Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast
Orion Photo Group Success Story Podcast
Perfecting Your Craft: Thoughtful Gifts and Tools for Videographers and Sharing Community Experiences
What would it feel like to have that perfect gift as a videographer that not only acknowledges your hard work but also enhances your craft? Well, let's embark on a thrilling journey where we'll explore some of the most thoughtful and rewarding gifts for videographers. Equip yourself with that much-coveted prime lens upgrade or that high-grade camera bag you've always wanted. Maybe it's time to attend that educational event you've been eyeing, like WPPI or Imaging USA. We'll even chat about the essential tools for your craft, like reliable memory card cases, editing software, and the impressive DJI Ronin S gimbal. And let's not forget the importance of color accuracy - we'll stress the need for a calibrated monitor.
Now, let's shift gears to our community segment, OPG's Best of the Best. Hear from your peers as they share their inspiring stories and experiences. Discover how you can also be a part of this vibrant community and get a chance to share your suggestions on our platform. We believe in the power of collective learning and hope that you'll find nuggets of wisdom in these shared experiences. So, go ahead and brew that cup of coffee, sit back, and enjoy this engaging episode. We can't wait to hear from you and maybe feature your story in our next episode!
Hey there, welcome to OPG's Tips and Tricks. Here I'm going to share some quick tips and some tricks that I think you'll find very useful. Let's get right to it, hey everyone. Last podcast for 2023, or second to last podcast, or wherever when this comes out, when I'm recording this, this will be my last podcast recording for 2023. So I hope you guys are doing well out there.
Speaker 1:This one is geared towards videographers. I know I don't do enough of these to the videographer, so I apologize, but I just did a gift guide for photographers, so you might want to listen to that one too. But this one I'm going to gear a little bit more towards videographers, and there's some overlap between these two podcasts, but I'm going to try and see if I can come up with something for you videographers as well. All right, I hope you had a great year. I know that, gosh. There's been so many changes in videography the last couple of years and I think in some cases has made the job a little bit easier, but also, still, making a videography is a tough job and this podcast is dedicated to you getting yourself something nice for yourself. I want you to.
Speaker 1:We get lots of gifts as photographers and videographers Everything again, from the fingerless gloves to another lens cleaning kit. I want you this year this is an order for me Go buy yourself something nice. That's going to be something that's rewarding yourself for all the work that you've done this year, and it doesn't have to be an expensive gift, but it should be a gift that you. It's a thoughtful gift to yourself, all right. So again, navigating through. There's an abundance of gift options for us, and the high ticket items are, of course, easy. It's the practical gifts that truly celebrate your dedication to getting better, and this guide is crafted to assist you guys in self-selecting rewarding gifts.
Speaker 1:My number one gift is always a camera bag or a case. Most videographers work out of cases, and my suggestion to you is going to be Mostly those of you that are shooting with DSLRs or small video cameras get yourself a nice high quality smaller camera case, or get yourself a nice powerful case that you can throw down a flight of stairs like a Pelican case or something like that. Spend the money on a really expensive Pelican case Again if you need to travel, or something like that. One piece of equipment. One case that I dedicated to myself was creating an audio case for myself, and it was just a smaller Pelican case that I can pull out and quickly pull out my lav mics to mic the groomsmen or the bride and groom or the couple or what have you there. But also I used to do ambient mic-ing as well and all of that came in the case and then I could run everything to whatever audio recorder that I have along those lines. So that would be my first suggestion is one of those things too as well. My number two thing always is education Going to WPPI as a videographer or imaging USA as a videographer, which is a little bit more out of the box because it's not necessarily geared towards videography and there's always some classes.
Speaker 1:But this is a great place to network with photographers and I know, as videographers, a lot of times your referrals will come down from photographers. So it's kind of a two prong approach when you do that. So help your business in that sense. Like photographers, I always recommend a prime lens upgrade. As videographers, I really, really I think you can make a big, big difference in the quality of the video that you're producing by using a prime lens and I think that if you're not using it for all of your shots, just some of those shots. A macro lens to do ring shots is a really great one that I see quite often videographers don't have in their kits, so that's one of my third suggestion, also like photography memory card case a really good one too.
Speaker 1:You burn through memory cards as videographers, and if you're putting them in a shitty case excuse my language that is not a smart move, and especially when you're pulling them out, you want them to be waterproof. You want them to be able to be stepped on. Gosh. I've run over my memory card case by accident. I know it sounds crazy, but I've done it and, thank God, I had a great memory card case too. Right?
