I’ve always loved nature and wildlife. Watching old 8mm movies at my parents home, I’d watch myself still in diapers trying to feed and apple to my rocking horse or giving an inflatable elephant a hug.
First time out with a camera. Not bad, but could be better.
When I was eight, I shot my first “real” photograph of a walrus at Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago. Looking at it today, it really wasn’t that bad of an image.
I was given a 35mm still camera as a gift when I lived in Japan and learned a great deal about form and presentation.
That’s when I really started trying to capture on film what I saw and felt in nature.
They say a photograph is worth a thousand words but it wasn’t long before I realized that I had a lot more to say. Luckily for me, digital video was just around the corner and that has allowed me to express what I never could in photographs.
Filming nature and wildlife is a incredibly small niche. I’ve travelled to Yellowstone almost every year where I’ve seen thousands upon thousands of photographers but have only run into two filmmakers, one who was shooting for the BBC.
Until recently, I understood the hesitancy for many to shoot video. The biggest reason I would hear is how do you show your footage to other people? It’s easy to carry around photographs in your purse or wallet, not so easy to lug around a TV and a video player.
Shooting Nature and Wildlife Video is Easier Than Ever!
Things are different now. When Apple came out with the first iPod Touch, I knew filmmaking would never be the same.
I realized that I could have a portable theater that I could carry with me anywhere I went.
As technology progressed, video cameras became cheaper, iPods, iPads and iPhones all had cameras that could record video. Video however, never really caught on and I can only speculate as to why.
My best guess is that there are too many steps. You shoot the video, you transfer it to your computer, you load it up in your editing program, edit the video, add music, narration and then export the whole thing to YouTube.
But even that has been made easier. You can shoot edit and upload a video all from your smart phone.
Which brings us here, to this post.
My goal is to help you shoot better nature and wildlife video.
A young raccoon explores their new world
Video and photography share many of the same “rules” so even if you’re not interested in video you might still pick up a tip or two as we go.
So before we get into the how’s and why’s of shooting better video, I want to give you something to think about before my next post, what to shoot.
Your goal is to come up with an idea that you’d like to film. It could be documenting the birds that visit your feeder, your garden as it comes to life this Spring, even the wildlife you encounter on vacation. Whatever it is, think about the story you want to tell and share.
You can shoot the most incredible imagery but if you don’t have a story to tell, your videos will fall flat. Ask any successful filmmaker and they will tell you it’s all about the story.
I’d also like to know what you’d like to see in this series. Do you just want technical tips and tricks? Need to know how to develop a story? How to edit your video? I’d love to hear from you.
One More Thing
Before I close this post, grab my gear and head out to film, I thought I’d share with you some footage I shot several years ago. Looking at it now, I can see there are quite a few things I would do differently if I were shooting this video today.
Like all things in life, we should constantly strive to improve. I hope in the coming months I can help you share your love of nature and wildlife with others though video and like I am fond of saying at the end of my posts…
Keep shooting the ordinary but make it extraordinary .
© 2013, Kevin J. Railsback. All rights reserved. This article is the property of Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Kevin J. Railsback
I would like to do more with video – for one thing it gives a better sense of the animal than a still shot. I would also like to think it would allow me to beyond trying so hard to focus and get a “clear” shot of the creature – just keep shooting! As I watched your video, the one thought that came to mind is how does one decide in editing what/how to interleave different scenes. Is it just a matter of personal preference? Or creative talent?
I look forward to your future posts.
Ellen Honeycutt recently posted..Hepatica – First Bloom of the New Year
Hi Ellen,
Thanks for my first comment! I was worried I was going to hear cricket in here.
I loved and still love photography. I don’t do that much any more since I’m always filming. But shooting video allows me to tell the story more completely or at least closer to what I want to say.
Much like a slide show, video used to be difficult to share with others. But now I carry a portable theater with me all the time with my iPhone or iPad.
I think the people I show videos to get more out of it as well. I feel they are more engaged when you have motion, music etc.
I do two types of editing, both of which I wish I could do better.
The first, like the Yellowstone video is just personal preference. I didn’t want to put all the wildlife together, didn’t want to put all the geysers together. That sort of editing.
I would look for clips that I felt fit the music. That will be one of my posts down the road actually is picking the music first and then “seeing” the music in your shots as you film.
It must work for me since I just won a charity film challenge and won $420 for my favorite dog rescue here in in town.
The other type of editing is telling a story. So if you wanted to tell the story of a raccoon coming into your garden and chasing a butterfly or something you would edit just as if you were telling the story to a friend.
“As this raccoon was walking across my yard, it stopped at my water feature and too a long drink. Then it washed its face…” SO that’s the order you would lay down the shots to tell that story.
