Yearly Update

I recently wrote and email to some friends and clients about 2020 and looking towards 2021. I’ve attached it here if you’re curious what we’ve been up to:

Hello friends,

A friend suggested I send a yearly update to my clients, friends, and those that find themselves in both categories (that’s most of you!)

What. A. Year. I’ve never been thrown so many curveballs in my life and I’m sure you’re probably feeling the same. I’ve had some of my lowest moments this year dealing with the effects of this pandemic in my own family. If you’ve endured suffering too this year, I feel for you.

While there have been dark points this year, there have been positive moments for me as well. This has been our best year yet. I’ve been floored by not only how quickly we’ve integrated video production into our services, but also how willing our clients have been to utilize our new offerings. I’ve been photographing for 15 years and while photography is undoubtedly my first love, I draw immense pleasure while storytelling with video content. I’m so thankful that we’ve had wonderful clients interested in our creative video content services alongside our photography services. I’m pleased to say that our business is now roughly made up of 70% video and 30% photography. 

Some of our 2020 projects

Some of our 2020 projects

With this increased interest in video, I’m working with long-time friend and collaborator, Tom Gavin, on a small agency dedicated to servicing industries outside of my traditional customer base. The Now Agency specializes in identifying and conveying the key differentiating elements of companies to ensure potential customers understand their value. While this venture is just beginning, I’m excited to expand my bandwidth and work to bring well-established businesses into the 21st century.

Also, we worked with our first video intern, Yani Trujillo. Yani graduated from Taylor University with a B.A. in Film and Media Production and hails from The Canary Islands. This was a pretty big deal for our team, as she’s our first video-focused intern. She’s been a joy to have on set and a real asset in the editing room. We can’t wait to work with her more in 2021! If you’re interested in interning for us, please drop me a line.

I also have to thank another team member, the ever-helpful Hector Pacheco for helping me with everything from editing, to organizing, to really just being my jack-of-all-tradesman. I couldn’t have done this without you!

We’ve worked on all sorts of fun projects in 2020. From our trip to Cancun with Curioso in February shooting photography and video that recently won two Gold Key Awards, to our video project with Danish company Kvadrat Fabric, to shooting a video for one of my favorite brands Notre in collaboration with Hoka One One, it’s been one hell of a year. There are a bunch more projects you can peruse at Danielkelleghan.com or on the ‘ol instagram. 

I’m hoping that in 2021 we have the opportunity to help even more clients in the hospitality and advertising space with their strategy, creative direction, production, editing, and audio needs. There’s a good chance we can bring your photography and video content to the next level.

OK, enough of the business stuff. On a personal note, Katrina and I hiked Machu Picchu in January which was breathtaking. Also, Hector and I have had a blast DJing throughout quarantine. Our live sets (aptly named “Covid Grooves”) have been a shining light at the end of many hard days. It feels almost magical to get the creative juices flowing in new ways. Hector also moved below me and now we jam out once or twice a week (Hector on drums, me on bass). Lastly, I had the privilege of officiating two weddings this year! While the circumstances were nothing close to normal, it was an incredible honor to join some really close friends and family in their unions together.

Thanks to each and every one of you that has helped me this year in both big and small ways. I certainly could not have done this year without all of you wonderful people in my life. Thank you thank you THANK YOU!

Looking forward to 2021, if you think that there’s anyone that I should meet either a client or even a friend, I’m always game for introductions. 

All in all, I have to say, I couldn’t be more excited for where things are going in 2021.

Stay well my friends,
Dan

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Arcosanti Arizona

I made a daytime trip to Arcosanti in Arizona last year and finally got around to posting some shots. I loved this place, although it was falling into disrepair. Paolo Solari’s pet project is definitely a spot worth visiting!

5 Things I learned while creating political videos for the next Mayor of Chicago

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A few months back I had the privilege of working with Neal Sales Griffin, a candidate for Mayor of Chicago. From the first time I met him I was hooked on his vision for Chicago. Little did I know that I would make a real friend out of the experience and create a body of work that I was really proud of. I’ve had a few months to reflect and below are some reflections on my experience.

1. The importance of having a good subject who really knows what they stand for and how to articulate it.

Working with Neal was a reminder of how much easier it is to work with people that know what they want to say and how to say it. For months, we never did more than single takes. He didn’t stumble over his words, was clear and concise, and spoke with confidence. This was especially noticeable because I don’t typically speak as effectively as he did, which made it a real treat to see him talk about his passions. 

2. How much I appreciate the creative freedom of working with someone who truly trusted my vision

I have some clients that hold my hand through the whole creative process of concepting, shooting and editing, and some that just tell me to do my thing. Occasionally when clients tell me to do my thing they come back and realize that what I gave them might not have been what they wanted. This is partly why communication is so key in these situations. Other times, clients will tell me to do my thing and really stick to it. I give them the final product and that is that (with some minor tweaks sometimes). When working with Neal, he respected me and my vision and really let me run with it. I was able to do things the way that I wanted to do them, experiment, and have fun while doing it. This made it feel less like work and more like an extension of my normal creative process.

3. Anything can happen

There were a few moments where things happened that were totally unpredictable. I learned the importance of always being ready with my camera no matter what. I definitely over-shot a lot of the projects we worked on together but that allowed me to capture some really special moments that I might’ve missed otherwise. There’s a bunch of great footage still that I haven’t used for anything yet. Maybe eventually it will see the light of day!


4 It’s important to have a rough plan

Most days were totally different than the last. It became very apparent that I needed to have a rough game plan before showing up at our shoots. Typically we’d chat on the phone about whatever our next opportunity was going to be to document and I’d get started with rough story ideas. I was constantly trying to distill what the story was behind every day. This is the ultimate goal of anyone directing/producing video content. When traveling to my shoots with Neal, I would often purposely choose longer routes so I could have time to soak in what was about to happen and try to make a rough plan. That all being said (as stated in the previous takeaway), it’s also important to be flexible at the same time.


5. I felt like I was making a difference that was much greater than me.

People are often convinced that they’re just one person and that their individual impact may not be important. I had the opposite feeling when working on this campaign. I felt empowered to shape stories around Neal that would bring to light not just ideas that he was passionate about, but one’s that really resonated with me as well. After nearly every shoot we had I would race home as fast as I could to get editing. The work felt fun, easy, and most of all, important. I felt like I had so much to say through our videos together and I can’t stress enough the power of creating content around ideas that are important to you.

Well that just about wraps it up—Are there any questions you might have about this kind of work? I’m happy to answer them in the comments!