Filming has always intrigued me. There’s some superb travel bloggers and travel vloggers out there shooting their travels, and coming back with some incredible footage. Kinda makes me wonder, if a picture is worth a thousand words, what’s the going rate for video? Unfortunately, video has never really been something I’ve put a lot of time and effort into. Not because I didn’t want to, or because I didn’t have the skills. Part of my problem is that a) I got a case of the camera shy’s and b) I tend to break every video camera I’ve ever purchased. My last decent video camera died in a freak sandboarding accident; however, you can see the footage I was able to get before it met it’s maker (canon I believe).
All that is about to change though! With the recent purchase of my Canon 60d (which by the way, shoots beautiful video!), I was finally able to start filming again! You still might not catch me in a ton of video, and while part of that is because I’m still a bit shy, I also think I can let the destination speak for itself. My game plan is to do up a little video for each city I visit over the summer.
Halifax, Nova Scotia
My first finished travel video is on one of my favourite cities in Canada, and a place I was calling home for the last few years. The beautiful east coast metropolitan city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Spring litterally sprung last week, and I took the opportunity to spend my long weekend filming out and about in downtown Halifax. I feel like I managed to do it justice, and even managed to include some of my favourite restaurantes in town. I wanted to play up the “artsy” side of travel, and really showcase the people and the general demeanor of life in Halifax. I think using some of these “vintage” techniques adds a bit of personality to the shots and kind of forces you to admire the subtle details of Halifax.
[box border=”full” icon=”none”]I primarily used my vintage 55mm F1.8 Super-Takumar lens for most of the video, mainly because of the unique light leaks it’s able to grab, but also because of it’s large depth of field. There’s a few shots in there that were done with my Canon 18-200mm F3.5 – 5.6 on; but only if the scene required it. I was really trying to play up the warm tints and beautiful colours I so frequently see on sunny days in Halifax, so I was always trying to shoot into the light in the late afternoon / early evening, right around sunset. The lens blurs and tilt-shift type effects were all done by hand by Free Lensing my Super-Takumar. The only post work I added was some color grading using the Technicolor Cinestyle S-curve.
I’m hoping next time around I can keep my hands a little more steady, and will probably have to dial down the focus fun. Still have lots to learn![/box]
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