Of course, that’s provided you have those shots.
Down the road I’ll get into editing after I set a foundation for compositions etc. I’ll show you how to shoot what they call b-roll which helps break up long shots.
Ever watch an interview with someone and they cut to the interviewer nodding their head or fiddling with their pen? That’s b-roll. It breaks up the long shot, it helps you hide an edit point. They could have actually edited out some of the interview and needed to cut away so you didn’t see the jump where they cut. It could be to highlight a point your making by shooting a closeup of something.
I hope that helped answer your question a little.
Thanks again for breaking the ice by making the first comment!
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
Welcome to the team, Kevin! I’m so thrilled to have you onboard because I’ve really wanted to learn how to use video when teaching, and that means I have to learn how to shoot video both from my iphone and from my camera, and then how to create something good from the clips that I gather. I’m very excited to learn from you
Carole Sevilla Brown recently posted..Ecosystem Gardening Essentials
Carole,
I actually did a radio interview on Thursday and we talked about being able to shoot and edit a movie on the iPhone. Certainly not the best option out there but if I’m sitting somewhere waiting for a period of time with nothing going on, it’s fun to tweak some clips and make a little film.
My goal is to give a solid foundation for how to get good shots and then we can get into the telling of the story.
I’m gearing up for Spring woodland wildflowers so maybe I can document the story I want to tell there and show how it all comes together.
Thanks for allowing me to share my passion of filming nature and wildlife. I hope I can help others share their love with friends and family as well.
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
Welcome Kevin!
I am looing forward to your posts. I took photos and limited-videos until recently with a Panasonic Lumix DMC- FX 12 that I loved. (until it stopped taking pictures.) I have no idea what to do with videos once I have taken them-once or twice I have downloaded directly to facebook I think. I am looking forward to learning the basics or at least being directed to good tutorials.
Kathy in Delray Beach
Kathy,
Looking forward to helping you put the clips together and tell a story.
Editing is where the real magic happens. That’s where the story can be told.
They say there are three films you make when you’re filmmaking.
The film your write.
The film you shoot.
The film you edit.
The film you edit is the one that everyone sees and depending on how you tell the story decides which emotions you bring out in your viewers. Is the hawk that killed the mourning dove a villain or just a mother trying to raise a family of her own? That’s where you decide the story you want to tell.
Filmmaking is about two things. Telling a story and evoking an emotion.
I’m in the process on my own site teaching people how to shoot better nature and wildlife video. I’m sure they will all find their way over here to help illustrate my posts.
One example is about not blowing unexpected wildlife opportunities. I don’t know how many times I’ve filmed in the tallgrass prairie only to pick up my gear, spin around and there is a whitetail deer just a few yards away from me. By being hunched over the camera, I didn’t have the “normal” silhouette that the deer sees of most people. So it came to investigate.
If I had turned around slowly after shooting and looked around, I could have possible shot some great footage of this doe from a close range.
So now I ALWAYS standup slowly and look around before picking up my camera gear. UI get a lot of great shots by doing that.
So that’s just one little example of some of the tips I’ll weave into these posts.
Thanks for stopping by and please, let me know what you want to know more of down the road so I can help you tell your own stories.
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
Beautiful video. I’m one of those that have not used the video feature on my camera very often. I’ll look to you for inspiration.
Carole,
I have a lot of friends that have DSLR’s that shoot video but never flip the switch. They really don’t know what to do with it once they shoot it. It can certainly be intimidating too.
We really don’t have a Photoshop in the video world to take out unwanted details etc. There are tools that can do that but too much money and too time consuming.
I think once you start telling a story through video, you’ll be hooked.
How many times have you told a story about a certain photograph? Imagine if you could just turn on your smartphone and show the story as it unfolds.
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
Thanks for sharing your work and your knowledge! While teaching at Young Arts in Miami last week, I talked to a filmmaker nominated for an Oscar for his most recent documentary, and he said that he sees video becoming much more story-driven, so I really appreciated your point about thinking about what story you want to tell *before* you start shooting. I’m interested in what you have to say about editing and about how to find copyright-free music to add to your videos.
Susan J. Tweit recently posted..A House Built With Love
Susan,
FIlmmaking is all about the story. I love to do pieces like the Yellowstone film that are just feel good films but there really isn’t much of a story except for how awesome it is out there.
For me, that’s where it all begins. What is it I want to share with people. What do I want to change or fix that I see is a problem in nature? How can I help? How can I make a difference?
I enter film festivals for two reasons. One, to see if the story I’m trying to tell is getting across and two, to make a difference.
I was contacted the other day to see if I was interested in doing a film on puppy mills. Iowa is number three in the country in terms of number of puppy mills churning out puppy after puppy while local shelters are putting down thousands of dogs and cats every year. So there’s a story that needs to be told and in a way that people want to make a change.
