As part of an agreement between the HSBC Celebration of Light and Strutta, yours truly was the official videographer for the event. Every year, the best fireworks teams in the world compete for bragging rights in what is the world’s biggest offshore fireworks competition.

I have already shot the first two evenings of action, and I look forward to doing en even better job with the remaining two nights. We’ve created a game on Strutta where folks can cast their votes for their favourite, and I uploaded both the Team Canada and USA performances to Vimeo, so that y’all can watch them in higher quality. (See the embedded versions of both below)

Quick technical note: The original footage was shot in high definition, then reduced to 960 x 540, as they will ultimately be mastered to DVD (720 x 480).

What is the marketing lesson here?

How this deal came about is quite simple, and no money changed hands. I asked if they had a “social media sponsor” ( and after the pregnant pause on the other end of the line, I tried “videographer” instead) and when they said they didn’t, we set about coming up with a mutually beneficial agreement. Now, I can reap the benefits of the cross promotion, and land a lot more eyeballs on our site by hosting the highlight videos. All because I asked. These days, there are a number of events, happenings and causes that could benefit from your knowledge in the use of social media and the web. Positioning yourself as the official source of promotions and “media” sponsorship can be very good for your own promotion, and possibly even lead to consulting work in the field.

I have to confess, I borrowed this idea from my friend Rebecca Bollwitt, aka Miss 604, who has been the de facto “social media sponsor” and liveblogger of a number of popular Vancouver events, tech related and otherwise. To say that this strategy has been good for promoting her would be something of an understatement, to be sure. Now that she and her husband have launched their own consultancy, Sixty4Media, that promotion will be paying dividends.

But that concludes today’s lesson; now let’s watch some fireworks! If you want to vote on your faves, you may do so in the Strutta game: HSBC Celebration of Light 2008.

Team Canada - August 23 2008 from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

Team USA - August 26, 2008 from Jordan Behan on Vimeo.

*image of Team Canada fireworks by the incomparable Rob Masefield. View his whole (breathtaking!) photo set here, and if you want a tutorial on shooting fireworks with a DSLR camera, Rob offers one here.

Last week I received an email from the gents at MWW group reminding me that the Nikon “Picture This” blogger outreach program was coming to a close, and it was time for me to decide what I preferred to do with the camera. Read my previous post about my involvement from a year ago.

Before I get into what I decided, I wanted to say a few words about the campaign itself- I know that I was chosen because of my interest and support of campaigns just like this one, but it is rare when outreach campaigns of this nature get everything right. In my opinion, the fine folks (especially Chris Thilk and Tom Biro, my contacts during the campaign) of MWW handled it expertly; with a policy of full disclosure and no expectations from participants. From my post a year ago:

The trial period is six months, after which the camera can be purchased (at a discount, with the funds going to charity), sent back or kept for an additional six months.

There is no obligation or even expectation to blog about it, the only rule being that if we choose to, we must disclose that we are part of the program.

Kudos to you for what has to be considered a success- I’d be interested to know how many of the 46 participating bloggers chose to keep the cameras after the fact. View a Flickr Group of photos taken by those 46 bloggers.

And now back to the camera itself. My choices:

• Send back the camera, to be donated to charity.
• Buy the camera for $500, with the cash being donated to charity.

I chose the latter option, and I have no lack of reasons why. Although I was only just getting back into digital SLR photography when I was selected for the program, it took no time for me to decide that I preferred the D80 over my existing Olympus. I took the camera on several photowalks with fellow photogs (learning tons in the process) and had it with me for several tech events over the past year. And when it came to the birth of my son this Spring, I borrowed a 50mm fixed prime lens from Vincent Janelle to get the best possible shots of my little guy during his first few moments of life. The camera came through- the shots are amazing.

There’s a lot to love about the D80. The plastic body, although a mark of more affordable SLRs, helps keep the unit light enough that taking it hiking, boating or to the peak of Whistler Mountain on my snowboard isn’t out of the question. The kit lens (an 18-135mm workhorse) that came with it is extremely versatile and produces terrific shots. Still, it leaves me longing for plenty of other lenses. With the D80, I know I have a solid body that will be with me for some time, so I can confidently start collecting new glass. Plus, the D80’s infrared abilities mean that I can use a remote control with it. My brother-in-law bought me such a device, making family (self) portraits a cinch.

While my knowledge of existing DSLR cameras is limited to my experience within these past two years, I quickly justified the purchase of the D80 (at the reduced “editorial rate”) by using one simple metric: the D80 has made me fall in love with taking pictures again. I keep the manual next to the toilet in my bathroom, and every day I spend a few minutes learning news ways to control light for better and better shots of our son, our neighborhood and our family.

Thanks again to Nikon and MWW Group for introducing me to a great camera, and for conducting a brilliant blogger outreach campaign; one that may have been called into question by a few jealous bloggers, but can’t be faulted for the professionalism and transparency with which it was conducted.

*Photo of me with D80 by Ianiv Schweber*