Speaker 1:If you haven't invested in good editing software, now's the time to do it, whether it be Premiere or DaVinci, resolve or one of those tools. I know there's a ton of AI tools out there. I'm not super familiar with those, especially on the audio side, but I would definitely start looking into the AI stuff as well. This podcast I use a deep breath because I just kind of have a, you know, kind of a malady breath guy, and this will be edited out using some filters that I use. So invest in those things too, for your audio, not as well as video, and you'll have a much more production. So you know, most of you guys probably have those already, but I would dedicate some time to looking for some new stuff this year.
Speaker 1:The DJI Ronin S if you don't own this already, you really should. You're a videographer in the event industry. The Ronin S is just an industry standard and it's the best gimbal out there as far as I'm concerned. And you know, let's go out there. And you know, get one of these if you don't have one. It's totally worth the money and not super duper expensive Gosh, some of these. What that tool does, what used to cost, is insane. All right, good calibrated monitor. For number seven, color accuracy is going to be paramount. I think it might be even more paramount than photography, and I know I might get myself in trouble there. But a good monitor with a calibrating software alongside it super duper important. I like the ViewSonic. Some of you may like the Isos, but a you know, not a super duper expensive a 32 inch ViewSonic. And listen, you can use a cheap monitor as your second monitor to put all your tools on. But edit your stuff with a good monitor and that's definitely a top tier suggestion for me this one is also I give to photographers a large capacity external hard drive that's portable like the Lisees.
Speaker 1:You forget to download a card. You can't remember if you backed up a card. You know I always have my CF card reader hard drive and my laptop with me. That's just something that I always have, especially videography wise. And you know, let's just say you shoot, you know you go and you shoot an event and they're like hey, did we forget to tell you somebody's giving a 45 minute speech and needs to do it on three cameras? You know like, oh my God, I don't have that much storage, so in the middle of the day you need to download your cards. I always keep this hard drive. I don't put stuff on it on a regular basis. It's my emergency external hard drive that I can put a, two, three, four cards on it so that I can format a card on the fly and I really like this is super duper, like emergency backup. I always like to have enough cards with me all the time so that I never format a card when I'm out on the road. But mistakes happen. You forget. Maybe you're shooting on Saturday, it's a late night, you got an early Monday, on Sunday and you need to download your cars and so you're not up to four o'clock in the morning. Ok, along those lines too.
Speaker 1:A portable power bank and, in your case, if you're using your laptop at an event, go get one of those power banks that will also charge your laptop as well. Many times we're out in a tent, in a field, someplace, and you don't have someplace to plug in. A good anchor power bank is where I always like to go and, again, I always keep one for emergencies only, like that stays in my camera case and I make sure that it's charged before each wedding and I only use it for emergencies. So those two things are the things that I do the most. Ok, my final thing goes back to education again.
Speaker 1:Get yourself a good book on filmmaking. Maybe you get yourself some online courses or something like that. I'm a big proponent of books. As a photographer myself, I like picture books. Listen. As videographers too, a good photography book will be worth its weight in gold for you as well. Looking at images, framing images just as important to videographers as well, and I'm sure that I'm not versed in it, but I'm sure there's some great books on filmmaking as well. Get it, put it on your bookshelf, reward yourself with that book. Those books can generally be pretty expensive. It's worth it. You'll have them for years to come. So that's it Again.
Speaker 1:Reflect on your year. You've spent the year capturing love stories and making people's memories and capturing those memories. Be proud of yourself for that and you've taken it seriously. Now it's time to reward yourself with a nice gift and fill out whatever it is that you need, and I remember, if you run your own business, you can use it as a tax write-off to that last minute tax write-off to yourself and instead of giving that money to the government. All right, well, I wish you a great 2024 whenever this podcast comes out and good luck out there. And if you have any suggestions yourself, I'd love to hear them and we'll see you in 2024.
Speaker 1:Take care, everyone. All right, that'll do it for this episode featuring OPG's Best of the Best. Would you like to be featured in an upcoming episode or do you have a suggestion for somebody you'd like to hear from in our little community? Please email me, jgroup with two P's at OrionPhotoGroupcom. That's, jgroup at OrionPhotoGroupcom. I look forward to hearing from you and hearing your suggestions. We hope that you enjoyed this episode and I look forward to hearing from you and your story. That's it for now. We'll see you on the next episode. Have a great day.
