From skating to swimming, this video captures a real adventure: a trip Vancouver. Me and my girlfriend at the time Cally flew out there to visit relatives and explore somewhere we both loved. Most the time was spent sailing, walking on the gorgeous beaches and most of all: drinking Starbucks ($200 in 10 days, ridiculous). The ever eventful trip offered countless adventures like a sailing trip, a hike and a trip to Vancouver's Chinese Night Market. Like the second Christmas video, this was shot the Flip Ultra which provided much needed portability.
Skip ahead a year and this is what you'll see: clearer video shot in 720p on a Flip Ultra, a basic understanding of film and editing and much better product. This video highlights this year's Christmas spent at the cottage with the grandparents and the Radburns. Christmas was spent skating, gorging on copious amounts of delicious food and of course exchanging gifts. All of which provided ample opportunity for video, and was nicely accented by my brother Harry's shenanigans.
As you'll notice, some of the cross country skiing footage is shot on a helmet cam (a GoPro HD Helmet Hero). There would be much more helmet cam footage but the lighting for night skating was too dark for the camera.
Like everything, my hobby of making videos had to have a start. And this is it. A short, standard definition low production value home movie. Shot on a hand-me-down camcorder blurred by snow and rain, it ran through the cold and abuse better than I could have hoped for. But like all beginners, I was eager. And where there is a will, there's a way. And this was my way to start.
The vacation was a few days spent in a beautiful rented home in Lake Placid with a couple of other families. Days were spent skiing at White Face, snow shoeing local trails, sledding on a ski run sized sled hill a few hundred metres from our house and lastly, spent with good company warming up inside.
As you can probably tell I had no previous filming experience as my shots were shaky, blurred and uncoordinated. I was also using iMovie '08 for the first time and didn't even have advanced options enabled. Let alone using precision editor to make some cleaner transitions. However a substantial viewfinder on the old camcorder did allow some good shots will skiing. But filming while skiing is an acquired skill that even a year later I've still yet to get a handle on.
All and all I feel it was good start what will turn out to be one of my favorite hobbies. It might not be a perfect product but like the video says, it's home.
