Hey Everyone! Hope your week and day are going well. This week I want to talk about something a little different. Bikes and Photography. If you follow me on social media you know I've been doing a lot of biking in the last few months and posting videos of my adventures. Now I'm not a big video guy but bicycles and video seem to go together quite well. I use a GoPro (an older one) and I use iMovie from Apple to edit my movies. I have taken most of my ideas from Robert my Photography Wingman who is an excellent video maker and story teller. Making video is a lot harder than making a photograph .  There is a lot to it and you must tell some sort of story when making the video. Then there is the audio that goes with it which may me more important than the video. I don't do a lot of talking in my video's mostly music which I try to find music that is free and that I won't infringe on anyones copyright . To me picking out the music is the hardest part because it becomes the backbone of the video. So lets talk about hardware that I use.

Being able to shoot steady video is a must and you should be able to do it safely. If you're on a bicycle and pedaling you don't want anything to distract you so you don't get in an accident. If you are holding your camera in one hand then that hand is not on the handlebars making it more dangerous. So I have my camera/cameras attached to something.  I have one GoPro attached to my handlebars via a snap mount. This mount uses magnets to secure the camera to the mount which makes removing it easer to change batteries or just remove the GoPro at the end of the day. I highly recommend these mount as I tried to do it cheaper with mounts I already had but didn't work nearly as well as the Snap Mounts do. The magnets attach to the GoPro and to the mount itself so they "Snap" together. When you take the GoPro off of the mount you can attach it to any metal surface and it will stick. Like a pole or refrigerator. It also opens up and can be used like a small tripod. The other mount I sometimes use is a helmet mount that goes on my helmet. This gives the viewer the point of view from head high so as I look around the video pans with me.  I can control the one on top of my head either by pushing a button or by using my phone via bluetooth. My phone is also attached to my bike handlebars and use it for navigation , milage and the such so with the tap of the screen I can turn the helmet camera on and off. The one on the handlebars I just use the button on the camera. I don't run the camera all of the time but take maybe 20 or 30 seconds snapshots of the ride along the way. Trying to pick out interesting things to see for the viewer. Then in post I put all of these little snapshots together to make a story.

Software: Like I said before I use iMovie . This is a very simple program that comes with Macs. It is very easy to use and it is drag and drop. You can insert Text and photo's into the movies you make along with the music clips that you are using. It puts everything on a timeline. You can cut and trim the video clips to make them more story telling and you can blend them together so the video is smooth not choppy .  There are much more professional video editing programs out there but for me this is the easiest one for me to use. When your video is finished you can export it out as a file or send it directly to Facebook or Youtube. I usually make a file and then send it to Youtube where I link it to Facebook if I want to . Depending on the quality that you shoot the video you can put out in 4k if you shot it in 4k. I usually shoot in 1080 that works for me. Here are some examples of my biking videos.

Autumn's End, Neuse River Trail 30.5 miles, 1st Bike Packing/Touring Trip

Please checkout my videos. Well that's enough for today on video and bikes. Until next week Get out and Shoot. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Y'all ! Hope this week is going well! This week is the last blog in the 4 part series of Landscape Gear. We have covered camera bodies, lenses, tripods and filters and this week we are going to cover bags and inserts. I have to admit I have a problem when it comes to bags I have been searching for the right bag for decades and have gone through many but have finally settled on a few that I have been happy with for a few years. I will go over what I think is the answer for a new Landscape photographer.

Bags come in a variety of sizes and shapes and have all kinds of things built into them but basically they hold our gear when we go from place to place. When we get there we take out our camera and they are an empty bag with a lens or so in them. For me the biggest consideration is comfort. It took me many years to figure this out. I aways seemed to get bags with all the pockets and gizmos until I figured out that comfort is the main consideration when getting a new bag. Whether it's a backpack or a sling bag it should be comfortable. With the weight of your gear the comfort should be the most important consideration. Of course protection of your gear is important. From bumps and shocks and from the weather. I would steer away from cheap bags although they might look good and have all kinds of compartments they are often uncomfortable especially when weighed down with gear. An easy way to get around this is with camera inserts. Camera inserts are containers that hold your gear. They are usually a rectangle box with padded compartments for your gear. This box with your gear can easily be put in an ordinary backpack that you already own and is comfortable. I use this method many times when I just want to carry my camera and maybe one lens. It is great for backpacking and hiking when you already have comfortable backpack to use. I also use it in a shoulder bag that I have that was really a large lumbar bag (fanny Pack) but this insert fits perfectly in. If you've been reading my blogs for a while you will know this bag as my purse that I carry my street stuff and sometimes my landscape if I have a short distance to walk to carry gear. 

