I just won three Emmy awards: one for writing, one for News Image Campaign and one for special effects make-up. The official event photos aren't out yet, but these pictures were posted by a woman taking a few at the Southeast Regional Emmy Awards. I'll post some that I took later on.
Yesterday I went on the LaZoom Comedy bus tour (www.lazoomtours.com) around Asheville with my good friend George. We had a great time! I've used the guys from the LaZoom troupe before in a promotion for WLOS and I'm using them again for some more really funny spots I'm shooting now. Look for these same actors in posts to come. They'll be easy to recognize.
I shot two of my good friends/colleges engagement session at the NC Arboretum. They are just so cute. They were worried about not being able to pose well, but really they had nothing to worry about. Wedding coming soon.
I did my first marathon. The Asheville Chamber of Commerce 5k. I walked the whole way... well I did run for the last bit of it because we could see the finish line and the countdown clock was about to go to 1 hour and we decided we wanted to get in under an hour, so we had to run the last little bit. WLOS had a team and I decided to join. It was fun. I cut up posters so we could have themed costumes. I'm the "Body of Proof" poster.
I've just been nominated for five Southeast Regional Emmys! The awards gala isn't until June 18th, so I have to wait a whole painstaking month to find out if I won or not. The news guys had a Emmy nomination party at Dave's house and everyone was on some digital device following the twitter feed to see who was nominated next. Here's what I'm up for:
The PSA I made for Homeward Bound just won two ADDY Awards! The ADDYs are given out by the American Advertising Federation for many different aspects of advertising. They give out Gold and Silver awards, plus Best-in-Show and a Mosaic Award for multiculturalism and diversity in advertising. We took home Gold and the Mosaic Award! All Gold winners are automatically sent to the regional competition and if it wins Gold there, we'll be sent on to the national competition! Attached are some pictures from the Awards Ceremony published by the Asheville Citizen-Times.
Rebecca finally came home for a visit from China, with her husband and one year old baby. We had lots of family over and a great wedding blessing at the house. It was so good to see Rebecca again and meet my brother-in-law and new nephew. Hopefully it won't be long until they come back for another visit.
Sometimes, I really love my job. Today I went on a hot air balloon ride. Asheville Hot Air Balloons needed a commercial and when they came asking, I jumped at the chance to shoot it. If you've ever had a dream about flying, probably the closest way you can get to that sensation is in a hot air balloon. Whenever I dream about flying, the wind never factors into it. When I was skydiving, I definitely felt the wind and it was a huge rush. Riding in a hot air balloon was more like levitating. It was peaceful and incredible. I'll have a video posted soon from the commercial footage I got. What a trip!
I shot Ryan and Estee's wedding back in October and it was awesome. Their ceremony and reception were held at on Broadway in Asheville. Dave Saich did an action movie trailer of them for their wedding video. They are such a sweet couple. I had a great time shooting their wedding.
I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family. We woke to a magically white Christmas this morning and shared our gift unwrapping with our neighbors, who are like family, and had baked brie and champagne! So decadent and so wonderful. Every day is a gift, but this one came wrapped up special. I hope we all will take a little time to give generously not only to others, but to ourselves as well. Now, off to do some sleding.
I just had the luckiest baby portrait session. The plan was for Finn to be asleep for the potrait session, but babies are unpredictable and Finn decided he didn't want to sleep when he usually does. So we just kept to cross our fingers and hoped he didn't fuss. Boy, did we luck out. He gave us a full twenty minutes of happy cuteness! The result was great awake baby photos with Finn and mom, Brie.
Homeward Bound PSA from Katie Damien on Vimeo.
Drift Off from Katie Damien on Vimeo.
A promotion for WLOS News13 at 10pm. Shot in Asheville, NC. Featuring Chris Hamilton, Coranna and Eruch Adams, and Jenny Wrobel. Shot entirely with a Nikon D90. Underwater footage acquired with a homemade rig. Special thanks to Leigh Lewis for letting us use her pool.
Katie
I just had my first adventure in underwater videography. I wrote a script for our 10pm news where people are falling asleep in front of the TV and then drifting off...literally. So to do the floating, drifting off shots I put my actors and my camera underwater in a pool. I used the blue of the pool as a giant blue screen and keyed them over background plates of the living rooms.
Anyone need a good actor? I just did some head shots for Jason Garcia. He has a great voice too! 
