Lifethrumylense

Welcome photographers, videographers, artist, content creators of all kinds and consumers of all arts who may not practice themselves. This post is for all of you! Most of the persons reading this post would know that I’ve been doing photography for a while now. It has been one of my main passions for a few years but recently I decided to broaden my skillset into videography. My first dilemma was, I didn’t really know how to do that. I started making vlogs for my family and friends a couple years ago when I started travelling more frequently. So, I’m no stranger to recording and editing, however, I wanted to make content that was more professional which I would feel comfortable with the world seeing.

My first thought was to try using what I already had which would be my photography camera. While my Canon is capable of doing video, it was not made specifically for that purpose and it just wasn’t easy to work with. It was quite hard to get the exact shot I wanted because I had to manually focus the lens. That doesn’t sound too bad until you realize that this is a pretty heavy camera and to capture a subject from a far distance, I’d have to use my longer lens which is more added weight. Trying to balance that weight while trying get a steady and in focus video was not easy. I also knew that I’d want to take videos of my travel and other adventures and my Canon just wouldn’t work for that. I wanted something that would take high quality videos, give me more control over the frame and focus but was also lightweight and easy to carry. So, I decided a camcorder would be the best option for me.

I went ahead and did some research and it wasn’t looking great. Most of the options I was seeing were pretty expensive. I didn’t want to make a big investment into this camera because I don’t plan to make videography a main focus, it’s more of a skill I wanted to learn and be able to implement when I needed to. I also think it would be easier to get a hybrid model when I upgrade my current photography camera, so, it wouldn’t make sense to make a big investment into just video right now. After looking at my options, I made the decision to buy a new camcorder on Amazon and for the first time in my life, I got scammed! It did not work at all and of course, after making that purchase, I saw a review on Reddit saying that people were buying these cheap cameras in bulk and reselling them on Amazon. Would have been great to see that before I got my hopes up but anyway, that put me back at square one.

My last resort was to buy a second-hand Toshiba camcorder on eBay, hoping and praying that it would actually work this time. Thankfully, I wasn’t scammed but now I had to learn how to use it. Which was definitely an experience because I had become so used to having full control of my camera equipment. I shoot in manual for photography and camcorders were made for the general public to use, so, the interface is more simplified than a professional photography camera. There is no manual mode where I can decide exactly what look I want to have and this definitely threw me off. I had a moment of panic just thinking about how much colour correction I would have to do in post but I’m going to have to get back to this point!

What a beauty!

I jumped right into using the camcorder as the day after I received it, I went to food festival with my friend. That sounded like the perfect opportunity to learn how to use it and to hopefully get some usable footage. I mean, I was right but I am using the footage as “look at how terrible this was in the beginning” kind of footage. Here is a look at my first couple of clips which were not even in 1080p! Just great!

The biggest problem I had at first were my shaky hands. Which is one of the reasons why using my Canon was such a big problem, my hands are already very unsteady. I learned pretty early in photography that holding my breath right before I take shot helps and also using my torso to support my elbows is a great way to steady myself. That does not work with video unless you plan to pass out and I mean, the video will definitely be steady after you hit the ground. I on the other hand, would not like to go out that way. As I used the camcorder, I realized that if hold the bottom of the viewfinder, it adds support so all the weight of the camera isn’t being held up by one hand. Surprisingly, as I walked more, instead of standing stationary to get a shot, I found that the video wasn’t as shaky. I have no idea how that works but it does. The camcorder also has a stabilizer setting, which I don’t think does much but use it because, why not?

Back to my point of colour correcting! At first, I would be disappointed watching the footage back on the viewfinder, it looked like most of the shots were over exposed. Which is my worst nightmare but I realized that if I moved the lens up, to focus on the sky and then brought it back to focus on my subject of choice, it seemed to regulate the colours and exposure. So, thankfully I didn’t have to colour correct in post! I also learned that I could shoot in portrait to make it easier to share my videos to social media sites because most use portrait aspect ratios for video content.
Here are a few of my more recent shots.

In all, this was definitely a learning experience but I had fun. It felt really nice to be able to say I made the decision to teach myself how to do something and even though there were challenges in between, I stuck to it and was able to achieve my goal. I wanted to say again that nothing will ever be perfect the first time. We’re human and learning is different for all of us. You aren’t a failure if you don’t get it right the first, second or third time. It just makes you human like the rest of us. Despite the challenges that it brought, I think I made the right decision to dip a toe a little into videography. I actually have a project coming next Friday that I am so proud of. I wanted my last post of the summer break to be amazing and I think it will be. Unfortunately, when uni starts, I won’t be able to post every week but hopefully I’ll be able to get a post out every other Friday. See you back here, this same time next Friday!

Oh and stop by my Instagram (here) and my TikTok (here) for the vlog style version of this post! Thank you!

Just a girl and her camera