A couple of years ago, when our family was planning a trip to South Africa, I bought a nice DSLR. We had friends with excellent cameras, huge lenses and wild life photography experience. So instead of trying to compete with them I decided to buy a camera suited for filming. It was the rise of filming-DSLRs, and even television shows were adapting DSLRs for filming. I settled on a Canon 550D also known as Rebel T2i.

Just before I left for South Africa I decided to take the camera to the Devoxx 2011 conference. I didn’t even have a tripod at that time! After shooting some quick footage I decided to edit everything to make a nice movie and share it with the organiser. He liked it so much he placed it on the main website for a while. This is what I made:

Devoxx 2012

The following year Stephan asked me to be the official videographer for Devoxx 2012! So I went back and made another video, it seems like I’m turning from regular visitor/developer to videographer. I took some more time to analyse the conference to include the main sponsors, show every aspect of the conference and to get across the Devoxx atmosphere (including the James Bond theme, we all watched SkyFall during the conference!):

Devoxx4Kids 2012

The best time I had as videographer was during Devoxx4Kids. It is a separate event first hosted in 2012. The kids were having a great time and that is clearly visible in the video. Kids aren’t shy at all and much easier to approach then adults. That is why I did some quick interviews and I love the result, I might do that in the future for other conferences as well:

Devoxx UK 2013

The latest conference I filmed was Devoxx UK. For the first time the Devoxx conference has crossed the big blue sea to go to the United Kingdom. I’ve tried to make the resulting video look a bit more professional although I’m still just a Java developer with a hobby:

The future…

The last three years I’ve filmed at three weddings, four conferences and edited together our vacations to South Africa, Norway and some trips into the Alps (wintersport). As an amateur videographer (with a growing list of references) there still is a lot to learn, but I’m really enjoying the process! Any tips/hints/tricks are absolutely welcome, and I’m open for invitations!