Island Hopping with Drones, Gimbals, and a Video Camera for a series of Florida Travel Videos

Last winter, before I hiked up the side of Mt. Kilimanjaro, or even spent a week freezing my bones in Wyoming to shoot photos of ice climbers, I spent more than a week chasing boats and dolphins in Florida, filming content for a series of tourism videos.

These videos are created with an international audience in mind, and live mostly on web pages with additional content about the areas they describe. I was contracted by an agency to work as the videographer and editor, similar to the Detroit Tourism videos I worked on earlier that year.

My kit consists of a compact 4k camera with a variety of lenses, a gimbal, drone, and either a monopod or tripod. Lastly, a pair of headphones and wireless audio kit round out a heavy backpack that doesn’t leave my side for the entirety of each shoot day!

Even for a :60 video, we’ll spend most of the day filming, traveling, and setting up shots. Of course a ton of material never makes it to the final edit, but it’s good to have options! Filming segments like this where the talent is talking to the camera adds another layer of complexity as well, so working to capture decent takes of script reads both on and off screen really adds to the challenge.