Set Up Quickly

When you are self filming your hunts, get set quickly.  Many times, a buck may think the noise being made by you walking in to your stand is another deer.  So, while you are messing around with your gear, that buck will just appear to check you out.  Therefore, the first thing I do when I get in the tree is hook up my safety harness.  But the second thing is set up my Pro-Bow-Cam (camera arm) and my video camera.  This way, I am ready to roll if I get surprised by a nice buck.  Of course, the third thing I do is hoist my bow up and nock an arrow for the same reason as I mentioned above. 
Bottomline, get to your tree and get set up as quickly as possible because you never know who might show up to investigate you.

Until next time...I'm rolling!
Brian

Steady and Ready

What is the difference between professional looking video and amateur video?  Really, there can be quite a few tell tale signs, but the most obvious and the most common is shaky, jerky video.  When you are setting up a shot, slow down!  Many inexperienced photogs want to zoom in and out or pan left and right way too much.  When you zoom way in and then try to frame up your shot (especially on a moving object like a walking deer), your video will look "fast".  Instead, zoom out, slow your movements and breathe. 

When you are attempting to film a wild deer, turkey, elk, bear, etc, your heart is going to be pounding.  This is going to compound your shaky and "fast" camera movements.  Here is what I like to do when an animal presents itself to me while filming hunts:

1. Hit record.  Sounds obvious, but you would be amazed how many times people will go through the motions and forget to begin recording.  Or, worse yet, they double hit the record button.  This is where you hit the button to start recording, and in your excitement, you hit it a second time and stop the film without even realizing it.  Imagine double clicking your mouse.  Always look for the moving timecode or red record light in the viewfinder to be sure you are rolling.
2. Find your animal in the viewfinder with the camera zoomed out.  This is way easier than trying to find it with the camera zoomed in tight.  It is pretty tough to find an animal, especially when they are not moving and there are a lot of leaves on the trees, when the camera is in tight.
3. Once you see the animal in the viewfinder, zoom in all the way quickly and focus.  This can be done with the focus ring, or if your camera has it, but hitting the "auto" button and then releasing it back to manual focus.  This method is usually a lot quicker but you need to practice it so you can find the button by feel since you will be looking in the viewfinder, not at the camera housing.
4. Once focused, zoom out a bit and frame up your shot.
5. Now that the technical procedure is out of the way, you need to become rock solid.  Most of the time, all the video that is recorded during the focus and framing process will not be used, but once framed, treat your video as "live video".  This is where you want to be steady and smooth in your movements.  
6. When you pan or tilt to follow an animal, be slow.  Even if you accidentally allow the animal to leave the frame for a short time, it is better than jerking the camera too quickly.  
7. If the animal is standing still, even for just a short time, let go of your camera.  This is key!  as long as your tripod/camera arm head tension is set correctly, you should be able to let go of the camera and it will remain in position.  This takes all of your shaking movements away and will make your video look way more professional.

If you follow these steps and simply slow down and try to calm down, your video will be much less shaky and way more professional looking.  Your viewers will thank you and your memories will be much easier to watch!

Until next time...I'm Rolling!
Brian