El Músico

Looking back, this was one of the most authentic-feeling moments we had on our entire vacation.


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tags technorati : Puerto Vallarta Mexico vacation bus guitar sun headsoff

Bucerias

This is some footage from the town an hour up the coast from us that was slightly less tourist-focused, but still pretty crazy. One thing about Puerto Vallarta itself is that its ALL about the time shares. You can't walk 4 steps without being acausted by yet another guy trying to take you on a time share tour, but not saying so up front.

Well, we were actually invited into the restaurant in this video and were at first like "no, we're not interested" because we thought it was a time share. When he said he was just inviting us into his restaurant we decided to give it a shot. We were, after all, looking for a place to eat. But once we were settled in, he came up trying to get us to go on a time share tour! I guess the restaurants have some kind of symbiotic relationship with the time share guys. It does bring in business!

The irony to all this is that on our last day there, we had a few hours to kill between checking out of the resort and catching our plane home so we actually TRIED to go on a time share tour, figuring if we could make a couple hundred bucks in our down time then why not? As it turns out, after ALL that hounding, we're not even eligible to go on the tour because we're not over 30! You'd think they'd get that out of the way right up front... hah!


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Runtime is 1:10

tags technorati : Puerto Vallarta Mexico vacation Bucerias flea market sun headsoff

Swimming With Dolphins

After the horses we decided why not step it up a notch and try riding a dolphin? unfortunately, we weren't allowed to have video DURING the experience since they make a killing off selling photos by what they call their "mexican paparazi" (one of which is featured below, the one and only that we purchased). But you can still see some dolphins :-)


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Runtime is a minute and a half

tags technorati : Puerto Vallarta Mexico vacation dolphins swimming with dolphins sun headsoff

El jinete

I did a lot of horse-related activities as a kid, first attending and then counseling at a horse day camp and working at the ranch in exchange for lessons. During my years of chemo and weakened immune systems, I was technically not allowed to go back to work with horses, and since I've been in Boston I've realized that I miss them! So, when presented with a chance to go on a multi-hour trail ride that included breakfast, lunch, and swimming in a waterfall for just under $50 each we decided why the heck not??


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Runtime is just under a minute

tags technorati : Puerto Vallarta Mexico vacation horses horseback riding sun headsoff

The Life on a Resort

Chad and I went on our first vacation together that didn't involve visiting friends or family... just taking time to relax. We got to use a week of his parents' time share, and decided to trade into a spot in Mexico. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the time shares in Mexico all tended to be pretty ritzy, and in the middle of tons of other crazy resorts. I'll post a series of videos but this one is just about the resort...


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Runtime is 2.5 minutes

tags technorati : Puerto Vallarta Mexico vacation sun headsoff

Yay for Vacation!

Chad and I disappeared for almost 2 weeks back to my parents' home in the Northwest. Boy, was it a needed vacation after Xmas season at the studio had me working like mad and Chad's work was no less forgiving... my mom wanted pictures of my sister and I, so I gave Chad my camera and orchestrated a photo shoot from the other side of the lens. I love teamwork! We danced, dipped, hugged, jumped, laughed, smiled and even posed a time or two. I made a fun little compilation of a few of my favorite shots.. although it was very difficult to choose!



We even got in a somewhat unconventional and one-day-belated New Years kiss




As usual, more can be found on my Flickr site

tags technorati : headsoff, sisters, anacortes, vacation

Autumn in New England

I went out to do a photo shoot today and the girl I was supposed to shoot with didn't show up. I had been so excited to shoot the foliage that I wasn't ready to leave without taking a few photos regardless.


So I convinced Chad to walk around with me...
and slipped in a couple of him.












But hey, it's not like I'm unreasonable!
To be fair, I let him take some of me too ;-)

tags technorati : headsoff, arnold arboretum, arboretum, autumn, leaves, fall, maple

Dancing and Photographing

I did a photo shoot the other day with Heather Bryce, a choreographer and dancer, at Spy Pond up in Arlington. The goal of the shoot was mainly to capture her in motion, as well as to get some head shots of her.







The park is beautiful, but very parky in that there are fences and benches and parked cars and people and dogs all over the place. Because of this it was a challenge to find spots that were empty for long enough expanses that we could shoot and have it look like she was alone.

We had a great time, though, and I think we did a good job of making it hard to tell that anyone else existed. She's so beautiful, and she made it easy to capture stunning images! I've (obviously) included a couple of the shots from the shoot here, to see more you can go to my new serravision flickr page!




Technorati Tags: dancing, dancer, spy pond, photography, headsoff

Less Size Pant

Chad has been feeling sick. Usually he cooks everything but lately he hasn't been feeling like cooking. I think this poem might have come partially from that.

But mostly it came from our amusement at the words "less" "size" and "pant" all in a row. It makes us feel even more lucky to be living with each other, rather than having to worry about encountering any number of Chinese men, or smoke, or just plain strangers when venturing out of our bedroom...




Technorati Tags: magnetic poetry, refrigerator, words, poetry, headsoff

Fridge Haiku

Chad and I are slowly settling into our new place. After 2 months of blank refrigerator, we finally broke out the magnetic poetry.

We stuck word after word onto the fridge until it looked like it had magnetic poetry pox. Then, satisfied, we went to make dinner... but those words all over the fridge were too tempting and before you knew it we were munching on frozen yogurt sitting in front of the fridge and seeing how many haiku we could make from the words that were there...

