When Life Gives you Lemons, make sweet films.

See what George Kamper comes up with when he and his family are forced to leave their home the day after Thanksgiving. George Kamper didn’t allow a full blown flood in his South Florida home and a forced move to a hotel for almost two months to stop him from turning a bad situation to his advantage.

“I couldn’t believe it when the plumber told us there was a broken pipe in the wall and that there was water seeping under our cherry hardwood floors the day after Thanksgiving!

Watching the restoration team come in and tear out huge sections of solid cherry flooring while others razor cut four foot sections of beautifully customized sponge painted  plaster walls,  was almost more then we could take.

In the aftermath with floors torn up and glue exposed, the fumes were overwhelming and we started to feel sick. I approached the insurance adjuster and explained the situation, which allowed us to move to a hotel (Some additional negotiation was required to move to a resort on the water, in the height of the winter season, on Ft. Lauderdale’s beach). We were able to find a suite that could accommodate the family, (George, Sherryl and two kids-Nick and Alex), with the additional benefit of a killer view. The down side was that at the time, we were going to have to move out of the hotel the day before Christmas with nowhere to go and without having any improvement on the house.

What would any self respecting photographer do in this situation….

Shoot, shoot, shoot.

“I was in awe of the view we had and thought stills were great, but I wanted to tell a story, I came up with two time-lapse pieces and several sunrise shots as well as a series of images around the hotel to use as trade for additional room time and credit at the Tiki Bar.

I’d run back to the house every morning and try to work by an open window, feed the cats, check on the status of the repairs, then get back to the hotel to make sure the family was good and hope to grab some shots.

On the weekends I’d set up the cameras before dawn and shoot.

Attached are the time-lapses from our stay in room 916 and a couple of photos of work in progress.

All in all, we’re thrilled with the videos as well as the final outcome of the new floors and walls at our home.