Videography

I got into videography when I first got my open water scuba diving license back in 2019 in Okinawa, Japan. I was so excited to share my experiences with others that I bought a GoPro and started taking it underwater and recording practically everything. When looked at my video, it was (from a objective standpoint) just bad. The video had a nasty blue tint, the lighting was aweful, and the camera shook a lot. I was so excited to take video of everything that I never took the time to get the lighting down, get shot sequences or even have an obvious subject or focal point.

From here, i developed a strategy to get better, and I did….relatively. I spend the next few dives working on angle (shooting up), using proper lighting, taking less video (instead of recording the entire time), and just intentionally creating better scenes. this is where my experience with videography ended and photography started as I started taking frames and editing them in Photoshop and Lightroom.

When I decided to backpack Europe in 2021, I figured I would try to document the whole thing and get some good b roll in the process. I made the same fatal mistakes I did when I first started scuba diving. Although there were times were I did short clips and I tried to create proper scenes, overall I took way too much footage, I never manually controlled my settings and I was never able to tell a proper story though the lens. I had some AMAZING stories that came from this journey, but the video that I captured was never good enough to tell the story on its own.

When I cam back to the states, I invested in some good equipment. I bought a DJI Mini 2 and a Sony A7IV. I was already financially committed and so with that, I took the time to learn about proper videography. I have absolutely no formal education in film making. I learned strictly though trial and error as well as YouTube tutorials. The first shots I got from my drone were terrible. I have also crashed my drone on numerous occasions as well as have probably broken countless laws in the process (who hasn’t starting off). I jumped into the deep end and told myself if I wanted to survive, I was going to have to learn how to swim. I did.

Here I am today to show you the amazing things I have captured while