Woodworking and Old Cameras

I haven’t blogged in, what, maybe 20 years? The last blog I ever posted was on a little site named Xanga way back in middle school. I’m a little hazy, but I’m pretty sure I wrote about something incredibly meaningless and tried my best at filling it with “sarcastic humor.” Nobody was reading what I wrote back then, that’s for sure! It’s probably fitting that my first blog in two decades is about me, Damian, what I’ve been doing and how I got into the wedding films business. So where to begin?

I’ve always loved photography, and even more so cinematography. Back when I was attempting to be a brilliant social media influencer long before that term existed, I got my hands on my dad’s old Pentax 35mm. I took photos of anything and everything, with whatever film I could get ahold of. I remember capturing the most perfectly composed, colored, and interesting photo that had ever been taken of a family pet — and being so proud that I was now a master-photographer.

That camera has been missing for many years, probably misplaced during one of our several moves and lost along the way. I stopped taking photos long before that, finding new passions that were soon forgotten too while I navigated highschool, college, adulthood, love, and loss. I never became a photographer, or a brilliant cinematographer, or even a comedy god. However, I never lost the love for the beautiful art that someone with a camera can create.

I was living in a small house with a couple really good highschool friends while going to college, with no money, furniture, or any real possessions to my name. My mattress lived on a cheap metal frame with no headboard, I charged my phone on the floor because I didn’t have a night stand, and I did my homework at the shared kitchen table while my roommates watched The Office. How do you get any work done when The Office is on, you ask? You don’t. You watch The Office.

Eventually, I couldn’t stand having no furniture, and the best way I could think of to spruce up my room was to get a headboard. Since I was broke, buying one seemed like such a waste of money, so I decided to build one. I had a little bit of experience doing home projects with my mom, who was always renovating our homes growing up, so I knew I could do it. I watched a ton of YouTube videos, found some free plans a DIY website for a headboard I liked, bought some lumber from a big box home center, and borrowed a few tools. That was the start of one of my biggest passions that has continued to hold strong to this day — woodworking. I went on to buy several more tools since then to outfit a small garage with nearly everything a woodshop requires. After several years of watching everything on YouTube that has to do with woodworking, I decided to start sharing some of the things I make, and created DFR Workshop.

I used my phone to record a few times, then decided to upgrade to a proper camera. I found myself obsessing even more about the camera, lenses, framing, colors and cinematography of some of the Youtubers I watched than I did about their projects. Many of them started using dedicated videographers as their channels grew, and I was determined to figure out how I could make my videos better on my own. So I began my videography research by watching everything I could possibly find on the internet.

Jessica and I met while working at Target together while I was still living with my roommates in a different house. I had already identified myself as a woodworker by that point, but hadn’t found videography yet. We had known each other for a couple of years and kept in touch after she moved locations. I also never removed her from my email distribution list, and several months later she finally responded telling me about it. I still didn’t remove her, and she began responding every now and then with a funny quip. I was eventually successful in convincing her to go on a date with me less than a week before she left on a trip to Italy. We hung out in the movie theater bar for an hour before we saw Mad Max. We had our second date the day before she left! We ate at Fuzzy’s Taco shop and spent two hours talking and laughing into the night after I took her to another movie (the Oscar nom Jurassic World).

Fast-forward several years, we were eloping in Breckenridge, Colorado with just the two of us and two of our best friends, Zach and Lexi! We were going there for their wedding, and they offered to marry us in the mountains if we wanted. We had several weeks to prepare, but even when eloping that’s not much time. We knew our parents, friends, and family would all be upset that they wouldn’t be able to go, but we were prepared for that. Sometimes you just have to do what is best for you, and that’s what we did! Since my mother couldn’t be there, she asked that I take my camera and set it up on a tripod so that she could still watch the ceremony, even though she knew it would be incredibly boring. I had already been obsessing about videography for quite some time, took it as a challenge. We made a travel-vlog style wedding video instead! I learned so much from filming and editing it, and loved it so much that I continued to obsess about it for several more months until I finally felt it was finished enough to show Zack and Lexi. I used unlicensed music and it was a little long, but they both loved it! Lexi’s a wedding photographer (LexiHoebing.com check her out!) and asked if I wanted to come along with her to a film a wedding and see if it was something I liked.

Obsession became passion, and I fell in love with weddings! It’s the happiest day in the lives of two people, or more if you count the parents, grandparents, and best friends of the couple. As a videographer I’m there to capture the culmination of love and joy, and it’s hands down the most rewarding thing I’ve ever found. It’s and amazing honor to capture the first time a groom sees his bride, the nerves, the tears, the enamored smile. Photos last a lifetime, but a film has the ability to completely transport you back and relive more of the details —the sounds of the trees, the best friend’s perfect speech, or the excited and nervous sigh of the groom just before his bride taps him on the shoulder. Those little details can propel you into the past and evoke memories, feelings and emotions, sounds and smells that you can relive years down the road.

Jess and I have since moved into a smaller place in the city and have put the wood shop into storage for now, but I absolutely plan to bring that side of me back to life as soon as possible. Weddings, on the other hand, will never go into storage and will always be an active passion of mine. I would absolutely love for this to become what I’m known for. No job has ever made me happier!

Maybe I’ll find that old Pentax in a box somewhere at my mother’s house someday. I bet there’s some masterclass photos still on that last roll of film I’d like to see.