Sorry to end the year on a downer -

The New York Times has a gripping presentation by John Moore (Getty Images) of his photographs taken before, during and after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

The last day of the year. Bye bye

What a beautiful day!!! The sun is shining. Fresh snow on the ground. Last few days off until the biggest bridal show of the year. If you are getting married and have not booked all the things you need to then this is the show for you!!

Just in case you didnt know

2007 Top Pics

If you click on the photo on the right in the margin it will take you to my 2007 top pics in a full screen slide show.

I've mixed up blogs

Blogs are a great way to communicate with customers. That being the case I have 2 main blogs that I write daily in. This one - Jean Francois's blog which to date is mostly about me and my everyday life.

I like to share recent images, information I have learned and basically whatever comes to mind. If you read back to the beginning (about 2 years now)

Well to make a long story shorter - I posted on the wrong blog. My other blog is new and I set it up with the idea as a place to preview photos and video only.

http://dggroup.blogspot.com/

Almost Xmas - time for memories

It's usually around the holiday when family and friends get together and make memories. And that tradition has been photographed, video taped and recorded on a number of different types of media.

Since the invention of photography (its debatable either Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre or Nicéphore Niépce) People have been trying to archive themselves for postarity. I started TorontoHomeMovies.com, USHomeMovies.com and FloridaHomeMovies.com with the idea that as technology has improved there are many people who have lost years of memories simply because there are not machines left to play them!

Weather you live in the USA or in Canada we can help you save your memories.

At FlordiaHomeMovies.com we are saving your 8mm film, super 8, 16mm , VHS tapes , Hi8 tapes , 35mm film and even your old records and LPs. By making them in at DVD digital version you can copy them over and over. Get your memories on DVD today!

How better to remember your memories forever than to convert all your 8mm, 16mm and Super 8 films on to 1 or a set of VHS tapes or DVDs. Our audio specialists can even convert your old LPs to CDs that can be played in your car or stereo. We will take your 8mm tapes, Hi8 tapes and Beta max tapes and make digital copies to DVD, usually in less than 3 days.

Remember the old family projector??? You know, the one that makes the stuttering sound and makes you throw your memories back to 'the Good ol' Days'? We remember it too, and while we remember it fondly, we also remember a few others things.

* Broken tapes * Poor or No Sound * Bulbs burning out * Faded image quality * Irreplaceable projector parts

Imagine, sitting down in your living room or den and spending some fun times with everyone simply by slipping in a VHS tape, Video-CD or DVD and pressing PLAY! We can even convert your 8mm old film to .avi or mpeg so that you can edit yourself in the future. How about giving us your VHS tapes or 16mm movies and we will convert the footage to Flash for internet viewing. We can even host!!

We can convert your 8MM, Super-8MM, 16mm movies to either VHS, Video-CD or DVD* media formats, letting you keep those movies for a long time to come in a way that lets you have all the nostalgia with a lot less of the nostalgic hardware that would otherwise go with it.

We convert almost any format to digital. Here is a list of the most popular:

8mm to DVD
Super 8 film transfered to MiniDV or DVD
VHS converts to DVD or .avi for future editing
16mm film with sound or without to DVCAM, then uploaded to Adobe Premiere Pro 2.0. We then color correct, sharpen and output to DVD.
MiniDV or 8mm or Hi8 or Digital8 transfered to DVD.
Audio tape to CD

We can scan all your family photographs and create slideshows to music then output to either the internet using Flash or create a VCD or DVD.

Another option that we offer is the ability to purchase MiniDV Master Tapes or 8mm Digital 8 tapes for the following reasons:

• DVD copies can be made from the Master Tape. The reality is DVD is not full resolution but a compressed format.
• MiniDV Tapes contain more than 2 times as much data, giving you more detail in your images
• Any future editing will be far superior from the Master tape

Photo Conversions

Photographs fade. It's a fact of life. Save your precious memories for future generations by having FloridaHomeMovies.com convert your 35mm and 120mm slides and negatives to Jpeg, Tiff or Bitmap

• We use professional scanning equipment
• Apply infrared dust & scratch reduction (Digital ICE™)
• Grain dissolver applied for crisp image rendering (Digital GEM™)
• Correction for color range and over/underexposure
• Color Fade & Restoration applied as required (Digital ROC™)
• Manual Spotting for scratch removal on main subject

As members of NAPP we have the experience and the knowledge to restore your memories to perfection.

More photosto come here is a fun winter shoot.

Many couples know what they like. Nice expressions, cute poses or great candids etc. When we shoot engagement portraits we, of course do all this. But I want to make one thing clear about the photos I post on the blog.

These are my favs. In lot cases they are not going to be your favorite ones so let me explain why these are on the blog and not the others.

After shooting for so many years it would be easy for me, Marianna, Natasha and Manny to become lazy. Simply shoot the easy shots that everyone likes and go home. But as artists, we have this internal force that drives us to push our craft a little farther each time we shoot.

Take photo #1 (top) You can make the arguement that Karla and Rob are not in the middle of the photo, that its crooked, and that it looks dark.

I see passion!!! 1. the clouds look fierce. 2. the position of the couple forces you to look down from the clouds to the couple then to the tree - lot more interesting than if they were in the middle of the bullseye 3. the branch on the left is juxtaposed again the tree on the top right giving a cool foreground then couple as mid and tree as background. 4. they are not kissing - but you can tell they will be soon!!


If all I wanted to do was go in the park to collect a paycheck - believe me on a cold day that would be the day. But I remember being soooooo amazed by the snow - I think Karla and Rob got a little worried cause I was laughing so much. Of course it was cold but wow what a blast!!!

If this is your first time on the blog remember - if you click on the photos you can see full resolution images!! Feel free to register to receive email updates whenever I post and make a comment!!! We want your opinions!!

On the Disney Magic

I never really understood how completely burned out until yesterday. It took over 4 days for me to unwind enough to fall asleep without being totally exhausted. I even passed out today during the day!!

Of course I know most of you are freezing and you all hate me. But after 6 months of 80 hour week I wont feel too guilty.

Vacations used to be a major thing in my life. I remember when Marianna and I used to travel nearly every other month. Cuba, London, Tokyo, LA and New York. I'm not sure what changed exactly. Maybe its the boys or too many goals. But being out on the beach yesterday reminded me of another Disney cruise a few years ago.

On that trip I made a list of every single dream and goal I could think of. Including ones that I didn't thing would ever be possible. I think I put down wanting a Picasso and a truck.