When you travel you want to remember the occasion as something fun and rewarding for you and whoever is traveling with you. Whether you are in a group or just with your family, you can take great travel videos without having to be Steven Spielberg.
Before you even go on that long awaited vacation get to know all of the features on your video camera thoroughly. Play around with it and take several different kinds of shots before you even leave your house. A vacation is not the time to learn about your video camera.
The first thing to do is make sure you have two extra batteries. One is for replacing the current battery that’s running out of power, and one is for a backup while the third battery is charging. That way you will always have one battery fully charged in case something goes awry. Stop filming and take a break where there is five minutes of battery time left otherwise you run the risk of stopping in the middle of filming.
If you are traveling to a foreign country make sure you have the proper outlet plugs for your charging device. Different countries may run on different kinds of electric power and will need different plugs, so be prepared. Consider purchasing a universal plug in adapter if you are unsure of where you are going.
Take plenty of memory and/or recording media with you. If you have a camera that records onto DVDs, take a whole case of 12 as a precaution in case you go all out and do a lot of recording.
Whatever you record on your vacation, make the purpose of the video the center of the shot. If you are getting a shot of a charming pagoda in Japan, that needs to be the center and focus. If you are taking video of your kids on a ride at Disney World, focus on your kids and their reaction to whatever is going on around them. Keep your focal point the center of attention.
Keep the sun behind you, if possible. The sun will drown out the rest of your shot, and most certainly do not look into your viewfinder if you are pointing your camera directly at the sun. Looking at the sun through a camera can cause blindness.
Hold your camera steady and even. If you want to be in the shot too, frame your shot ahead of time after you place the camera on a tripod and then go out and be in the midst of everyone while you are filming.
Don’t go overboard and insist on filming everything. Don’t do anything dangerous to get that one amazing shot either. You do want to be uninjured on vacation. Leave the camera at your hotel room sometimes and go out and enjoy the vacation yourself every once in a while.
