitor and the first time attending NAB.
Long story short, it was a very successful event. Lots of great people that stopped by the booth and it was such a fun experience to talk to people about their work and how Shutterstock can help them meet their goals. Oh, and one thing I managed to work into my time in Vegas was a shoot with a model from ModelMayhem. I've used this service several times in the past and had pretty good success. More to come on that soon.