been there... Having lived in several places in the world from Switzerland to Vermont, from Vermont back to Switzerland, then to Arizona, to California and now finally back in Arizona, I finally have time on my hands to exploit my "wanna be" talent as a videographer, photographer and all around creative guy. Yes I still do lots of consulting in the tech sector and business world, but this you could say is my real passion. Having been a programmer for so many years, it feels like a breath of fresh air to get back to the not so logical world of creativity. (Image 1 - my backyard)

now a pro, and still excellent... Well, I am now a pro, but still don't claim to be. At least not with ego. I think some of my stuff is pretty neat. And from what I hear from others, they agree. I have shot weddings, promos and even a music video here and there. I believe video editing to be an extremely fun task, as it really lets you get creative. It opens up a whole new world of illogic. The old adage of "a picture paints a thousand words" only tells half the story. I believe that "moving pictures" draw out thousands of emotions and stills draw out the imagination. So much for my theories. Now go enjoy my site.

ok, so you read all that on the home page already. But I figured it wouldn't hurt to make you read it again. After all it is such a well thought out set of words. But really, having found this multimedia experience so much more fun than programming code (which I did for almost 15 years) it gave me a new perspective on many things. I was definitely burned out and needed a new avenue of creativity. One with no limits. Designing software and web sites just became too blah blah unless it was for myself. Besides, there are plenty of programmers and webmasters out there. The world does not need another one. Besides, I keep in touch by being a host master and actually still run an ISP (hosting only) of my own. (Image 2 - Who's shooting who?)

the internet still offers many opportunities. Even though I refuse to write code, build web sites or even try to get others to understand the idiosyncrasies of the NET, I still find it very amusing at how so many people rely sooooo heavily on the components that it offers. Email would be the worst of them all. We can blame that on the Monty Python's "Spam". Ok, so that is not where today's spam comes from. I however would rather focus on the more positive side of the NET. It is a great vehicle to disseminate information and content of all types. Hence, my new quest is to (try) to entertain, amuse and inspire others to get creative too...

enter one of my pet projects; Royalty Free Stock Footage. If you think about the days of Napster (early days with lawsuits), it is not unbelievable that this again will happen with video. With the advent of You Tube, and all the other video sites it is already showing it's nasty copyright infringement side. So I will soon (hopefully) deliver a solution that I hope will help all the crazy, wacky, serious, funny, amateur and pro video producers to acquire, in an inexpensive way, such footage, graphics, sounds, music and more. Stay tuned.

now for the vitals; I am a married man (sorry ladies, but if you can't resist, just don't tell anybody.) born in '59 overseas (Switzerland), with 3 kids, well actually 2 now as the oldest is off and serving in the USAF. We relocated about a year ago (Dec 2006) from CA to AZ and love it. Let's just say the cost of living is a bit easier to swallow here. What more do you want to know? Write me. (vader@vadervideo.com) - I deliberately will make you copy and paste this if you want to email me. Remember that thing I said about spam? (Image 3 - Yup, that's me.)

why the name VaderVideo? well let's just start from the beginning. Many years ago when the internet was just really getting started, a friend of mine told me about this new thing called, well, the internet. He took me on a quick tour, showed me some pages, at which time the most exciting one happened to be www.timex.com. Unfortunately that site really no longer exists today. But it was the first site to show motion graphics, or what was called an animated gif. In any case, AOL was off to a good start and hence, I decided to sign up. Of course the ever painful question came up while signing up, "What do you want to use as a user name?" - hey this was a tough one. I pondered on that one, took a nap, while Star Wars was playing on the tube. I suppose there was some subconscious reaction at this point. Hence, I became the very first Vader on AOL. Of course everyone thought I was either very evil or their father. But the "handle" stuck with me and still is my predominant name in several industries. By definition though, vader means "father" in dutch. So over time, I suppose the name/handle just stuck with me. So if you are wondering, no, I do not have a helmet, I do not breath heavily, but I am a father for sure. On a side note; it is a great ice breaker though.

I do need to point out however, "Darth Tator", does have a home in my office.