Bags and inserts are very personal and must be chosen with care or you will accumulate a lot bags before you find the right one. I know I did and I sold or gave away all of the bags I didn't use except for a few. My main backpack now is a Shimoda Action X 30 liter bag. It is the most comfortable backpack that I have ever used made out of waterproof material and water resistance zippers. It has a separate place on top of the bag for things like a jacket or mittens. The purse I have already told you about which I really love and use all of the time. I have a few day hike backpacks an Osprey and a Mountain hardware that I can put insert in for day hikes and the such. I think that a good backpack for your camera gear as a landscape photographer is probably more practical than a sling bag for the walking and hiking you may have to do to get to the spot where you will photograph . Remember not to get a backpack that is too large. The bigger it is the more stuff that you will bring to weigh it down and make it uncomfortable.

There you have it the end of my 4 part series on Landscape Photography Gear. Hope you have enjoyed it and hope it helped a little when choosing gear for your landscape kit. Until next week Get out and Shoot. 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

Hey Everyone! Hope your week is going well! This week is the 3rd in a 4 part series on Landscape Photography Gear. This week we are going to cover Tripods and Filters. Two important parts of the Landscape photography Kit. In Part 1 we talked about Camera Bodies and Part 2 Lenses and now in Part 3 Tripods and Filters.

Tripods. Since the Ansel Adams times to today a tripod is a useful piece of Kit for your Landscape Photography. With modern camera bodies and in camera stabilization tripods aren't as needed as they used to be. Some Landscape photographers don't like tripods at all but I think they do have their place although I don't use them as much as I used to. For shooting in low light conditions or where I want to show motion like waterfalls or capturing clouds crossing the sky. And in Astro Photography it's a must. So what kind of tripod? I don't think the make and model is as important as the quality of the tripod. Tripods are made in all different kinds of materials from aluminum , wood, carbon fiber and plastic. I prefer carbon fiber they are lightweight and strong. They also come in many price points from cheap to very expensive. I would land somewhere in the middle around 200 dollars you can get a fairly decent one. You want a tripod that is large enough to support your camera and your heaviest lens with ease. They come in weight ratings so make sure to find them while doing your research. If you have the choice between a cheaper one and a somewhat expensive I would go for the somewhat expensive . They will last a long time! I've got a travel tripod that I've had over a decade and I've just bought a heaver duty one in the last year because my gear has got heaver. I spent about 200 bucks for each.

Filters. Filters can be a very important part of a Landscape photographers Kit. There are really two types of filters that you should have. The first one is the most important items in your Kit is the Polarizer filter. A polarizer filter can take the shine and reflection off of shiny surfaces and enhance the colors of leaves and foliage. The polarizer can't be duplicated in photoshop and makes blue skies bluer and just enhances  your photos. A must have. The next filter is the Neutral Density filter. It cuts out the light and allows you to slow down your shutter speed. This works great for flowing water like a waterfall and makes the water blurry and smooth giving water that dreamy look. These filters come in different strengths or stops of light. The more stops of light the darker. A 10 stop neutral density filter is almost completely black. When shooting waterfalls a Polarizer to cut the glare off of the water and a neutral density of 2 or 3 will make great shots. Neutral Density filters also come in a Veritable type that will have say a 2 to 8 all built into one filter. Now filters also come from cheap to very expensive and the same rule I used with most things is not to buy cheap and not expensive somewhere in the middle will be a good quality.

Well there you have it 3 out of the 4 part series. So until next week Get out and Shoot! 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 post there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link