Some friends of mine were nominated for a regional Emmy for their film on one room school houses.
That film like all their others, started with a story.
I think it’s important to get people thinking about what do they want to say before they start shooting video.
You can get beautiful imagery of your garden but if there’s no story there it;’s not as good as it could be.
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
I love the video, you did a fantastic job! I’m going to be making a few gardening videos for my facebook garden page, Flowers in Bloom. The videos will show me going to various homes planting native plants. I’ll give simple gardening advice, like how to prune a butterfly bush, native plants that will bring the butterflies, etc. I have no idea what I’m doing. I’ve written what I’m going to say, but I have no idea how to upload it to utube, I don’t even have a video camera yet. Thanks to your artiticle I know I need editing software. Where do I start? I’ll get a video camera in a few months, I’m a single Mom & don’t have a lot of money to spend. Can you recomend any good brands? Do video cameras now have the memory card to put in your computer, like the memory card from the camera?
Hi DeAnna,
Thanks for stopping by!
Love hearing that you’re looking to do some how to and advice videos. I think it’s a great way to share your knowledge and help others.
Having what you’re going to say is half the battle.
I’d certainly make my next step a video camera.
Most of the video cameras I’ve looked at record to memory cards now. Tape is pretty much dead.
I’ve seen some entry level Panasonic HD video cameras for as low as $115.
One thing I would look for is the ability to do things manually. Auto everything is great but to get the best imagery you want to be able to have some control over your camera.
So if you can find a camera that will allow you to focus manually as well as set the exposure manually, you’ll be golden.
Modern cameras are incredible but there are still plenty of times where they don’t record the image you’re looking for. I shoot everything on my camera in manual so I decide, not the camera.
If you can’t find a camera in your price range that you can do things in manual, don’t worry, we can still make it work.
We’ll start in the next few posts talking about tips to shoot better footage. Once I think we have a good solid foundation, we can get into editing, uploading to YouTube etc.
Who knows, depending on what everyone wants, we may jump into that sooner.
Most computers come with basic video editing software. I know my Mac came with iMovie, I think PC’s come with Movie Maker. I’ll also look for some free or inexpensive editors that are easy to use.
I’m glad you stopped by and I hope I can help you create some great videos for your Facebook Garden page!
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..Why You Should Always Set Your White Balance Manually
I have another question, when I shot a short video on my camera, & I hit the stop button, that’s the video. If I hit the start button, that starts a new video. Does it work the same for a video camera? When I make my short films, I’m going to need to stop the camera, so when I do, & then start it again, is that going to like it is on the camera, a new short film begins when you start the camera again? Do I need the editing software, or can I stop & start the video as mant times as I need to, & it can be 1 video. Is this making sense? I did say I have no idea what I’m doing
DeAnna,
Every time you hit the stop button after recording some video, you create what’s called a clip.
The beauty of shooting clips is that you can shoot them over time and then put them all together as if they all took place at the same time.
So that Yellowstone video I posted was shot over a period of two weeks. I’d see something I thought was interesting so I started recording, hit stop when I was done and that created a single clip.
When I came home, I copied all the clips to my computer and then selected the ones I wanted to use. I would cut pieces of, called trimming, to make them the right number of seconds long and then laid them down on what’s called a timeline or track in the order I wanted to play them.
When I get into editing, I have software that can copy what I’m doing on my computer screen so it will make a lot more sense than to have me try to type it all out.
It’s really simple once you get the hang of it. But I know how intimidating it can be at first.
But once you get the hang of it you’ll be editing some great how to and advice videos!
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
I should also say DeAnna, that you can start and stop the camera as many times as you want and just upload the entire thing to YouTube. But it will be a little rough looking. Editing allows you to eliminate a lot of the things you don’t want in the final video.
Kevin J. Railsback recently posted..The Standing People
Thank you for explaining, I have a much bettter idea now of what I need to do. I appreciate the info, & I love your Yellowstone video, you got some great shots! I hope to see more of your work!
DeAnna,
I had an email waiting for me this morning with some feedback where editing seems to be the biggest hurdle for people to get over.
While I want to do some posts first on composition and light, maybe I’ll add a quick video of what editing entails.
Editing is really easy once you get the concept. For some reason,it’s hard for a lot of people to grasp and they end up giving up.
I love editing almost as much as I love being out in nature filming. It’s where you put the story together.
So look for just a brief intro into editing next post.
Kevin,
Off we go toward shooting better video!
I have been using a GoPro camera (H2). Any remarks in your post relating to that system, or any strap-on “action” camera, would be appreciated. Resolution? Other tweeks?
Thank you.
Tony