The Pine Lake Films Web site is finally back, albeit a more slender version of its former self, after a hellish couple of months trying to deal with a severe Malware attack.

I’m very careful about uploading anything to my server that is questionable or that I have not had complete control over. To my knowledge, nothing got past me, at least at this end. I am also cautious about any kind of external links I put on my site. Even so, my site fell victim to some malicious code and it basically ate the entire thing in one sitting.

I received many emails from people letting me know the status and I really appreciate all of those who showed concern. My site was down for almost ten weeks. I tried unsuccessfully to rebuild it from backups my ISP had. I submitted to Google Web Tools so many times to have my site reapproved, I lost count. It got so frustrating; I thought I’d never get it back up. Not only that, but it caused me serious embarrassment with clients wanting to check me out.

I also went into seclusion of sorts for the past year, with only minimal video work. I purchased a Canon 5D Mark II and immersed myself into the world of seriously learning every nuance of this wonderful machine and delving into the more disciplined side of photography. Despite my technical knowledge in the realm of video, I still found so much to learn on the still side of things. Of course, everything I learned about photography can be applied directly to the moving image.

I must say, though, it was really nice to go out shooting without all the equipment usually necessary for video. Smooth shots were not an issue while shooting stills so long as I utilized the stabilization of Canon’s lenses or just kept a tight grip. Having full control over shutter/iris/ISO enabled me to get way more creative than I can with my video camera, particularly with long exposures.

On that note, another service I will offering will be a variation on my"Digital Therapy" consultancy services for video, only for photography. So anyone with a DSLR who wants to not only shoot HD video with it but wants to learn how to take great stills can contact me and we can figure something out. I'll be putting info up on the site soon.

So I haven’t abandoned videography at all, let’s just say it was a sabbatical. I have been working on video projects recently and hope to be part of a Gene Juarez gig in the next couple of weeks.

Bear with me as I rebuild my site. It requires a lot of devoted time so I’m trying to do it when I can. Your feedback is invaluable and if there’s anything you would like to see on the site, drop me an email and I’ll consider integrating it into the new structure.

On a side note, my wife Linda and I spent a wonderful three weeks traveling in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana last summer. We blogged about the trip for those interested, including shots I took with the Canon 5D. Start with this entry and work yourself through the experience: http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-457184

I also spent two weeks in Ireland over Christmas to see my family. We haven’t been together for Christmas since 1986 so it was a big deal to me. I wrote about the experience in great detail (also including photos). You can start here and follow chronologically: http://www.mytripjournal.com/travel-489644

Okay, watch this space.