If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life, right?

Rubbish.

Just ask aspiring videographer Christian Cubacub.

Cubacub, 17, loves recording special events and crafting artfully edited video packages from what he shoots. Loves it like dogs love a butcher with butterfingers. But to suggest that what he does isn’t work sells short his devotion to his craft.

So call it a labor of love if you must, just lay proper emphasis on “labor.”

“It’s more than a hobby,” Cubacub said. “It’s been a lot of work, and I’ve dedicated all of my free time to it but I feel it’s productive. I’m not just sitting around playing video games.”

Cubacub, an only child whose parents emigrated from the Philippines, grew up on River Street in downtown Honolulu. As a child he adored airplanes and dreamed of being a pilot.

By middle school, however, his attentions turned to photography, due in part to his father’s side job creating slideshows for special events. On family vacations he was the self-assigned family photographer.

But it wasn’t until he attended a wedding and watched with fascination as a team of videographers worked like a high-precision unit to capture the event that Cubacub’s true passion revealed itself.

“Something clicked,” Cubacub said. “I made it my goal to shoot weddings.”

As a freshman at Damien Memorial School, Cubacub took it on himself to produce highlight videos of school events, which were posted to the school website. But by his own admission, Cubacub knew little about his craft.

Together with his friend Huy Nguyen, Cubacub read as much as he could, watched countless hours of instructional videos on YouTube and founded the school’s first media club. He also found a mentor in photography teacher Dayne Teves, who loaned the club equipment and honed their technical skills.

Cubacub eventually founded his own company, which he named EPM Digital in a nod to his father’s former business (which was called E-Pictures in Motion). The enterprise provided Cubacub, Nguyen and friends Eric Fukawa and Adrian Ejida opportunities to ply their developing skills at a variety of events.

“I really enjoy capturing events as they happen,” Cubacub said. “I try to tell the story using different angles and perspectives, working with depth-of-field and emphasizing movement. I also enjoy editing in post-production, but it often really comes down to preparing properly and getting things right on the actual day of the shoot.”

Cubacub graduated this month and will soon leave for Ohio and the University of Dayton, where he plans to study computer science. No matter what he ends up doing, he hopes to continue working as a videographer part time.

“It’s my passion,” Cubacub said.

Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.