Can I just say how much I love the world we live in. This Wednesday, I accompanied one of the SNH reporters to one of her interviews to take pictures for her. We went to the Suffolk Center for Cultural Arts to get a story on the musical “Peter Pan,” playing at the center March 13–15. Michael Bollinger, the director of the musical, invited us to their rehearsal and my goal was to get a sense of what is going on during the rehearsal. I wanted to capture movement and sound and lights and conversations, something mere photography can fail to do.

Then I remembered the little red button I had read about in the camera manual. So many digital cameras these days actually shoot video as well. On the spur of the moment, I switched to the movie camera setting and began digitally filming the goings-on around me.

From the harness practice of the lead character, played by Carrie Mae Barba, to the orchestra warming up down in the pit to the kids getting their makeup put on backstage, even a little bit of sword-fighting practice between Pan and Captain Hook, shooting less than a minute of footage from all the theater hustle and bustle really captured something that was a little more than the collection of pictures I also shot.

But here’s why I love the world we live in so much. In less than a half-hour I was able to piece together the one minute of footage using iMovie, load it on YouTube.com, and direct a link to the footage from www.suffolknewsherald.com, bringing people my experience in mere minutes. Boy, I love that.

Now, for those of you who do this sort of thing all the time, don’t make fun of me. This is about personal growth. You should also keep my personal growth in mind when you go to suffolknewsherald.com and view the video from the rehearsal. It’s my first time stepping out of the theory and into the reality shooting some video. So expect some imperfections.

But, you be the judge. Compare the photos from the “Peter Pan” rehearsals on today’s Faith and Family page, on 1B, with the video footage I’m so proud of on the website (Search “Video – Peter Pan rehearsals”). See which medium speaks to you. And if you like my little bit of footage, I could always use the encouragement to become the Oscar-winning director that I so deeply aspire to be.