I've decided to post a few of them in an attempt to get myself back into blogging. They'll be photos rather than video, and since I've been doing a lot of still photography lately this suggests to me a possible transition from strictly video blogging to photo and video blogging. We'll see what happens...

Here is our haiku entitled "self portrait" ;-)





Technorati Tags: magnetic poetry, refrigerator, words, poetry, headsoff

Bio Diesel Fill-Up

It's official. The new ("new") Jetta is now a green machine!


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See my previous post Going Diesel for more on what I'm doing and why, and links to more information.

Runtime is 3 minutes plus a bit

Technorati Tags: biodiesel, diesel, alternative fuel, green, funnel, volkswagen, headsoff

Going Diesel

I bought a car in August. It was a Honda Civic, a basic economy car known for its reliability and its gas mileage. Many of my friends live off the subway lines and many miles from me, my work at WGBH is hard to get to without a car, and every job I seem to be applying for requires that I have my own transportation. So I caved.

Despite my good intentions and rationalizations, it became clear that driving this Honda was gnawing at my soul. The automatic transmission confused me and it's all together possible that the unfamiliar territiry simply made me paranoid, but the mileage just never seemed to be what it should be. I felt like I wasn't even making it to 30 miles per gallon, and slowly I stopped visiting people because I felt guilty.

I would be on edge driving to have dinner in Waltham (only a 10 mile trip from my home) because I figure that's probably almost half a gallon of gasoline that I'm using, and by driving all the time and burning so much gasoline I'm contributing to so many problems including health risks associated with the gasoline exhaust, greenhouse effects, and warped political priorities that have arisen to ensure US appropriation of foreign oil.

So after owning the Honda for less than 6 months, I decided it was time to sell it and buy something that didn't stress out my morals so much. Enter, 1989 VW Jetta. For now, this car will run on diesel which is not much better for the environment, but at least is more efficient. I can get approximately 45-50 miles to the gallon, as opposed to just under 30 with the honda. And as it warms up I can transition to biodiesel and eventually, with the help of these guys, to SVO (straight vegetable oil).


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Thanks to Chad for the excellent camerawork, encouragement and company.

For more inspiring videos about running on alternative fuel, check out RyanIsHungry

Runtime is 1:17

Technorati Tags: volkswagen, vw, jetta, diesel, biodiesel, SVO, straight vegetable oil, vegoil, alternative fuel

Making Ice

While some may think it's a difficult, highly technical endevour, I'm pleased to present you with the idiot's guide to making ice. Turns out it isn't difficult at all, just takes a delicate balance between starting out with very little water in the first place, and accidentally leaving it outside in the car all night long while it's snowing... The result is beautiful. Just don't tell my mom I've been freezing the new Nalgene she got me...


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Runtime is 28 Seconds

Technorati Tags: ice frozen water+bottle winter cold

Green, Brown.

a moment.



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Runtime is 30 seconds

See more of Chad.

Technorati Tags: socks green brown color changing+color light

Santa Cruz Cruiser

I'm finally posting again. dun-dun-nu-nu!
uh .. yeah - most people who will see this know the story, mike and i broke up and i was like "well now what?"
is it "headoff" now?
no.
do i start my own separate site now?
for now, i've decided no - this is my life and people come in and out of it and I have to accept that fact.
so here you go. its just me now... at least for the time being.
and i'm still headsoff.
maybe i'll talk more about this later, if you're really nice....


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Runtime is 30 seconds

Icelandic Film Festival

Mike's friend from college (who is also incidentally originally from Iceland) is in town, and he brought us a movie to watch. Pretty freakin exciting... too bad you have to play it on a computer.


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Runtime is 50 seconds

Technorati Tags: iceland region+encoding

Road Trip / Field Trip to Cine Lab

Last Friday, half my film class went on a field trip to Fall River, Massachusetts to see the lab where our film gets processed and printed and get a better understanding for what is possible and how it all happens. More than learning about the lab, we enjoyed the beautiful spring day and excuse for a mini-road trip...
-serra


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Runtime is 3 1/2 minutes

Technorati Tags: Techhonrati tags: Cine, film, lab, field trip, road trip

Film 2

Here is the second project I've done for my film class. This one involved actually editing the film, which was a fun yet trying experience. I think it went pretty well. I realized sometime between now and the last film I posted that the film to video transfer equipment at school really does a bad job, and so I color-corrected this one and desaturated it to true black and white. I hope it looke nicer than the last one and it isn't just me getting carried away with color correction :-)

Oh yeah. and it really needs a sound track. If you know of one, please share it with me.

-serra


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Runtime is about a minute

Technorati Tags: Techhonrati tags: film, 16mm, sun, flare, trees, wind up, light, time lapse

Cat Walk

we decided to make Merlin a ramp so he could climb up to our loft bed in the morning. its pretty sweet.


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Runtime is 4:30

Technorati Tags: Techhonrati tags: cat walk, loft bed, cat

White Chapel

I just found this old video on my hard drive and had to share it. This is for my good friend, and college roommate, Becca. She wrote this script during a time when she was obsessed with Jack The Ripper, and we always joked about it when we lived together, so when I had to think of a studio production I wrote to her and asked if she'd let me make a no-budget rendition of it. Here's what happened.


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Runtime is 5:10

Technorati Tags: jack the ripper britain police white chapel